The popular BBC One series sees five teams competing for a big cash prize, including three contestants from Liverpool
The popular BBC One series sees five teams competing for a big cash prize, including three contestants from Liverpool
Angie Quinn Screen Time Reporter
12:30, 02 Apr 2026
The BBC’s ultimate challenge series Race Across the World is returning to screens as five new couples from around the UK travel on a journey of a lifetime.
The contestants, which includes two teams from Liverpool, will cover more than 12,000km across Europe and Asia, but it won’t be easy.
The route winds through eight distinct countries: Italy, Greece, Türkiye, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia – each offering its own language, culture, and climate. Each pair will have a budget of less than £26 per person per day.
They will be pushed to their physical, emotional, and mental limits as they compete for a cash prize. The winners who cross the finish line first will be awarded £20,000 and the title of Race Across the World winners 2026.
Taking part in Race Across the World are five pairs of contestants: Katie & Harrison, Molly & Andrew, Puja & Roshni, plus Liverpool’s own Jo & Kush, and Mark & Margo.
Kush and Jo
Childhood best friends Kush and Jo, both aged just 19, are the youngest pair taking part in this year’s race.
The pair from Liverpool are fresh out of school and will experience their first taste of independence as they leave their family home. They are looking forward to embracing their independence on the BBC challenge show before heading to university.
“We had just finished sixth form, got our A-Levels, and the opportunity to travel with the race before we went to university, which made it even more exciting for us”, explained Jo.
Kush added, “We were both at a sort of standstill in deciding what to do with our futures. So, when the opportunity came up, we thought it would be a fantastic experience and something we could look back on and learn from.”
During the race, every pair will travel without using a mobile phone or a credit card, which could prove a shock to the teenagers.
Speaking about the lack of access to money, social media, or instant communication with family and friends, Jo expressed his worries: “I think it will start to hit us when we’re feeling stressed”, he said.
“I don’t think it’s fully hitting me yet that I can’t call my mum anytime I need. I think we will struggle at the points of the race where the next train is like in five hours’ time, and we’re bored.”
Kush added: “It’s a shock. It’s such an easy comfort to open your phone and when I was travelling, I did a lot of bookings through my phone, so I think it will be a really big challenge to not be able to pull up Google Maps and look for directions, book transport, find out where the train is or call my mum.”
Another test of the race will be access to food, with Jo confessing: “My weakness will probably be my appetite if I’m honest.”
He added: “I think our strength would be our ease to speak to strangers. We don’t have any issues with approaching people or asking people for advice, so I think that will definitely benefit us.”
Kush later added he will struggle to live without his “mum, the internet, and accessible snacks.”
Mark and Margo
An unlikely duo, in-laws Mark from London and Margo from Liverpool, have spent the past 40 years having a somewhat difficult relationship. But after recently setting their differences aside to care for a loved one, they’ve begun to enjoy each other’s company.
After the loss of Mark’s wife and Margo’s sister, they decided to take on the challenge of Race Across the World.
Mark, 66, has credited his late wife, Julie, as the reason he agreed to take part in the show alongside Margo, 59.
He said: “It’s a continuation of journeys of caring for Julia. It’s the next step. Margo would come for four or five days and would sit with Julia all day in the hospital, which was something I couldn’t do – I could not sit down. She comforted Julia.
“I would do all the practical things of taking the blood transfusions, all the appointments, doing the medication, and making sure that she was looked after. That brought us together and this is just a continuation of that. We became friends and realised that we could work together.”
Margo added: “It was a journey, and there were checkpoints on that journey, but they were never good. It was very hard and difficult times, but this is a continuation, for the adventure and to see where it goes really.
“We developed respect for each other; I think we hadn’t really paid attention to the good points about each other before that.”
“Julia wanted us to continue a friendship. It was one of her last dying wishes”, Mark added.
Paying tribute to her sister, Margo said: “Julia had a great intuition about things, and I think she knew we would need each other. I think this is a way of becoming true family, because we haven’t got Julia to glue us together anymore.”
“Margo is becoming more like a sister now to me”, Mark sweetly confirmed.
Race Across the World returns on Thursday, April 2 on BBC One and iPlayer at 8pm
