Celebrity Race Across the World has returned to screens with a new line-up of celebrities attempting a route that spans from Borneo, across Southeast Asia, to Australia. The 2026 racers include Princess and Junior Andre, Sam Ryder, Ella Eyre and Jeff Stelling, who are undertaking a journey of 7,500 km.
The expedition across two continents and five checkpoints was filmed some months ago, involving a large crew on the ground. The episodes are produced by Studio Lambert, the production company behind The Traitors and Celebrity Traitors on the BBC.
How the filming works
Stephen Redding, who competed in the 2024 civilian series alongside his wife Viv, said his expectations of how the show is filmed were way off base. He told Televisual: 'I thought at the start of the race that we just race and the camera people run around us and film what we do. But the teams of people and the background stuff that makes television is huge.'
Each pair on the show has their own team, which includes two camera people, a sound person, a medic and a vehicle to follow along all the action. At no point does the crew give competitors a guiding hand or intervene when they make a mistake.
Logistical challenges on the road
Viv described the challenges the crew faced: 'I did feel for our crew on a number of occasions. We would suddenly book tickets for a 30-hour ride and they'd somehow have to get the logistics of getting the follow vehicle to the destination where we were going.'
'Half the crew had to come with us on the train. The other half were dashing in a car to get ahead of us coming off of the train. We just decided on the spur of the moment that we would buy these tickets and all hell would break loose.'
A 24-hour operation
Studio Lambert's Kezia Walker described filming the show as a 24-hour operation, saying in an interview in 2025 that it requires a team of 65-70 people in separate sections, including those trailing the teams. She told Sony: 'The embedded teams, who are racing with the contributors, are an incredible set of humans. Whatever the contributors are doing, they are doing.'
'If they're on an overnight bus, so are they. So that's a producer who shoots on a Sony FX3, like a small handheld camera, so they're very nimble, with an assistant producer who is logging everything that's going on, monitoring the sound, telling us about all the stories.'
'Then a medic who's travelling with that team and then we have a researcher who are wrangling all of the rushes, who, if they're jumping on a train, they're filming that train leaving and following behind them in a support vehicle.'
In addition to those crew members on the ground, there is a team at the checkpoints who are planning the race and managing the welfare of everyone involved. They are also on hand to shoot drone shots and any B-roll that might be needed to plug gaps along the way.
Lucy Curtis from Studio Lambert explained: 'There needs to be 24-hour coverage, which is one of the reasons we have the London team and the location team operating at all hours of the day and night.'
The crew also does a recce of the entire Race Across The World route beforehand, which feeds into the approach when filming the real thing, since they will have a rough idea of the route celebrities or civilians will take. Celebrity Race Across The World airs on BBC One on Wednesdays from 8pm.
