Race Across The World 2026

[LindorDoubleChoc]

Hooray!

This is back for another series, starting Thursday.

I just googled very quickly and they set off from Sicily and end the race in northern Mongolia - sounds interesting.

I don't know anything else about it at this point, but thought that we should have a thread ready and waiting.

maybe her sister asked her to not let her brother in law sink into a morass of grief, to keep him present in the world.

That's a huge maybe about people you've never met and watched on a TV programme. @TragicMuse

I was the first to mention Hyacinth Bucket - purely because the timbre of Margo's voice and her accent, being very close to fellow-Liverpudlian's Patricia Routledge, is uncannily similar. Nothing whatever to do with any 'lazy sexism' or ‘ageism' (and I'm older than Margo, if that makes any odds).

Oh it absolutely is! But it occurred as a thought.

I thought it was possibly quite an accurate guess! As you say, we don't know.

I hope we don't lose any contestants, but we normally do

I don't like the young men so hope they end up losing the leg where a pair is out.

Shame about the huge gap between ages. It goes from 32 to 54, and five contestants are under 25.

The director changed a couple of series ago at least, possibly more, and that's when we started going heavy on the sob stories. I remember reading something from him when he started that said he wanted to concentrate more on their backgrounds.

The race suffers as a result. Whilst I was initially excited that this was back, I quite quickly remembered being hit over the head last time with all the emotional stuff and I remember lots of comments about how it felt disjointed because suddenly contestants went from place a to place d with no context as to how they'd got there, they just suddenly appeared.

All to fit in the increasingly repetitive and boring background elements.

The sob stories became a problem in the last series, imo. A bit of personal information is fine for context, but in the last series it was overdone a bit.

Totally here for the back stories to be honest!

I like some back story, you need to know something about them really, like the brother and sister in law. But too much back story and it just becomes about bad things that have happened in the past rather than what’s happening now.

The earlier series got the balance right, the last was endless rehashing - how the two boring sisters hadn't particularly gelled. Much more fun seeing how they get from x to y to z. Things like seeing them eat the dry sandwiches in the latest are what you want, realising it's actually a good idea to spend one euro on a bottle of mayo. Hopefully the director read MN last time :)

I agree! I think more details about the actual trip, because the last series skated over the food and some of the accommodation etc.

Out of interest I've had a look to see how old everyone has been over the six series.

Series 1: 20, 32, 32, 38, 38, [46], [48], 48, 57, 58 (original)
Series 1: 20, 32, 32, 38, 38, 48, 57, 58, 61, 61 (after one couple dropped out)
Series 2: 19, 21, 22, 25, 33, 33, 35, 40, 47, 54
Series 3: 25, 27, 31, 32, 34, 36, 48, 49, 52, 53
Series 4: 20, 20, 21, 25, 25, 25, 52, 60, 61, 65
Series 5: 18, 19, 21, 26, 33, 54, 54, 60, 62, 65
Series 6: 19, 19, 21, 23, 23, 31, 32, 54, 59, 66

Averages
Series 1: 41.7 (original)
Series 1: 44.5 (after one couple dropped out)
Series 2: 32.9
Series 3: 38.7
Series 4: 37.4
Series 5: 41.2
Series 6: 34.7

Age groups
Series 1: 0 x teens, 1x 20s, 4 x 30s, 3 x 40s, 2 x 50s, 0 x 60s
Series 2: 0 x teens, 1 x 20s, 4 x 30s, [1 x 40s], 2 x 50s, 2 x 60s
Series 3: 0 x teens, 2 x 20s, 4 x 30s, 2 x 40s, 2 x 50s, 0 x 60s
Series 4: 0 x teens, 6 x 20s, 0 x 30s, 0 x 40s, 1 x 50s, 3 x 60s
Series 5: 2 x teens, 2 x 20s, 1 x 30s, 0 x 40s, 2 x 50s, 3 x 60s
Series 6: 2 x teens, 3 x 20s, 2 x 30s, 0 x 40s, 2 x 50s, 1 x 60s

Age groups numbers overall
teens: 4
20s: 15
30s: 15
40s: 5 [7]
50s: 11
60s: 9

No-one in their 40s has appeared since Series 3!

And myself.

That is dedication to the cause!

Once I started it just snowballed!!! 😂

Couldn’t agree more. A little bit of back story is fine, but the clue is the in the program name, Race Across The World .

People in their 40s are more bogged down with kids and jobs. Younger ones may not be on the career treadmill yet and the older ones may be fully retired and free from child rearing.

It's like vox pops for the news are always pensioners or market traders as everyone else is at work and inaccessible.

True, but in Series 1 they managed to cast three of this elusive age group.

I've spotted a mistake in my post now, I've put just 1 x 40s instead of 2 in the age groups bit. 🙄

Trying to eke out that storyline about the two sisters last year was so OTT. That really put me off the series. Like they didn’t get on / have much in common so what! the you get sister just didn’t seem to want to engage with the whole “reconciliation” storyline.

The older brothers story was interesting though. So you can include it just don’t make it dominate.

It's an interesting one. I immediately took against her as soon as she described herself as "random and chaotic" which is such a red flag for someone who is very likely to be extremely irritating. To the point where I paused the show to tell my kids why they should approach anyone who proudly describes themselves that way with extreme caution.

She grew on me over the episode as she relaxed and the "what am I like" persona gave way to what I assume is a more authentic version of herself. I'll be interested to see what I think of her at the end.

I found Mark irritating in an entirely different way, which probably also made me warm to Margo.

Did not like Mark calling Margo "brash" for dancing on the ferry. No need. He came across as unpleasant.

Loved the lipstick as war paint shot. Siblings are very likeable. Boys are charming.

That was my assumption.

as soon as she described herself as "random and chaotic" which is such a red flag for someone who is very likely to be extremely irritating. To the point where I paused the show to tell my kids why they should approach anyone who proudly describes themselves that way with extreme caution.

My immediate thought was that she might have ADHD, like me, as I can be pretty random and chaotic as part of poor executive function.

What lovely people. Don’t have any favourites.