Celebrity Race Around the World (BBC1)
Here’s a solution to Britain’s overcrowding crisis: send all the celebrities abroad for adoption.
For some reason, in villages along the equator, cheerful farmers and hard-working artisans adore our semi-famous personalities.
Perhaps they are dazzled by the whiteness of your teeth.
Cheerful Jeff Brazier and his 16-year-old son Freddie arrived at a shack in a remote part of northern Brazil on the Celebrity Race Across The World to a welcome like no other.
Farmer Joseph didn’t say much, it’s true: he was busy butchering half a cow that was hanging from a tree and placing pieces of meat on the corrugated iron roof of the hut, to cure them from the scorching heat.
Cheerful Jeff Brazier and his 16-year-old son Freddie arrived at a shack in remote northern Brazil on Celebrity Race Across The World to a prodigal welcome.
Within hours, the Braziers were part of their new adoptive family.
In another state of this vast country, Radio 2 DJ Scott Mills and his partner Sam were staying with 80-year-old Elsa, who made a living boiling fruit to make jams and sweets.
With their bags packed, Scott and Sam arrived in Brazil smiling.
But his radiant wife, Mary, welcomed the British with open arms, accompanying them to her barn, where she was grinding sweet corn into cornmeal.
Freddie was terrified of the scrawny chickens running around beneath his feet, until Maria picked one up and put it in his hands.
A few hours later, the Braziers were part of the family. “I only had one son,” Maria whispered in Portuguese. “Now you are one more.” And she added in English: “My son!”
In another state of this vast country, Radio 2 DJ Scott Mills and his fiancée Sam were staying with 80-year-old Elsa, who made a living boiling fruit to make jams and sweets.
They did not understand a word of what the others were saying. Even sign language failed them.
But Elsa was thrilled to take selfies with the duo, and after they taught her how to smile and say “Cheese,” she couldn’t stop singing it.
Then she danced with them, laughing: “These are Grandma’s children.”
With or without celebrities, Race Across The World has become one of the BBC’s most successful formats.
It strikes the right balance between showing us parts of the planet we might never have dreamed existed and giving us a glimpse into the bonds between the participating couples.
Confessions on a boat: Former glamour model Kelly Brook, sweetly in love with her judo champion husband Jeremy, was in a hurry to tell us about herself.
Actor Kola Bokinni, one of the stars of AppleTV+’s football comedy Ted Lasso, is traveling with his cousin Mary Ellen, but we’ve been seeing less and less of them, which is an intriguing sign.
Former glamour model Kelly Brook, sweetly in love with her judo champion husband Jeremy, was in a hurry to tell us about herself and clearly wants to use the show as a chance to shed her old skin.
“My happy place is my garden,” she declared, “with my wellies on, no make-up and my hair up. To think I was a pin-up girl doing calendars… it’s just an illusion, it’s not me at all.
«Kelly Brook doesn’t actually exist, it’s not even a real name, it hasn’t even appeared on my passport.»
Actor Kola Bokinni, one of the stars of the AppleTV+ football comedy Ted Lasso, travels with his cousin Mary Ellen.
We’ve seen less of them so far, which is always an intriguing sign on a reality show.
It’s only been a few weeks since siblings James and Betty, in the previous series of Race to the Far East, had millions of viewers choking back their sobs.
After growing apart as teenagers, they ended the show closer than ever. Who wouldn’t want to adopt them?