Race Across The World - Season 4 on BBC 9PM every Wednesday *** CONTAINS SPOILERS ***

Does anyone else watch this?

Currently this is one of my favourite TV shows and it is something me and the wife sit down and watch every week. Feels like proper event TV.

My money is on the older couple to get eliminated if they still do that halfway through as they seem to be just going for a chill

That young lad who lost the map Also wasn't sure if he has a form of Autism.

I like the mother and daughter but I do worry after they spent over 25% of the budget on leg 1 The daughter also just randomly picking up Japanese was pretty cool.

I imagine once they leave Japan costs should drop dramatically.

Finally caught up with episode 1 tonight. I've loved every series of this so far, and that was another great episode. It really made me want to go back to Japan.

The two mother daughter teams seem like they have the best dynamics in terms of relationships and attitudes, but that pair who've already burned a quarter of the budget have got a hell of a problem to overcome now.

The two younger teams seem likely to come apart through stress and bickering, especially the two lads. Looking forward to seeing how long the loss of the map keeps getting bright up as a sore point.

While the older couple were pretty slow, I reckon they've got the ability to pick up the pace, so wouldn't rule them out. I suspect the husband is likely to end up saying something to wind up at least one or more of the other teams at a checkpoint somewhere along the way though. He's an odd bloke for sure.

Very excited for the rest of the journey. The China leg on the map at the start looked gigantic, I wonder if they'll be whisked through any or all of it, like they were passing through Xinjiang in series 1. I'd be amazed they're doing that distance in a single go without high speed rail if not.

Slow and steady wins the race, I'm going with the older couple.

I started watching this last year, and then again with the celebrities (I didn't really know who many of them were, but in this instance it didn't make much difference, though apparently Kelly Brook is doing the next one).

One of the better shows I've encountered on BBC1 in quite a while; great concept and enthralling TV.

KK wrote:Slow and steady wins the race, I'm going with the older couple.

I started watching this last year, and then again with the celebrities (I didn't really know who many of them were, but in this instance it didn't make much difference, though apparently Kelly Brook is doing the next one).

One of the better shows I've encountered on BBC1 in quite a while; great concept and enthralling TV.

Have you seen this week's episode, spoilerd to be safe.

My wife is Working tonight so I can't watch this until she is home or untill tomorrow's night. Sad times.

Panic over she is back early.

I thought that older bloke attempting to barge in everywhere and his comments about the low ceiling last week was a bit uncouth.

I know they have to fit everything into just shy of an hour, but some of the editing and overarching narrative can be a bit too ‘fill in the blanks yourself’. For example, the two blokes were stuck in Kobe however many miles behind and then all of a sudden they’re on the first ferry out of Japan, with no explanation how they caught up.

KK wrote:I thought that older bloke attempting to barge in everywhere and his comments about the low ceiling last week was a bit uncouth.

I know they have to fit everything into just shy of an hour, but some of the editing and overarching narrative can be a bit too ‘fill in the blanks yourself’. For example, the two blokes were stuck in Kobe however many miles behind and then all of a sudden they’re on the first ferry out of Japan, with no explanation how they caught up.

Yeah, I noticed that too, same with Brydie and her mum, there was a bit in episode 2 where they hopped off a train in a panic because they thought they'd got the wrong one. You'd expect them to then return and find out whether they've made a right or wrong decision, but you never got that, just their next steps once they'd arrived in their destination city.

I don't remember there being unresolved insurances like these in the previous series.

FFS the old couple survived

Caught up with this week's episode last night. Gutted for Brydie and Sharon, but they really dropped the ball a bit and failed to treat the elimination leg as seriously as the others, especially given their lag behind the leaders. Stephen continued to act like a socially illiterate weirdo, but it actually paid off for them, so I guess we can expect to see even more of it.

Alfie's bit with the lanterns made me cry.

KK wrote:I thought that older bloke attempting to barge in everywhere and his comments about the low ceiling last week was a bit uncouth.

I know they have to fit everything into just shy of an hour, but some of the editing and overarching narrative can be a bit too ‘fill in the blanks yourself’. For example, the two blokes were stuck in Kobe however many miles behind and then all of a sudden they’re on the first ferry out of Japan, with no explanation how they caught up.

Yes the editing is all over the place, makes it pretty hard to follow and get invested in anyone as they just do a game of thrones and telelport to the end point sometimes.

