Race Across the World has been going for a while now. It first aired in 2020 – aka, the depths of lockdown – with its lush visuals and far-flung locations providing much-needed escapism for thousands of Brits stuck at home, unable to travel. These days, it’s enough of an institution to merit its own celebrity spinoff: because what’s more entertaining than watching average Joes try to bargain with a bus driver in broken Spanish? Why, watching celebs do it instead.
And so begins another series, full of catchy soundbites (“I’m going to Eat, Pray, Love the hell out of this thing”), disastrous mistakes and breakneck races to the next checkpoint. This being Celebrity RATW, the show wastes no time introducing us to our cast of celebs. Spoiler alert, there are no George Clooneys here: instead we get presenters Jeff Brazier and Kelly Brook , Radio 2 DJ Scott Mills and actor Kola Bokinni, aka that guy who was in Ted Lasso (and the originator of the Eat, Pray, Love quote).
Along with their loved ones, they’re here to win...
or are they actually just here to have a good time and blow through the budget? One of the beautiful things about the show is that despite its long runtime, the format doesn’t feel old yet. Partly, that’s down to the changing location - this time, the competitors will be racing from Belém in Brazil all the way to the southern Chilean town of Frutillar, with only £2,200 to their names: aka, the cost of a single flight for two. There’s also gre.