Helen Bach: Race Across The World and the baggage carried both literal and metaphorical...

The RATW contestants also have a limited budget, and they can't fly - except in this series they did have to fly because they couldn't travel through China for some reason which I don't think anyone explained?

Anyway, they have to make their way usually by bus, or train, sometimes taxi if they're feeling flush, and they can earn money enroute by working for people doing some very interesting jobs (anyone here a duck herder?!).

They are usually reliant on the kindness of strangers, who throughout the world seem to take pity on hapless British people blundering around, speaking English loudly at them, or pointing at things in a frantic fashion, while losing their passports and money. Some of the contestants do try to learn some words of the language of the country in which they're in, which certainly helps and should be recommended.

But the show is much more than this. On a deeper level, it's an exploration of human psychology, and it deals with the relationships between the pairs who are doing this for very different reasons, in addition to the £20k prize money.

Take Stephen and Viv - hailing from Uppingham, they both worked at a local secondary school and are now retired. Initially I found him very annoying - he often shouts 'we're in a race!' and tried to queue jump in Japan when most people realise how inappropriate that is!

But I've warmed to them, and we learned their back story which explained a lot. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it, or are watching it on catch up on iPlayer.

In summary, the show highlights the fundamentally decent nature of people worldwide, and that everybody has their baggage to carry - both literal and metaphorical in this case.