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Race Across the World

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Race Across the World
GenreReality competition
travel
Directed byRob Fisher
Narrated byJohn Hannah
Theme music composerMichael Burns
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series2[1]
No. of episodes6 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersMark Saben
Tim Harcourt
Stephen Lambert
ProducersBrent Gundesen
Zoe Hines
Georgina Kiedrowski
Eddie Lewis
Alex Reynolds
EditorStephen Day
Running time60 minutes
Production companyStudio Lambert
Original release
NetworkBBC Two (regular)
BBC One (celebrity)
Release3 March 2019 (2019-03-03) –
present

Race Across the World is a British television competition programme, in which teams of two race across an area of the world to be the fastest to reach their destination.[2] The programme is broadcast on BBC Two and narrated by John Hannah.[3]

The first series, consisting of six episodes, was aired from 3 March to 7 April 2019. On 9 July 2019, BBC confirmed that a second and third series has been commissioned for BBC Two.[4] It was later announced on 3 October 2019 that a celebrity spin-off series would be aired on BBC One.[5] The second series will be broadcast over eight weeks, starting 8 March 2020.[6]

Format

The programme follows pairs of competitors racing around the world to be the first to reach the final destination. In the first series, the race starting from London and finishing in Singapore. The competitors cannot fly but were each given an amount of money equivalent to a one-way plane ticket to their final destination of £1,329, which they can use to travel by land or sea. The money pays for all the cost of the travel including food and accommodation, but they may work to earn money along the way. The competitors may not have any mobile electronic devices or credit cards at the start of the race, but were given a world map, a GPS device to track their progress, a travel guide with local job adverts, in addition to the money. In every episode, the teams were given a checkpoint they had to reach. One team may be eliminated if they come last at a pre-determined checkpoint. At each checkpoint, the racers were given a 36-hour break. The first team to reach Singapore win a cash prize of £20,000.[3]

Production

Before the race, two assistant producers conducted a recce research trip to assess the feasibility of such a journey within the budget constraints. All likely bus and train journeys were assessed beforehand. Visas were applied for the countries along all possible routes before the race as well as any necessary vaccinations for these countries.[3] Each team had two film crew members, although all decisions were made by the racers. A director of photography travelled behind the teams for additional location filming; there were safety advisers in some locations and medical support vehicle also travelled an hour behind the team in some countries.[7] The programme was commissioned by David Brindley and Michael Jochnowitz for BBC 2.[3]

Series 1 (2019)

Contestants

The first series featured five pairs of competitors at the start of the race: Natalie and Shameema, Jinda and Bindu, Darron and Alex, Josh and Felix, and Sue and Clare.[8] Jinda and Bindu withdrew due to family illness in the first episode, and were replaced by Elaine and Tony. Sue and Clare were eliminated when they finished last in Baku.[9] Retired PE teachers Tony and Elaine Teasdale were the first to reach the final checkpoint in Singapore, and were crowned the winners.[10]

Name[11] Relationship[11] Occupation[11] Age[11] From[11]
Darron Father & son Business Systems Specialist 48 Bradford
Alex Unemployed 20
Elaine Grandparents Retired PE teachers 61 North Yorkshire
Tony 61
Josh Business partners Co-owners of arts venue 32 London
Felix 32
Natalie Childhood friends Freelance Legal/Artist Liaison Manager 38 London
Shameema Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist 38 Manchester
Sue Lifelong friends Three Menopausal Maids Comedy Trio 57 Bishop's Stortford
Clare Marketing and Holiday Lettings Agent 58 Leeds
Jinda Married parents Co-owner of small retail chain 46 Nottingham
Bindu 48

Results summary

Old Royal Naval College and Marina Bay Sands
File:Flame Towers, Azerbaijan.png
The Flame Towers and Koh Rong

Colour key:

  – Team withdrawn
  – Team eliminated
  – Series winners
Teams Position (by leg)
1 2 3 4 5 6
Elaine & Tony 5th 1st 2nd 4th 1st 1st
Darron & Alex 2nd 4th 1st 1st 1st 2nd
Natalie & Shameema 3rd 2nd 4th 3rd 3rd 3rd
Josh & Felix 1st 3rd 3rd 2nd 3rd 4th
Sue & Clare 4th 5th
Jinda & Bindu N/A

