Starts 23rd April

Race Across the World is back!

The Great Wall of China is the starting point of this year's epic race. Five teams must navigate three of Asia’s most diverse nations, China, Nepal and India, in a race of over 14,000km to reach the finish line, Kanniyakumari, the southernmost tip of India.

The teams include: 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.

Looking forward to this. Last year's celebrity edition was my first experience of the show so I went back and watched every series over the summer

1 minute ago, lewistgreen said:

Looking forward to this. Last year's celebrity edition was my first experience of the show so I went back and watched every series over the summer

Yeah always look forward to a new series....

Currently re-watching Series 1 to get me in the mood :D

Massively looking forward to this later on tonight. I just love seeing the scenery of all the countries you don't see very often. Makes me really wish I'd taken time out to do something like this myself before I got tied into working life

Enjoyed the first ep and thought all the teams came across well.

Although was a bit weird they made all the teams climb up a sh!t load of steps with their rucksacks/ cases to get a map and money... only for them to then just climb back down.

The Mother and Son were also a bit laughable in continually not being able to get a train.

Kinda feel like its the sisters to lose at this stage, but then I guess they have an advantage in the China part of the leg due to one of them being able to speak Chinese and interact more easily.

Love this show! Good series so far.

I saw a potential mini spoiler regarding who gets eliminated - apparently in the opening sequence 4 of the teams were shown separately in what looked like an Indian setting oops.

5 hours ago, Julian_ said:

Love this show! Good series so far.

I saw a potential mini spoiler regarding who gets eliminated - apparently in the opening sequence 4 of the teams were shown separately in what looked like an Indian setting oops.

I felt like in the first ep when it cut to each place it showed different teams in the place. Which kinda gave away who gets through

Can't help but feel Fin and Sioned might quit in the next episode. They didn't seem to feature in the 'Next Week' bit and I think India might be too much for Sioned.

Might be wrong, but she seemed ready to quit at the end the episode

19 minutes ago, ElectroBoy said:

Can't help but feel Fin and Sioned might quit in the next episode. They didn't seem to feature in the 'Next Week' bit and I think India might be too much for Sioned.

Might be wrong, but she seemed ready to quit at the end the episode

They do feature in the "next week" bit, albeit very briefly.

19 minutes ago, Hassaan said:

They do feature in the "next week" bit, albeit very briefly.

Yeah in like a brief clip of her still crying on the floor. The other teams had way more screen time.

Maybe it’s just editing that way and they actually carry on. But they seem fairly low on budget too compared to the others too

That’s exactly what I thought too - all their clips seemed to be them in the same location and it definitely made it seem like they don’t continue

I actually thought because of there lack of clips in the 'what's to come' bit in the first episode and flashing to different couples across the different locations, that they were going to be eliminated at the last checkpoint.

Hopefully they continues though as it would feel odd to have 3 couples for another 3 eps.

I know teams have dropped out before due to lack of funds - but usually that happens around episode 7/8 rather than 4/5

Edited May 15May 15 by ElectroBoy

Some really sad news about Series 2 Contestant Sam

Instagram

Race Across The World on Instagram: "We are all deeply sa...

6,409 likes, 360 comments - raceacrosstheworld on June 1, 2025: "We are all deeply saddened to hear the tragic news about Sam, who died this week following a car accident. Everyone who worked with...

Edited June 1Jun 1 by ElectroBoy

I just saw the news on the new tab page of my work computer and I can’t believe it.

I’ve been slowly making my way through this show from the beginning having not wanted to just jump in at series 5, and I’ve just finished series 2. Sam and Jo were brilliant, such a team and he had such a journey ❤️ so tragic, RIP

Such awful news. I only got into the show last year and watched back Series 1 to 4 at that point, so I also saw Series 2 quite recently. Jo and Sam were great to watch. He was working out his place in the world and navigating his ADHD, and she was a fantastic mum, battling with cancer as well. Must be absolutely devastating for her.

Spoiler

Watching the final right now and am already finding it so odd that Caroline and Tom are wasting so much time when they have so much money left... they were just short of where they wanted to get to, yet weirdly waited for what seemed like a day to get a bus rather than just grab a taxi straight away. Sometimes the narrative just doesn't make any sense and I'm more and more convinced that the producers get contestants to do unnecessary stop offs so they have more varied content to film

I enjoyed this series and whilst I wasn't overly fussed by the winners its still a good show. Very close between the top 3 teams!

But yeah I was surprised Caroline and Tom didn't just taxi it all the way - they had something like 23-25% of their budget left, so could've easily done it quicker.

The money stretched way way further than usual series' - I'm guessing that's due to the cost of things in India rather than the China leg.

Was kind of hoping the teams who finished 3rd/ 4th in the end to win - but I didn't dislike any team. Brian and Melvyn I think lost it in leg 7 and whilst other teams have caught up 17+ hours before - in the last leg everyone is gunning for checkpoint.

Celeb series next

I read Molly Rainford and Tyler West have apparently signed up and Dylan Llewellyn (Derry Girls/ Big Boys) - dunno how true either are though

I really liked all the pairs this year.

I think I would have been happy however it panned out, but I definitely felt happy when I saw who had won as they’d seemed to have such a great time throughout and got so much out of the experience. Although arguably that could be said about any of them, which is why I liked them all so much

4 minutes ago, dandy* said:

I really liked all the pairs this year.

I think I would have been happy however it panned out, but I definitely felt happy when I saw who had won as they’d seemed to have such a great time throughout and got so much out of the experience. Although arguably that could be said about any of them, which is why I liked them all so much

Yeah true - especially as they started pretty badly and basically climbed their way to the win.

And same I liked all the pairs this year!

Such a good show though :)

Spoiler

I love Caroline and Tom. He’s so sweet, and she’s the quintessential posh British housewife with a surprising killer instinct. Delighted they won, but I do like all the others a lot too.

But yes they totally must encourage (if not compel) whoever’s leading to pull back and whoever’s trailing to push forward to make it as exciting as possible. Which is fine really - it’s more fun when they’re all getting in at roughly the same time. When a pair is leading by miles they always say “we need to take some time out and recharge”, or they do a job that waylays them for a day and only makes them like £10.

I reckon they also encourage the teams to take different routes so they can get more variety of scenery and cities in. It’s all good: it’s still a great show.