BBC / Studio Lambert
Celebrity Race Across the World 2024
After the trek around the Pacific ocean earlier this year, Race Across the World returns on Wednesday with the slightly shorter celebrity version of the race - and this time they're taking on South America!
Four couples will be starting in Belém, a town in north Brazil, and racing 12,500km to the final checkpoint of Frutillar, a city near the very south of Chile. As usual they can't use smartphones, luxury travel or credit cards, and the show will no doubt give the teams a few oddly located checkpoints along the way.
Racing on the typical tight budget, they'll be hitching lifts or working odd jobs as they travel - which can be more interesting in the celebrity version, where one half of the team can be quite removed from 'roughing it' in their day to day life!
So who are the celebrities in this year's Celebrity Race Across the World? Let's meet the teams:
Jeff & Fredy
Jeff Brazier is a TV presenter from Berkshire, who is travelling with his 19 year old son Freddy.
Jeff rose to fame in the 3rd series of Shipwrecked where contestants stayed on a tropical island without any creature comforts, which sounds like some very transferable skills for Race Across the World. But that was 20 years ago, and more recent years have been spent presenting the X Factor Live Tour, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! NOW! and showbiz news for This Morning, so he might be less keen on roughing it today.
Asked why they chose to take part the father and son said:
Jeff: I wanted to take part because firstly, the travel element is an absolute privilege, the last celeb lot went through 24 countries apparently, what's not to love about that experience?
But also to share it with my son and to be able to make those memories. He’s not a child anymore, he’s a young adult - I feel like at some point he's going to move out and I’ll lose him. So, I guess I'm just trying to squeeze every last bit out of him that I can.
Freddy: Yeah, 100%. It'll be nice to spend that time with Dad, just me and my dad. Dad’s got a busy life, he works a lot and there aren’t loads of times where we've done stuff just the two of us. But when we do I’m really lucky whether it's going to the cinema, going to the driving range, it’s all good.
Freddy describes himself as more adventurous, while Jeff considers himself more a "safe sort of person". Asked about their strategy for the race they said:
Jeff: We're going to look to sleep in a tent as much as possible. As much as it's safe to do so because it saves the expense of the hotel.
Freddy: Mine is don’t get cabs unless it’s really, really needed. If you can afford to stay overnight and get the first transport to the next stop, fine but I've seen it too many times where people just rush to get a taxi, and then not have much of their budget left.
Kelly & Jeremy
Kelly Brook is a model, actress and radio and TV broadcaster who is travelling with her husband Jeremy.
Starting her career as a glamour model, Kelly's been the face of many beauty and fashion brands before becoming an actor and broadcaster. Self confessed as 'liking her home comforts' Kelly admits the thing she'll miss most during the race might be her beauty routine as she didn't have space for kilos of make-up in her backpack!
Asked why they were taking on the challenge Kelly and Jeremy said:
Kelly: I just really wanted us to go on an adventure together. And I just knew that this is the kind of trip that we’d never organise. We’re here in a hotel, and usually I’d be on my phone, I’d be researching the best restaurants in the area, I’d be talking to the concierge to find out about day trips, if there’s any boats we could be chartering! I’m so on it with the travel its such a freeing experience not to be doing anything. It’s like a holiday from organising a holiday.
This just seemed like the dream to get to the airport and not know where you're going. That is like a dream, to go to the airport, be given a plane ticket and just go.
Jeremy: It will be challenging though.
Kelly: It's challenging, it's exciting, you can't really plan anything. And it's just the authentic experience.
Both admitted they're not the most adventurous, but feel confident with Jeremy handling the money and Kelly planning the route and convincing strangers to help them on their way. Asked about their strategy though and they were less sure:
Kelly: We haven’t actually got any strategies at all, have we?
Jeremy: We speak about this. I think we'll probably have a strategy the first day when we arrive there. Because now it's so easy to say a lot of things before the race, but when we arrive there, there will be something we never knew.
Kelly: Our strategy might be to save money we're going to walk everywhere. And then half an hour of walking with a rucksack we will be exhausted. We don't know how we're going to feel. So, I think we know our strengths and weaknesses and we are just going to not have any expectations and just embrace whatever it is that’s thrown at us. And just try and be measured and calm. No panic.
Jeremy: Yeah, we need to give our best. That is the most important thing.
Kola & Mary
Actor Kola Bokinni is taking on the celebrity race challenge with his cousin Mary Ellen.
Kola has had roles in the tv shows Top Boy and Black Mirror, but is most known for playing football captain Isaac McAdoo in Apple TVs comedy-drama series Ted Lasso. The success of the show got Kola a chance to visit The White House and meet President Biden and Vice-President Harris, as well as having his character added to the video game FIFA 23.
Asked why they wanted to be on the show they said they'd been on holiday together before but haven't spent as much time together since Mary moved to Ireland.