Route

The checkpoints in the first series are:

Leg From To
1[12] Old Royal Naval College
London, United Kingdom 		Amalia Hotel
Delphi, Greece
2[13] Amalia Hotel
Delphi, Greece 		The Flame Towers
Baku, Azerbaijan
3[14] The Flame Towers
Baku, Azerbaijan 		Hotel Uzbekistan
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
4[15] Hotel Uzbekistan
Tashkent, Uzbekistan 		Long Inn Hotel
Huangyao, China
5[16] Long Inn Hotel
Huangyao, China 		Koh Rong, Cambodia
6[17] Koh Rong, Cambodia Marina Bay Sands
Marina Bay, Singapore

Race summary

Mode of transportation Rail    Ship    Bus/coach    Taxi    Private car
Activity Working for money and/or bed and board    Excursion that cost time and money

Leg 1: London → Delphi

The race started from Old Royal Naval College in London, finishing the first leg at the Amalia Hotel in Delphi, Greece. During the race, Jinda & Bindu received news of a family illness, and decided to withdraw from the race in Aachen. They were replaced by Elaine & Tony, who continued on the same route planned by Jinda & Bindu.

Josh & Felix worked in a farm outside Munich and gained a significant increase in cash. Natalie & Shameema also worked in Lyon, but earned less. Both Josh & Felix and Darron & Alex took the land route through the Balkans to reach Greece, while the other three teams took a ferry from different ports in Italy.

Josh & Felix, with an increase in funds from their work, took a fast train to Budapest. They reached Greece by bus, and took advantage of a fellow passengers knowledge, changed bus at an unscheduled stop before it reached Athens to get to Delphi first. The other teams that went across the sea all arrived later.

Order Teams Route Hours behind leaders Money left
1 Josh & Felix → London Bridge → Dover → Calais → Lille → Munich → Budapest → → Delphi N/A 82%
2 Darron & Alex → Düsseldorf → Budapest → Belgrade → Skopje → Thessaloniki → Delphi 4 73%
3 Natalie & Shameema → Gravesend → Rochester → Dover → Calais → Lille → Lyon → Brindisi → Igoumenitsa → Delphi 11 72%
4 Sue & Clare → Waterloo East → → Ashford → → Dover → Calais → Lille → Paris → Milan → Venice → Patras → Delphi 24
5 Elaine & Tony → → → Milan → Bari → → Delphi
N/A Jinda & Bindu → Dover → Calais → Lille → Aachen N/A N/A

Leg 2: Delphi → Baku

As they came last in the previous leg, Elaine & Tony chose to travel non-stop on land to Tbilisi via Istanbul, and managed to arrive in Baku in first place. Both Josh & Felix and Darron & Alex took a boat to Çeşme, and then to Ankara where they took a slow train to Kars, which allowed the other teams to catch up.

In order to avoid elimination, Josh & Felix took a taxi from Tbilisi to Baku. Sue & Clare decided to take a break in Tbilisi after a long bus journey, which resulted in them being eliminated as they arrived in Baku last.

Order Teams Route Hours behind leaders Money left
1 Elaine & Tony → Livadeia → Thessaloniki → Alexandroupoli → Istanbul → → Tbilisi → → Baku N/A 59%
2 Natalie & Shameema → Livadeia → Thessaloniki → Istanbul → Tbilisi → → Baku 3 63%
3 Josh & Felix → Athens/Piraeus → Çeşme → Ankara → Kars → Tbilisi → Baku 6 62%
4 Darron & Alex → Athens/Piraeus → Çeşme → Ankara → Kars → Tbilisi → Baku 11 59%
5 Sue & Clare → Livadeia → Thessaloniki → Istanbul → Tbilisi → → Baku eliminated 54%

Leg 3: Baku → Tashkent

All four teams took the same ferry from the Port of Baku in Älät to Kuryk. However, due to a storm on the Caspian Sea, they had to stay on the ship for many days.

On reaching Kazakhstan, all the teams apart from Josh & Felix travelled through Uzbekistan from its western border with Kazakhstan to Tashkent, while Josh & Felix went on a northern route through Kazakhstan and approached Tashkent from the north. They stopped in Shymkent and travelled to watch a buzkashi game being played.

