A celebrity edition of Race Across the World was first announced on 3 October 2019, but production was subsequently delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 27 July 2023, the BBC announced that the delayed celebrity version would air later that same year and revealed a route spanning 24 countries and over starting in Marrakech, Morocco and finishing in Tromsø, Norway.
In the same press release the BBC announced that the series would consist of 6 hour-long episodes and revealed the four pairs of competitors as weather presenter Alex Beresford and his father, Noel; former All Saints singer Melanie Blatt and her mother, Helene; McFly drummer Harry Judd and his mother, Emma and former British F4 Racing Driver Billy Monger and his sister, Bonny.
Celebrity Race Across the World had been planned for broadcast on 13 September 2023; however, the BBC announced its postponement due to the earthquakes in Marrakesh, where the show had been filmed prior to the disaster which killed over 2,500 people.
Overview
The first celebrity series of Race Across the World was a race between Marrakech, Morocco and Tromsø, Norway spanning 24 countries and over .
The race had five checkpoints with enforced rest periods, with contestants only finding out the next destination on departure from a checkpoint. Teams were given a budget of £1947 per person – the equivalent air fare for travelling the race route. Contestants were not permitted to subsidise their budgets, but short-term opportunities allowed them to work for money or bed and board. The contestants were not allowed access to telephones or the internet, but were provided with a map, travel guide and GPS tracker.
Contestants
Results summary
Colour key:
– Team withdrawn
– Series winners
Route
The checkpoints in the first celebrity series were:
Race summary
Leg 1: Marrakesh, Morocco → Pinhão, Portugal
Having checked in at Medersa Ben Yousseff, the race started in earnest at 2 pm from Jemaa el-Fnaa in Marrakesh, Morroco with the first leg finishing north at Quinta De La Rosa, outside the town of Pinhão, in the heart of Portugal's Douro Valley.
To reach Europe all the teams had to first plan their way to the port city of Tangier and then cross the Strait of Gibraltar. Whilst the other teams walked to Bab Doukkala bus station, Melanie and Helene got off to a head start by taking a taxi and catching the first bus to Tangier, a journey of almost nine hours.
Billy and Bonny, wanting to experience something of North Africa decided to travel to Fez by bus to work in the Sidi Moussa tannery. Harry and Emma also elected to experience local culture and selected a homestay with a Jebala family, working at their apiary in the city of Chefchaouen in the Rif mountains in exchange for free food and lodgings.
With differing opinions on the best strategy, Alex and Noel were the last to leave Marrakesh having spent the first day exploring the city and eventually took an overnight bus to Tangier some seven hours behind Melanie and Helene. They reached Tangier and took the first ferry across to Algeciras in Andalusia, Spain only to discover they had caught up with Melanie and Helene who were also on the same sailing.
One by one all the teams made landfall in Spain and all decided to travel onward to Seville. Whilst most of the teams took the bus, Melanie once again opted to splash out on a taxi having failed to secure a bus. She and Helene then took a train to Lisbon where they worked a shift in a Fado bar before taking another train to Porto. Harry and Emma later followed in their footsteps taking the same route. From Seville, the other two teams struck out for Madrid. On arrival in the Spanish capital, Alex and Noel immediately headed to Salamanca by bus and found that the onward bus through the Serra de Estrela mountains and into Viseu the next day was coming from Madrid; a bus on which Billy and Bonny were already on board. In Viseu, Bonny tried unsuccessfully to make contact with an old friend, in the meantime, confused by the one hour time difference between Spain and Portugal, Alex and Noel forwent the first available bus under the impression it had already departed and waited two hours for the next service. Once again the two teams found themselves on the same bus, this time to Pinhão. In an effort to beat Alex and Noel to the checkpoint, Billy and Bonny alighted the bus short of Viseu and took a taxi to the town, only to find the other pair already heading to the checkpoint, but a mistake by Alex and Noel allowed Billy and Bonny to just pip them to the post.