Interesting that they brought in the 5th place elimination again. It seems they only bring that in when one group is so far behind, it must be the logistics of whatever background crews they have following them around and keeping them safe (must have medical people and so on). I can't imagine it's easy when one group is over a day behind. It must be a polite way of saying you're not doing this right and its gooseberry fool tv.

They did it a few years ago with those two brothers, I remember the rest of then were something daft like 30 hours ahead and in another country, and those two were just camped in a car park somewhere moping about. They just told them they were out over the GPS thing

Victor Mildew wrote:

KK wrote:I thought that older bloke attempting to barge in everywhere and his comments about the low ceiling last week was a bit uncouth.

I know they have to fit everything into just shy of an hour, but some of the editing and overarching narrative can be a bit too ‘fill in the blanks yourself’. For example, the two blokes were stuck in Kobe however many miles behind and then all of a sudden they’re on the first ferry out of Japan, with no explanation how they caught up.

Yes the editing is all over the place, makes it pretty hard to follow and get invested in anyone as they just do a game of thrones and telelport to the end point sometimes.

Interesting that they brought in the 5th place elimination again. It seems they only bring that in when one group is so far behind, it must be the logistics of whatever background crews they have following them around and keeping them safe (must have medical people and so on). I can't imagine it's easy when one group is over a day behind. It must be a polite way of saying you're not doing this right and its gooseberry fool tv.

They did it a few years ago with those two brothers, I remember the rest of then were something daft like 30 hours ahead and in another country, and those two were just camped in a car park somewhere moping about. They just told them they were out over the GPS thing

Haven't they done the elimination every series so far?

Checking the wiki, season 2 had no eliminations, but they had two teams pull out, one after losing half their money on leg 2.

I really think it's in there as a contingency rather than an ongoing thing of the series. It only seems to get brought in when one team is lagging behind.

Knoyleo wrote:

Victor Mildew wrote:

KK wrote:I thought that older bloke attempting to barge in everywhere and his comments about the low ceiling last week was a bit uncouth.

I know they have to fit everything into just shy of an hour, but some of the editing and overarching narrative can be a bit too ‘fill in the blanks yourself’. For example, the two blokes were stuck in Kobe however many miles behind and then all of a sudden they’re on the first ferry out of Japan, with no explanation how they caught up.

Yes the editing is all over the place, makes it pretty hard to follow and get invested in anyone as they just do a game of thrones and telelport to the end point sometimes.

Interesting that they brought in the 5th place elimination again. It seems they only bring that in when one group is so far behind, it must be the logistics of whatever background crews they have following them around and keeping them safe (must have medical people and so on). I can't imagine it's easy when one group is over a day behind. It must be a polite way of saying you're not doing this right and its gooseberry fool tv.

They did it a few years ago with those two brothers, I remember the rest of then were something daft like 30 hours ahead and in another country, and those two were just camped in a car park somewhere moping about. They just told them they were out over the GPS thing

Haven't they done the elimination every series so far?

Checking the wiki, season 2 had no eliminations, but they had two teams pull out, one after losing half their money on leg 2.

Yes it has been every season, guess it adds a mid point jeapordy.

I don't think Brydie and her mum nessersey made a bad decision with the train as a lot of it is guess work and holiday your right but they just needed to move and not stop but maybe they had no choice due to connections.

I still think Alfie and his friend will fall out at some point as they don't seem like they go together as they are so different.

Victor Mildew wrote:I really think it's in there as a contingency rather than an ongoing thing of the series. It only seems to get brought in when one team is lagging behind.

There's probably no hard or fast rules about it, they seem to change the leg they use it on, and it would be incredibly harsh to see a team eliminated if they were all clustered close together time wise, but the only time they've not used it was when a team had already pulled themselves out early on, so I imagine it'll be part of most series unless that happens again.

I'm also finding the British thing of speaking to someone in a loud voice when they don't understand particularly cringe worthy.

*in the middle of nowhere, rural Japan*

"Do you speak English?"

"....."

"WE NEED TO GO TO THE TRAIN STATION. TRAAAAAAIN STAAAAAATION. NO? TRAIN? NO? "

Brits abroad.

I think that's the reason my favourite ever series are usually the ones who try with the language. Watching Isabel find people in Japan and Korea while they were on a bus/boat and getting them to help put a key phrase book together was brilliant.