Mary Ellen: Kola called me and was like, “Hey, Mary, do you want to be a part of the show with me?” I was like, “Oh my God, you thought of me?” I just want to create memories with my cousin, I suppose, and go on the adventure of a lifetime.
Kola: It’s not so many times that you get to do something like this. Obviously, I've travelled with my job but I've always had to play other characters. But to do something and it's me, and with my family and I’ll get to see what we're all about, and test our mustards a little bit. So, that's the reason why I wanted to do it, to just experience a different side of life and the world.
They both say they're up for adventure, but also admit they do like the finer side in travel:
Mary Ellen: I mean I think we all love a 5-star hotel, don’t we? I mean we love a spa hotel especially. But I can sleep standing up, I will be very happy anywhere just as long as I’m safe and there are no spiders.
Kola: As long as at the end of the day I can get a nice massage and jacuzzi.
Mary Ellen: You haven’t always been that way.
Kola: Is that not available? Is there a travelling masseuse coming with us? Basically, yeah I’ve gotten used to a lot of creature comforts.
Asking about their strategy they admitted they hadn't got much of a game plan:
Kola: Not really, you can’t have a strategy when I still don’t know where I’m going to be flying to. I can work out a strategy when I'm boots on the ground. I can’t have a strategy when I don't know where I'm going. Because I could be completely wrong.
Mary Ellen: Landmarks, I’m going to pay attention to landmarks on the maps.
But the success of this team might come from how they both cope in a crisis:
Mary Ellen: I think me and Kola tend to just tequila our way out of those, if I’m being honest.
Kola: You know what our superpower is, me and Mary, we can sniff out a pub.
Scott & Sam
Scott Mills is a radio presenter and broadcaster who is competing with his fiance Sam
Scott is best known for his nearly 20 years presenting the Scott Mills show on Radio 1, but has recently moved to Radio 2, regularly standing in for Ken Bruce and taking over Steve Wright's slot since 2022. Scott has also appeared on various pannel shows and competed in series 12 of Strictly Come Dancing.
Asked why they had chosen to take part Scot and Sam said it was really the idea of a big challenge before they got married:
Scott: Everyone says the holiday test is you know you could be with somebody if you go on holiday with them. This is like that times a thousand. Not that I have any doubts that Sam is the one for me, but there will be times in this, I imagine, when it will get stressful. And I think I'm expecting it, I don't know, but I'm expecting it to be big highs and probably big lows.
So, if we can get through this, we can get through anything basically. I have no doubt that we will but that's part of the reason why I wanted to do it. I also really just want to throw my phone away for a bit. I wouldn’t be able to get to do this again.
Sam: It's an opportunity where you can just switch off in the world and see places that you've never seen before. You'll probably go to places that you wouldn't choose to go, if you look at a map you probably wouldn't go “Let's go here.”
And it's just seeing parts of the world together. Obviously, we get married this year so for us, it's the year of big challenges: this, marriage. So, it's just kind of like doing it all at once and getting it all done.
While they both seem keen to take on the challenge together neither of them seemed keen to call themselves 'adventurous'.
Scott: I think I’m one of the least adventurous people I know, which is why I’m doing this. Because even, for instance, things like doing even a half marathon, if you had said to my parents, Oh yes Scott when he gets to his 30s and 40s, he'll be doing half marathons they'd be like “That's not true.” I'm just not that person but I just like putting things in my way to see if I can navigate them.
Sam: I'm not very adventurous, in travel, or in life, really. I like what I like. So, if I go on holiday, it's usually a beach holiday, somewhere in the sun. Food-wise, I like what I like and I don't diverge from that. I don't like spice. I don't like fish, I don’t like tomatoes, mushrooms, I’m really plain. Scott always jokes that when I moved to London, I'd never had avocado before.
But they do have a clear strategy - although maybe not one that inspires a winning team:
Sam: Our main strategy is not to rush. So, despite it being a race, I think if you rush, like anything in life, if you rush into decisions, you will probably regret them. If you sit back, just think about it and double-check, then you might get further because you haven't made a rash decision.
Scott: Just to take a bit of time for ourselves, as well as realising that we are trying to beat three other couples. But this is an important thing for me, where we're both just not on our phones, we're living in the moment and we're talking, we're chatting. And we're probably actually finding out things still about each other on this trip.
They have however watched the show and got a clear pitfall to avoid:
Sam: I think one of the biggest things we've taken from it is don't lose your money. Because if you lose your money, you're out. If we decide to get a taxi and it costs us 10% of our budget, at least we can work that back a little bit. If you lose your money, it’s game over.
So there we have it, four new teams, each with different relationships and ideas on how to race... but do you think you can predict from that who will take first place at checkpoint one? Do you fancy the solid couple Kelly and Jeremy, or the soon to be married Scott and Sam? Will Jeff and Freddys father and son bond help more then the high energy banter of Kola and Mary?
Ok so I've no real idea either, but take a good guess, put a weekly token down on who you think will win as well, and challenge your friends to compete in who can best predict this series of Celebrity Race Across the World.
