Now five seasons in, the hype for Race Across the World shows no signs of slowing down.
And why would it? The show, which follows pairs of competitors as they race their way across impossible distances — on an impossibly small budget — is televisual catnip. And that’s before you factor in the £20,000 prize pot and the breakneck speed at which they travel.
Now, it’s back for another season, which will begin on April 23. Now, with more information dropping, here’s what we know so far.
The teaser promises more far-flung locations
It wouldn’t be much fun if every Race Across the World route started in London. Previous series have seen contestants travel across South East Asia, South America and Canada, among others.
This year, Race Across the World will begin at the Great Wall of China, with a teaser on BBC One revealing they will travel through China, Nepal and India. In trailers so far, we’ve spotted elephants walking down streets, narrow roads, mountainous terrain and contestants running with rucksacks through a tiny town.
The five teams will be speeding their way through east Asia clocking up a race distance of 14,000km. The end destination? Kanniyakumari, the southernmost tip of India.
The issue with including China in the route is the restrictions that exist around filming there. The 2024 season missed out China as a destination entirely, due to pandemic lockdown laws, which meant the contestants instead took a plane from Sokcho to Hanoi in Vietnam to continue their journey (that year, their route took them from Japan to Lombok in Indonesia).
In addition, previous seasons have been banned from filming in certain areas of the country: in the first season, contestants travelled through the autonomous region of Xinjiang, which didn’t permit filming. As a result, the cameras were turned off until they’d passed through.
Who are the contestants?
We don’t know much about them yet, but we do know there are five pairs (as per usual), and they are sisters, Elizabeth and Letitia; former married couple, Yin and Gaz; brothers, Brian and Melvyn; teenage couple, Fin and Sioned and mother and son, Caroline and Tom.
Last year’s winners were 20-year-old best friends Alfie and Owen, who clinched the £20,000 prize pot with just an eight minute lead on the second place pair.
When does it start?
The show is set to air on April 23, at 9pm on BBC One. Watch this space.