Although both Darron & Alex and Elaine & Tony reached Samarkand around the same time, Darron & Alex managed to get an earlier train to Tashkent and so finished first. Natalie & Shameema took advantage of a free car ride from Kuryk to Khiva; they were delayed on the journey, and decided to continue by trains to Tashkent to avoid further delays, but still finished in last place.

Order Teams Route Hours behind leaders Money left
1 Darron & Alex → Älät → Kuryk → Aktau → Nukus → Samarkand → Tashkent N/A 40%
2 Elaine & Tony → Älät → Kuryk → Aktau → Bukhara → Samarkand → Tashkent 3 39%
Josh & Felix → Älät → Kuryk → Aktau → → Aral → Shymkent → Tashkent 45%
4 Natalie & Shameema → Älät → Kuryk → Aktau → Khiva → Bukhara → → Tashkent 6.5 51%

Leg 4: Tashkent → Huangyao

All teams travelled to Almaty in Kazakhstan to cross into China, via the Khorgas Border Crossing. Natalie & Shameema however stopped in Almaty to visit a ski resort. All teams had to pass through Xinjiang—one of the autonomous regions of China, which did not permit filming.

Darron & Alex went to Chengdu, where they worked in a flower shop to earn money, before travelling to their destination. After arriving in Guilin, Josh & Felix decided to spend time and money going rock climbing at Yangshuo.

In order to save money, Tony & Elaine travelled on a slow train to Guilin, and took a break there. At the end of this episode, Tony & Elaine had still not arrived at the checkpoint. Their arrival was shown in the following episode, at which point it was confirmed that they were 38.5 hours behind leaders Darron & Alex, who had already departed on the next leg before Tony & Elaine arrived.

Order Teams Route Hours behind leaders Money left
1 Darron & Alex → Shymkent → Almaty → Khorgas → → Chengdu → Guilin → Hezhou → Huangyao N/A 17%
2 Josh & Felix → Shymkent → Almaty → Khorgas → → Xi'an → Guilin/Yangshuo → Hezhou → Huangyao 22 18%
3 Natalie & Shameema → Shymkent → Almaty/Shymbulak → Khorgas → Jiayuguan → Xi'an → Guilin → Huangyao 26 22%
4 Elaine & Tony → Shymkent → Almaty → Khorgas → → Xi'an → Guilin → Huangyao 38.5 23%

Leg 5: Huangyao → Koh Rong

Elaine & Tony were a long way behind the other teams, so they decided to spend money on taxis and express train to try to get to the border with Vietnam as fast as possible. They managed to pass through the border on the same day before it closed, unlike the other teams who had to wait overnight before they could cross the border.

Darron & Alex, despite a 22 hour advantage on the second team to leave, had to work in Hội An selling sugarcane juice as they were running low on funds, which allowed Elaine & Tony to catch up with them and they crossed the Cambodian border on the same bus. Darron & Alex decided to work for bed and board at an elephant sanctuary in Mondul Kiri while Elaine & Tony worked in a rice field in Kratié, but both teams took the same boat to Koh Rong and came in joint first place.

Both Josh & Felix and Natalie & Shameema were on the same train to Ho Chi Minh City that was delayed on the train by a typhoon for 14 hours, and they arrived at Koh Rong on the same boat.

Order Teams Route Hours behind leaders Money left
1 Darron & Alex → → Nanning → → Friendship Pass → Hanoi → Hội An → Pleiku → → Mondul Kiri → Phnom Penh → Sihanoukville → Koh Rong N/A 7%
Elaine & Tony → → Nanning → → → Friendship Pass → → Hanoi → Hội An → Pleiku → → Kratié → Phnom Penh → Sihanoukville → Koh Rong 13%
3 Josh & Felix → Wuzhou → Nanning → Pingxiang → Friendship Pass → Hanoi → Ho Chi Minh City → → Sihanoukville → Koh Rong 16 8%
Natalie & Shameema → → Nanning → → Friendship Pass → → Hanoi → Hội An → Ho Chi Minh City → Hà Tiên → Sihanoukville → Koh Rong 10%

Leg 6: Koh Rong → Singapore

Both Elaine & Tony and Natalie & Shameema had more money left, so both teams took taxis to Cambodia. Darron & Alex and Josh & Felix had less money, and had to take a longer route to Bangkok via Phnom Penh. As Darron & Alex had little money left, they work in Bangkok as dog walkers in a dog training centre. Tony injured his back while on the bus, and the team had to take a break in Krabi. However, they managed to get the last seats on the direct bus to Singapore from Hat Yai. Although their bus broke down in Malaysia, they were the first team to reach the last checkpoint on the observation deck at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

Josh & Felix had to work in a hostel in Krabi as they were running out of money. They eventually finished last, and did not have enough money to reach the final checkpoint. However, they were given the money by Natalie & Shameema so they can complete the race.

