'Race Across The World's unkind editing is least of the stars’ worries'
Yahoo's TV critic Ian Hyland shares his verdict on Race Across The World's first episode
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Unless you don’t care about football at all, you will know that the battle for this season’s Premier League title is the closest we have seen in years.
Three teams are separated by just one point at this stage, and in the end it could even come down to goal difference to decide the winner.
The reason I mention it is that there was some potential good news on BBC1’s Race Across The World last night for the two sides who will finish up empty-handed.
As the five pairs of wanderlusters in the best travel-based reality show on television reached the checkpoint at the end of the first stage, Alfie from St Albans had a novel way of reacting to the news that he and his travel partner, fellow 20-year-old Owen, had been pipped to the post by mother and daughter combo Eugenie and Isabel.
“It’s not just second,” he said. “It’s second by two minutes. It’s close enough to be joint first.”
At which point almost everyone watching the show shouted “No, mate. It’s still second. You lost. Get over it.”
To be fair, what Alfie probably meant was that he and Owen were well-placed in the race and still had plenty of time to get their hands on that £20,000 first prize.
Unfortunately, the editing in reality shows often has no time for nuance – so I’m afraid this one will stick. He’ll probably be known as Joint First Alfie for the rest of his life, while his ambition to become a full-time football referee may also require a rethink.
If it makes Alfie feel any better, unkind editing is the least of the contestants’ worries this year.
Perhaps in response to complaints that the COVID-impacted race across Canada in the last civilian series of the show was too easy, the BBC has set the ten travellers a much tougher task this time around.
The race is southwards, from Sapporo in northern Japan to the paradise island of Lombok in Indonesia.
A 15,000km trek that will see them crossing six seas and eight borders, and take them through the likes of South Korea and Vietnam.
So, unlike the Canadian jaunt, this trip will see the contestants face a very significant language barrier. They have no smartphones or internet access, remember. When you’re trying to navigate a new country with only a map and your wits, that can cause huge problems. And as some of the contestants discovered in the opening episode, the old trick of simply shouting at people in English doesn’t always cut it.
To her credit Isabel had a clever way of overcoming the issue in Japan. She persuaded a fellow passenger on her long bus ride to teach her the local lingo. Whether she will have the energy or the capacity to repeat the trick in each new country remains to be seen.
Japan threw up some cultural challenges as well. Blowing your nose in public or eating on the go are considered rude and offensive. While the first of those shouldn’t be too much of a problem, everyone knows that being able to shovel a burger down your gob as you run to catch a train is pretty much integral to the full Race Across The World experience.
Still, at least Alfie and Owen also discovered that it is okay – encouraged even – to cry in public in Japan, as it is believed to ward off evil spirits.
That would have come in useful when the BBC dropped its cruellest trick so far. The teams were banned from taking Japan’s super fast bullet trains at any point in their journey.
That was so harsh. Imagine sending people all that way and not allowing them to experience a thing they will never experience back home.
It’s like sending someone to Paris and banning them from looking upwards in case they catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.
Admittedly the trains they were allowed to take appeared to be clean and running on time with plenty of available seating - so at least they can say they had a new experience of sorts.
That won’t be their only new and amazing experience, of course. And this is where I admit that Race Across The World is the TV programme that most brings out the green-eyed monster in me. I’d love to do it, but I’m afraid my friends and family know me and my little ways so well that it could only ever happen if the BBC brought out a version for solo travellers.
Consequently, I will have to make do with experiencing the sights and sounds vicariously through the contestants while I learn new facts about the places they visit.
My favourite piece of fresh knowledge so far? That in the olden days the Japanese used to banish politicians that had fallen out of favour to a far flung island called Sado.
When you compare that to the punishment we give ours these days – three weeks in the jungle with Ant & Dec – it’s hard not to conclude the Japanese had the right idea.
Watch the first episode of Race Across The World on BBC iPlayer now. Race Across The World continues on Wednesday at 9pm on BBC1.
