Celebrity Race Across The World brought out the stars’ competitive sides (Picture: BBC/Studio Lambert/Todd Anthony)
Celebrity Race Across The World stars embraced clever tactics to increase their chances of becoming victorious.
The devilishly difficult BBC show sees teams of two go head-to-head on a tight budget with limited information to reach a destination on the other side of the world before any of the other competing teams.
On the current series, broadcaster Jeff Brazier and son Freddy, Heart radio host Kelly Brook and husband Jeremy Parisi, actor Kola Bokinni and cousin Mary Ellen, and BBC Radio 2 host Scott Mills and husband Sam Vaughan, are battling it to reach the final checkpoint first.
Ted Lasso star Kola and his teammate revealed just how competitive it got while travelling from Belém, Northern Brazil to Frutillar in Southern Chile.
The 32-year-old recalled that when the group were reunited at the various checkpoints, they would try to suss out how well each other was doing, but added that nobody was honest.
‘No one was being truthful to anyone when we saw each other,’ Kola stated.
Kola revealed the secret tactics (Picture: BBC)
‘It was always like “Oh, how much is in your wallet?” It was always trying to get information out of each other, just to be like, just to get that edge.’
‘Everyone kept their cards quite close to their chest whenever we had to film as a group,’ Mary Ellen added to Virgin Radio.
She recalled that each of them would try to abstract information about intended routes, and finances ‘on the sly’.
Mary Ellen and Kola adopted ‘poker faces’ (Picture: Studio Lambert)
However, rather than give it all up, each of the contestants would adopt ‘poker faces’.
‘It was poker faces galore. Everyone would be throwing curve balls going “Oh God I’m running out of money!” It was really, really funny. It became just one big poker game to be honest.’
When asked who was the most competitive in the cast, Jeremy’s name was quickly given.
Jeremy was called most competitive by Kola (Picture: BBC/Studio Lambert)
‘He’s a lovely guy, love the guy to death. But he is very competitive,’ Kola stated.
Although, this didn’t always gel well with Kelly’s more laid-back approach, and her desire to see the sights – a method Kola and Mary Ellen adopted until they reached the first checkpoint 12 hours after their competitors.
Kola quickly realised his desire to win: ‘I’m not going to lie to you and say that I didn’t want to win. Everyone has their moments, and I have a lot of competitive moments.’
Freddy opened up in the most recent episode (Picture: BBC)
As well as the ‘competitive moments’ the episodes also feature the contestants talking honestly about their real lives.
Freddy recently left Celebrity Race Across The World viewers ‘heartbroken’ as he revealed he couldn’t remember being held by his mum Jade Goody.
Big Brother legend Goody and TV personality Jeff had two sons, Freddy, 19, and Strictly star Bobby, 21, before she died from cervical cancer aged 27 in 2009.
During last week’s episode, Freddy held back tears as he spoke about his mum’s death when he was just four years old.
‘I lost my mum when I was four and that was on Mother’s Day, which is really hard. I don’t really like showing my emotions. I don’t even speak to my dad much about my mum either. I just avoid it. I prefer to bottle it up,’ he shared.
Jeff and Freddy are competing together (Picture: Instagram/@jeffbrazier)
‘I don’t want to feel like I’m a burden to them. A lot of my memories that I have of my mum have come from watching a documentary, YouTube clips, newspapers, they are not my memories.’
He continued: ‘I don’t really remember being held by my mum. If I had more memories of her, it would have made it a whole lot harder for me.
‘But I think I would rather that than not really remember the things that I had done with my mum. It’s just life really and I’ve kind of accepted that.’
Celebrity Race Across The World airs Wednesdays at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.