For reasons that aren't always clear, celebrities love to take on bizarre challenges on TV: eating a live spider, falling backwards out of a helicopter into the ocean, hunting ghosts with Rylan Clark. In fact, there are so many of these shows that it's hard to remember what these celebrities were doing before they entered the British TV challenge circuit. Was she on Gogglebox? Was he on Towie? Why are they now fumbling around in pitch black in an underground shelter with Chris Eubank and Danny Dyer? No one knows. And so it goes.
Now, Celebrity Race Across the World is similar to many of the aforementioned races, but quite different. Yes, it features celebrities. And yes, they do weird things on TV. In this case, it's two people trying to get from northern Brazil to southern Chile in the shortest time possible, with no smartphones or bank cards and only £36 in cash for the day. But it's not nearly as cringey, and it's a lot more wholesome than it sounds. This isn't about watching C-list reality show veterans sulk because they can't do balayage in the jungle. Just like the civilian version, you'll care about these people and root for them to succeed.
Each couple is on the show for personal reasons. TV presenter Jeff Blazer, 45, wants to spend more time with his teenage son Freddie. As they get older and busier, the couple feel like they've drifted apart a little. Freddie, 19, still doesn't know who he is or what he wants to be. He hopes the show will help him find out. “I want you to start making your own decisions instead of just going with the flow like you usually do,” Jeff tells his son. Freddie then speaks to the camera. “Right now I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with my life,” he says. “It's very difficult. Who is Freddie Blazer? I don't know.”
For presenter Kelly Brook, 44, and her husband Jeremy Parisi, 39, it's about doing something out of the ordinary. Kelly says she's often portrayed as an ultra-glamorous pin-up girl doing calendar shoots, but says, “It's all an illusion. That's not me. Kelly Brook doesn't actually exist!” For BBC Radio 2 DJ Scott Mills, 51, and his then-fiancé and now-husband Sam Vaughan, 35, the show was a chance to embark on a big challenge before they get married. And for actor Cora Bokini, 32, and her cousin Mary Ellen, it's a chance to go on an adventure together. “We've always done our lives together, but we don't see each other much because his career has really taken off,” says Mary Ellen, who grew up with Cora in a mansion in Peckham, southeast London. “Going on this adventure together…it's going to be amazing.”
Their journey takes them through backpacker hostels, 14-hour bus rides and treks across scorching hot grasslands. But some of the most moving moments are the small, unexpected ones: Freddie clutching a shivering chicken to his chest, eyes closed in joy and anxiety; Kelly wading through brackish waters among the mangroves and helping to plant new saplings in the rain; Cora and Mary-Ellen diving into a cool, temporary desert lagoon formed among the sand dunes of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in Maranhão, northeast Brazil. As with any good travel reality show, it makes you wonder: could you do this? There's a reason travel agencies have seen a rise in sales since the show's recent popularity: seeing nature on a screen makes you want to reach out and touch it.
Coming up… Jeff Blazer with his son Freddie. Photo: Hans Georg/BBC/Studio Lambert
Of course, this is entertainment, so a lot of the elements seem prepared and planned. Accommodation seems to have been arranged for each team in various households, and the race to the first checkpoint is so close you can’t help but suspect it’s at least partially planned. But this is TV, and who knows where they’d end up if everyone was left alone without the help of background. Surely it doesn’t get any more exciting than this show. “Come on, give me my bag,” Jeremy says breathlessly. In the background, the sound of piercing strings throbs, and Kelly sprints down the cobblestone streets in her harem pants. You’ll be clutching to your couch and straining as if your life depended on getting through the checkpoint.
In this age of endlessly overused formats and a general disillusionment with the idea of ”celebrity,” it's easy to be cynical about the idea of radio hosts and actors putting their skills to the test to prove they're just like the rest of us. But “Celebrity Race Across the World” has an unusually sobering, warming effect. It helps that the cast is genuinely likeable. There are no villains, no egos hidden beneath the false modesty of the famous. This is a story about people finding themselves and each other while experiencing things they wouldn't normally do. And it's utterly brilliantly fascinating.
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Celebrity Race Across the World airs on BBC One and is also available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
