Rob Brydon has revealed that he nearly sabotaged the filming of his new BBC reality competition, Destination X, after accidentally almost revealing a location to contestants. The 60-year-old Gavin & Stacey star hosts the show, which features 13 strangers on a secretive road trip across Europe, combining elements of The Traitors and Race Across The World.
Participants travel in a coach with sensory deprivation, unable to see their location or track distance. They must guess their whereabouts daily using peculiar clues, with the contestant furthest from the actual position eliminated. The winner claims a £100,000 prize.
Brydon admitted: 'I won't say where we were, but we were on a hillside... I was chatting to some of the crew and I said out loud, 'I can't wait to get to [the place]' and then I realised that just over there was one of the players. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.' Fortunately, the contestant did not hear, and Brydon confirmed this based on subsequent events.
Executive producer Dan Adamson revealed additional challenges, including border officials nearly boarding the bus. 'We had fake uniforms that we would then do a second boarding of the bus to pretend it was just part of the room,' he said. The show was filmed over 32 days with 190 crew, 7,000 hotel rooms, and 11,000 km of travel across Europe. The coach contained 7 km of wiring, 46 cameras, and over 40 support vehicles.
Destination X premieres on BBC One and iPlayer on Wednesday, July 30.
