Race Across the World

[Liquorandvinegar]

New series starting next week - really looking forward to it. The teams are travelling in Asia, but I can't find information about the couples yet. Wednesday nights sorted!

Tom reminds me of the guy who was an intern on the series W1A.

As an aside apparently when they interview you for being on the show they get you to London and chat for a while and then they drive you to somewhere random and tell you to get to somewhere else, like Paddington station. A film crew follow you and they see how you react and work together on camera.

I don’t mind Tom because I can see he has struggled and my own son has struggled too. Caroline seems like she’s putting on a front - maybe we will see behind it in the last few episodes

I do think they need to go back to more fly on the wall.

But if we did not get any backstory, we would all be moaning that we don't know anything about the contestants and we want to hear more about their relationships.

Maybe the BBC should do an spin off show after the main episode each week on BBC 2 called 'WATW the extra leg' with the back stories and more on the homestays/jobs, the bloopers etc.

DH said this week that he's not going to watch it any more with me and could I just tell him who wins as he's bored with them all!

Oh i don't know, the brothers are great but Caroline was actually galloping with joy last episode! Think her and Tom are finding their feet.
I don't mind a little backstory but they are overdoing it this series, and repeating a lot. Would like more details about the logistics- we aren't shown enough anymore about how they are getting around, and it seems more surprising when you see where they all are in relation to each other.

Or Harry Enfield's Tim Nice but Dim.

dreadful way to refer to someone with CP.

Agree @Samcro

I read as posh dim boy, e.g
Prince Harry, little common sense, but I can see how both interpretations could be made.

If you come from a middle class background, go to private school (don’t k or if he did) and still fail (he didn’t get GCSEs I think) then it can be tough because no one gives you any leeway

it sounds like he is working and trying his best in life - and he has the added disability. So I can cut him a bit of slack

But if we did not get any backstory,we would all be moaning that we don't know anything about the contestants and we want to hear more about their relationships.

No one's saying they don't want any. It has just reached the stage that it's taken over and the actual race part has suffered as a result.

Tom has left his job to do more travelling, and he and his mum are apparently going to travel across Kazakhstan.

Eh? Do you mean the Nice but Dim comment? How is that related to having CP?

Tim Nice but Dim is nothing to do with CP. Maybe @Samcro is too young to remember it.

Maybe thinking back to other series, that’s why this one isn’t interesting me as much. I loved Alfie and Owen and was willing then all the way to the finish. I follow Alfie on SM. But not sure I’ll do that with any of these contestants.

In some ifvthe endless back story I think he went to boarding school but was expelled before his gcses for being caught with some weed. Seems a bit harsh I thought. I do like Caroline after that episode because she really seemed to love India, especially the elephant sanctuary, but really, her son who is now in his 20s was at boarding school, so she made a choice not to do anything for herself ( if she actually did) She can't have been tied to the hoover/ kitchen sink 24/7 for 20 years looking after presumably one adult husband!

The people I know who were expelled from boarding schools were allowed back to sit the exams. And if it was much before that they could have enrolled him in a local school/retake school.

so I still don’t understand why he didn’t do his gcses!

That's what I don't get either. Even if they didn't let him back because they didn't think he'd pass, why not enrol him somewhere to sit them later or pay for him to sit them at a centre?

It’s joking about some one with CP being dim I objected to.

His cp is irrelevant to his dimness. It's the posh boy dimness that was being gently mocked.

Is the issue with his hand his writing hand? Might explain not sitting exams.

No he’s left handed

Even if he had an issue with his writing hand I'm sure he would have been entitled to a scribe for exams.

Oh god yes. The mum having an epiphany that she's not worked at all & lost confidence, when sitting amongst women who have real struggles felt incredibly crass.
The truth is she's probably been kept in a very nice manner by hubby's salary and not the oppressive existence she is describing.