Order Teams Route Hours behind leaders Money left
1 Elaine & Tony → Sihanoukville → Trat → Bangkok → Krabi → Hat Yai → Singapore N/A
2 Darron & Alex → Sihanoukville → Phnom Penh → Bangkok → Krabi → Hat Yai → Kuala Lumpur → Singapore 3
3 Natalie & Shameema → Sihanoukville → Trat → Bangkok → Surat Thani → Hat Yai → Kuala Lumpur → Singapore 20.5
4 Josh & Felix → Sihanoukville → Phnom Penh → Bangkok → Krabi → Hat Yai → Kuala Lumpur → Singapore 26.5

Ratings

The first episode had an overnight viewing figure of 1.5 million.[18] The audience grew over the weeks, and in the final episode, it had an overnight viewing figure of 2.4 million.[19]

Episode Airdate 7 day viewers
(millions)		 28 day viewers
(millions)		 BBC Two
weekly ranking[20]
1 3 March 2019 (2019-03-03) 1.930 2.335 6
2 10 March 2019 (2019-03-10) 2.480 2.945 3
3 17 March 2019 (2019-03-17) 2.466 2.806 4
4 24 March 2019 (2019-03-24) 2.609 2.877 3
5 31 March 2019 (2019-03-31) 2.732 3.001 2
6 7 April 2019 (2019-04-07) 3.306 3.495 2

Series 2 (2020)

A second series is due to start airing on 8 March 2020 with five teams setting off from Mexico City in a race to Ushuaia.[1]

International broadcast

The programme aired in Australia, airing on the Nine Network from December 2019.[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "BBC Two - Race across the World, Series 2". BBC.
  2. ^ Maxted, Anna (28 February 2019). "Race Across the World: Could you travel by land to Singapore — with just £25 a day?". The Times.
  3. ^ a b c d "Race Across The World, BBC2". Broadcast. 1 March 2019.
  4. ^ "BBC announces new factual entertainment commissions - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  5. ^ "BBC - BBC One takes celebrities on a Race Across The World - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  6. ^ Henry, Grace (5 March 2020). "When is Race Across The World series 2 on? Everything you need to know". Radio Times.
  7. ^ Turner, Lauren (6 April 2019). "Race Across the World: How the BBC series was made". BBC News.
  8. ^ Rosseinsky, Katie (3 March 2019). "Race Across The World: is the BBC's new show the ultimate hitch-hiking challenge?". Evening Standard.
  9. ^ Corr, Sinead (18 March 2019). "Race Across the World: Sue Last's adventure of a lifetime in bid to win £20,000". Bishop's Stortford Independent.
  10. ^ "BBC - Race Across The World 2019 winners revealed - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
  11. ^ a b c d e "BBC Two - Race across the World - Meet the Couples". BBC. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
  12. ^ "BBC Two - Race across the World, Series 1, Episode 1". BBC.
  13. ^ "BBC Two - Race across the World, Series 1, Episode 2". BBC.
  14. ^ "BBC Two - Race across the World, Series 1, Episode 3". BBC.
  15. ^ "BBC Two - Race across the World, Series 1, Episode 4". BBC.
  16. ^ "BBC Two - Race across the World, Series 1, Episode 5". BBC.
  17. ^ "BBC Two - Race across the World, Series 1, Episode 6". BBC.
  18. ^ Parker, Robin (4 March 2019). "Race Across the World sets off with 1.5m". Broadcast.
  19. ^ "How to apply for Race Across the World series 2". Radio Times. 8 April 2019.
  20. ^ "Four-screen dashboard". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board.
  21. ^ "Airdate: Race Across the World". TV Tonight. 27 November 2019.
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