Margo, 59 from Liverpool took part with her brother-in-law
Margo, 59 from Liverpool took part with her brother-in-law
Race Across The World returns next week as a fresh batch of contestants will take on the ultimate challenge and explore the world. The popular BBC One show sees two-person teams venture across countries with no smartphones, no bank cards, only limited resources and the cash equivalent it would cost to fly the route.
The latest series of the show will see the groups tasked with travelling more than 12,000km across Europe and Asia, as they hope to be the first to cross the finish line and snap up the £20,000 reward.
They will race from Palermo on the island of Sicily all the way to the remote village of Hatgal on the shores of Lake Hovsgol, in northern Mongolia.
For the sixth series of competition programme, five new pairs put their relationships to the test and use the cash given – less than £26 per person per day – to try and cross the finish line first and win the cash prize.
The route will take them through eight countries including Italy, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia.
One unlikely pairing is 66-year-old retired architect Mark from London, and Liverpool-based hypnotherapist Margo, 59, who have spent the last 40 years as fractious in-laws.
But after being forced to put their differences aside to care for Julia – Mark’s wife and Margo’s big sister – before she died, their relationship took a positive turn.
Margo said: “We were typical in-laws you tolerate, Julia was the glue. I thought Mark was boring and judgemental.
Mark added: “I was judging you. I thought you were loud.”
Margo added: “I knew I wasn’t just imagining it. I am loud. But also, I’m a bit like the water off a duck’s back. You can judge me. It’s not my concern. That [was the] dynamic between us.”
“When we did come together, we were both doing our jobs very well. I brought all the good times to Julia, and Mark took charge of the medicines and made sure we kept to appointments. We were a great tag team with really defined roles.
“When we started the race, the reality that I was going to be in the same country with him really hit home in the first episode. We didn’t really know each other. The first few days were difficult, and then it just became really comfortable.
“Obviously, we had ups and downs, and the awkwardness, but our friendship grew. It was effectively like going on holiday with a stranger, and the real start of our relationship. We had a superficial understanding of each other, but soon found out a lot of different things.”
Other pairings include childhood best friends Jo and Kush, inseparable siblings Katie and Harrison, dad and daughter Andrew and Molly, and cousins Puja and Roshni.
Race Across The World airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Thursday, April 2
