In the event you may select anybody to tackle Race Throughout The World, who wouldn’t it be?
Needless to say you’ll hardly depart one another’s aspect for 2 months, share a mattress, share trauma, be filmed virtually 24/7 and be pushed to your limits virtually day by day.
Your in-laws are in all probability on the backside of that listing, however for Margo and Mark, there was nobody else — although they had been, in their very own phrases, “successfully strangers.”
However they’d made a promise to Mark’s late spouse and Margo’s sister Julia: after her loss of life, they might in some way discover a strategy to bridge the gap between them and even grow to be pals.
What higher strategy to fulfill that promise than to race 12,000 miles with no cellphone or bank card, from Palermo, Sicily, to Hatgal, a distant village in northern Mongolia?
‘We tolerated one another’
“It was my thought to use,” Margo tells Metro. ‘I need to run away from homeliness and go on an journey. I noticed Race Throughout The World and it simply got here to me: “Ask Mark.”
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“It is the craziest factor as a result of we’re simply not somebody you go on trip with, not to mention issues like this, however I simply felt prefer it was the fitting factor to do.” I requested him and he mentioned sure, as a result of Julia needed us to be pals.’
Mark says: ‘It was her dying want… however I additionally needed to expertise the thrill of Race Throughout The World.’
Earlier than Julia grew to become in poor health, Mark and Margo didn’t perceive one another for 37 years. Julia was the glue that introduced them collectively, and with out her they might come undone.
“We tolerated one another,” Margo admits. “I believed he was boring and judging me.”
Mark agrees: “I believed you had been loud.”
‘I am loud, however I am additionally a bit like water working off a duck’s again. You’ll be able to decide me, it is none of my concern. There was lots of dynamic between us. Then we obtained collectively [when Julia got sick]and we each did our jobs very nicely, like me bringing all the great occasions to Julia, and Mark the medicines, and ensuring she stored the appointments. We had been an incredible tag staff, however we each had very outlined roles, and throughout the race it is totally different.”
The discomfort they expertise in one another’s firm quickly turns into clear. The primary evening, Margo crawls into mattress and appears over to see Mark mummified in what he calls his “humble cocoon”: an unnecessarily protecting sleeping bag that helps preserve distance all through the evening.
Laughing, Margo explains: ‘We did not actually know one another, we had preconceived concepts, the primary days there was a cocoon of modesty after which it simply grew to become very nice.’
There are few, if any, reveals that gives you extra pleasure than Race Throughout The World, and this course appears to be probably the most bold but. The primary episode opens with a shot of the ultimate spherical: a treacherous snow desert by way of which the remaining groups should wade, with the £20,000 money prize in sight.
Margo is not giving an excessive amount of away in regards to the journey that can unfold over the course of eight episodes this spring: “We’re older however not previous, however wait till you see – no spoilers – however there’s loads of motion with the older boys.”
The right alibi
However for Margo, reaching the beginning line was a problem in itself, not to mention even desirous about the end line.
‘I maintain my mom, she’s 95, I’ve a household and I’ve my job – truly placing issues in place, that was my preparation. I could not actually assume a lot in regards to the race; we even had issues achieved to our home so folks may keep along with her whereas I used to be gone as a result of I am there day by day.
‘Whenever you’re a carer you desire a break, and carers deserve a break, however it’s emotional and sensible, so getting me to begin was an enormous problem in itself, however lots of people, household and pals got here out to help me. It actually took a complete village to get me to the beginning line.”
However Margo’s mom proved helpful when it got here to her cowl story. Every participant should in some way slip away from their each day lives, haven’t any contact with household or pals on a regular basis and supply a believable clarification.
‘I informed my mom I used to be working and since she could be very inventive, she made up the story that I used to be giving hypnotherapy in Bournemouth! If I had informed her the reality, she would have forgotten that she could not inform anybody. She has cognitive decline, so she turned it right into a story, and she or he was very convincing.”
Mark was lucky that his son had unknowingly supplied the right alibi. “He went to Japan for a yr to check, and that coincided precisely with three days earlier than we left, so it labored out very well.”
Margo and Mark are one among 5 groups who push themselves to limits they by no means knew existed, competing towards greatest pals Jo and Kush, siblings Katie and Harrison, cousins Puja and Roshni, and father and daughter Molly and Andrew.
Race Throughout The World returns tonight at 9pm on BBC One.
This text was initially printed on March 25, 2026.
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