It’s back! The BBC’s smartphone-free travel sends contestants racing from Japan to Indonesia, and it’s as full of human kindness and intimate relationship portraits as ever
Race Across the World might be one of television’s most wholesome shows. Now into its fourth series proper, after a Covid-delayed celebrity spin-off last year, it follows paired teams as they attempt to travel thousands of miles without some of the comfortable trappings of modern life. Contestants hand over their smartphones and bank cards and are given the cash equivalent of the cost of a one-way flight to their final destination. They must get to the end through a series of checkpoints using public transport and ingenuity, taking on odd jobs to earn extra funds, and, crucially, relying on the kindness of strangers along the way.
Since it made its debut in 2019, the series has grown in popularity, and by 2023, moved from its original BBC Two home to BBC One, much like Bake Off and Peaky Blinders before it. During the pandemic, it offered much-needed escapism. It even got a celebrity version, as all successful TV competitions must. Better still, the celebrity version wasn’t a substandard cash-in. Watching an All Saint and a member of McFly carting their mums from Marrakech to the Arctic Circle on a series of exhausting overnight rail journeys might not sound like gripping TV, but the show was remarkable. Its challenge highlights the kindness of strangers and plumbs the psychology of some of our closest relationships.
