How is Race Across the World filmed? Exploring how the BBC reality series is made

Race Across the World season 5 is underway, and it's already getting audiences talking. The racing duos with their interesting back stories have viewers entranced by their epic journey from the Great Wall of China to Kanniyakumari in India.

One question those tuning in are asking in droves is how the series is filmed. It seems to be an incredible feat of logistics for individual crews to follow the couples on their adventure - the show's executive producer, Mark Saben, has unsurprisingly described the process as "massively challenging."

We take a look at the interesting way the show was made and what went into bringing it to your TV screen.

How was Race Across the World filmed?

Each team has two members of the film crew with them at all times, but they are there simply to film and don't have a say in any decisions competitors make - pairs can only travel when there is enough room for their personal camera crew to follow them.

Each team also has its own director of photography travelling behind them with GoPro cameras for when space is limited - for places such as boat cabins, this made life a lot easier.

According to The Independent, Richard Osman discussed the logistics of the show on an episode of his The Rest is Entertainment podcast. He explained that a "follow car" also travels behind each team and their designated pair of camera crew.

Race Across the World - Series 5 | Trailer - BBC - YouTube

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These cars contain security personnel and a medic, alongside technical equipment required, such as a spare camera and batteries. For a more natural feel, the contestants never see the following car, which follows behind discreetly.

Interestingly, a second camera team then retraces the steps of the racing duos to capture a better quality of footage, which is then edited into the final product. Drones are used to capture some landscape shots around the couples.

Speaking to the iPaper, former contestant Jenna revealed that the crews really don't leave the contestants' side, even when they're shopping for personal items such as Tampax and Anusol piles cream - although these moments don't make the final edit, of course.

Jenna also reported that she was even accompanied while sleeping, eating and using the toilet. She did point out that the crew would take their headphones off for very private moments such as these, though.

On top of all of that, a safety adviser worked on location in some areas, while some countries had a medical support vehicle in place, travelling around an hour behind the teams.

When planning the very first season - the blueprint for the rest of the seasons to follow - Mark Saben gave further insight into just what went into the logistics.

"We got two assistant producers to do a recce first," he explained, adding, "It's all very well doing theoretically, looking at timetables and things. But until someone does it for real, you don't know where the difficulties might lie."

The executive producer continued, "One of the poor sods had to do the actual trip again as they were attached to one of the teams - he was very stoical and didn't tell them until the very end though. As much as possible, we wanted it to feel like a dry run."