If you need us between the hours of 9 and 10pm on a Wednesday night, frankly, don’t bother, because we’ll be far too busy watching Race Across The World to take your call.
The BBC travel show quickly became one of our favourite telly programmes when it first began in 2019 and its popularity has only increased since then, with 5.9 MILLION viewers tuning into watch the series five premiere earlier this month.
Just in case you’ve been living under a rock, the premise of the show is simple: five teams of two have to race across the world (the clue’s in the name) from one destination to another, usually in a different country, but they’re not allowed to fly or use their smartphones to help them and they only have have small budget; the cash equivalent of a one-way economy air ticket to their destination, which has to pay for all of their travel, food and accommodation.
As you can imagine, there’s a LOT of planning that goes into the show before the contestants even begin the race and they have to follow some strict rules during their travels. Not everything makes it into the final edit, so here are some of the show’s biggest behind-the-scenes secrets…
Guinea pigs test out the routes before the show
Not actual guinea pigs, obvs. Before the show starts, two members of the production team complete the whole journey in advance of filming to make sure that it’s feasible for the contestant to do. Only one member of the team knows where they’re supposed to be going, with the other having no idea.
‘You get some really brave people out on the road for a couple of months. [They tell us], “Here are going to be the sticking points. This is quite tricky. This bit is amazing.” They do it all on a budget as well so they're not like going out and spending loads of money and having a great jolly. They're literally looking at the budget and seeing if it's possible to get by on less than 50 quid a day, Line producer Maria Kennedy previously explained to Radio Times.
Series producer Lucy Curtis told The Guardian, ‘The other person has no idea and that person is in charge of making the decisions.’ She added, ‘We want to test how long it would take if you were someone who goes into it blind. They are a bit stir crazy at times, stuck on boats and buses and trains for days on end, but it’s an amazing job.’
Two people travel with each team at all times - and viewers NEVER see them
Two members of the production crew accompany each team at all times, as well as a medic, with a local fixer following closely behind. However, the crew aren't allowed to interfere with or influence the team's decisions even if they're making a mistake.
'The crew are with you 24/7, filming around the clock – the highs, the lows, of which there are plenty,' series two contestant Jenna Lambra-Stokes wrote for i News. 'The crew really don’t contribute, despite what people think – however nonsensical our decisions might be. I remember crossing into a different time zone and almost missing a vital transport link, and the crew just had to roll with it.'
At least one of the crew members has to stay with the contestants at all times, with Jenna adding, 'At least one of the two crew members is always with you, sleeping, eating, toileting (they might take their headphones out for this bit!). You can only travel as long as one of them can travel with you – but that never impacted our travel choices.'
Another camera crew follows the contestants to capture the scenery
One of our favourite things about the show is getting see different parts of the world in all their glory and that's thanks to a camera crew following behind the teams on their routes.
Explaining how it all works, executive producer Mark Saben told BroadcastNow, 'We had a DoP and a series director following all our teams. Not only did they shoot those big sweeping drone shots that capture the beauty and scale of their surroundings, but also the on-the-ground shots that convey the hustle and bustle of travelling, so viewers would feel immersed in the competitors’ journeys.'
The contestants only find out where they're going at the airport
Producers keep the contestants guessing until the very last moment and only reveal the race's starting destination just before they fly. 'Everyone thinks we knew where we were going but we honestly had no idea until we got to the airport hotel the night before we flew,' series four's Viv told SAGA.
'You go to London on the Saturday to film all the idents for the show, but you are kept away from everyone else and are given a chaperone. You even have your phone taken off you so you can’t message your friends and family to let them know where you’re going.'
Her husband Stephen added, 'We were shocked when we were told we were starting in Tokyo as we had been speculating about where we would be going and we’d kind of ruled that out. But we all flew on separate flights to keep us apart and you only meet your fellow contestants for the first time on the start line.'
The contestants' jobs are all real
As they're on a strict budget, the contestants often work to help them earn money along the way. Although it might look as though the opportunities are given to them for TV, it turns out the jobs are all real and compiled into a pamphlet by show bosses.
'We don’t go to any of those places and say, "For the purposes of the show, can you provide this kind of service?"', BBC commissioner Michael Jochnowitz told Radio Times. 'Those are real jobs, real places, real money or accommodation and things like that so again, because they don’t have access to a phone or the internet, we basically just give them a guide of potential opportunities in the area.'
And according to series four contestant Stephen, the best jobs go to the fastest couples. 'Racing to the checkpoint to get a narrow lead over a rival team can seem a bit pointless, but even if you get there slightly ahead, when you leave you get given the job booklet first and that determines your route. You are told the next destination and given the book and then you have to figure out where it is and you can see what jobs are available. And the best ones get snapped up straight away, so you want to have first dibs. If you leave last, you’re left with the jobs that nobody wants, and it may even change the route you take,' he told SAGA.
The contestants aren't given extra food off camera
Being tight on money also means that the contestants often struggle to eat enough food - and they're not given any extras off camera.
Series two winner Emon Choudhury admitted he and his nephew Jamiul would often ask strangers for food and water. 'I lost over a stone, a stone and a half and the same with my nephew, he lost quite a bit as well. The food was an issue,' he told The Daily Express.
'You always think on these TV shows, you get a sandwich off-camera or water or a little snack here or there but no, it wasn’t like that!'
The teams have three months to prepare for the race
The application process starts over a year before filming begins, but once the couples are chosen they only have three months to prepare for the race. Series four's Viv explains, 'We were told we had been chosen to take part in the middle of June and we flew in the middle of September.
'In that time, we tried to prepare as much as possible by going on walks and using our daughter’s rucksack with 10kg worth of stuff in to get as fit as possible. In reality, it’s not about how fit you are as you do a lot of sitting on trains and buses. It’s all about being mentally strong.'
The teams are also given a starter pack by show bosses, which arrives a few days before filming starts. Viv's husband Stephen adds, 'They gave us a rucksack each, a laundry bag, a mosquito net, a padlock, a sleeping bag liner, a head torch and a special filtered water bottle, but we had to get everything else and we were told that we would be in temperatures ranging from four to 37 degrees, so we had to pack accordingly.'
Contestants can't ask locals directly for help
Without their smartphones or credit cards, the teams often have to rely on the help of locals to get them to where they need to go. However, former contestant Viv has revealed that asking strangers directly for help isn't allowed.
'You can tell people what you’re doing and there is always interest as you have a film crew with you the whole time, but they have to offer their help, you can’t ask for it,' she said.
Viv added, 'If you hitchhike and somebody offers a lift, the crew has to ask production whether it’s ok and the vehicle has to be checked to make sure it’s safe. We had one guy who wanted to take us both plus all our luggage on a moped but that was soon vetoed.'
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Nathan Katnoria is heat and Closer online's Senior Digital Writer. He writes about all the latest and greatest reality TV, including Love Island, Made in Chelsea, Geordie Shore, Big Brother and Love is Blind UK and has interviewed everyone from Charlotte Crosby to Chloe Brockett and Miles Nazaire to Megan Barton-Hanson.