The BBC’s newest travel show has launched at last.
It’s called Destination X, and it has a simple premise: 13 contestants pack their bags and head to Europe for a few weeks travelling around the continent. Except, there’s a catch… they’ll be travelling inside a big bus with blacked out windows, making it impossible to see where they actually are.
Each episode, those contestants (working from a scant few, carefully curated clues) must guess where on the map they are, with the least accurate guess getting eliminated.
But who are the contestants who’ll be fighting it out for the £100,000 prize pot?
Ashvin
23 year old Ashvin is an economics graduate who says he’s been weightlifting to prepare for the game. “What scares me the most is if I left without playing to my full potential and underperforming. I would be disappointed,” he says. Bad news for you…
Ben
Ben is 42 and works as a surf school instructor in South Wales. He calls himself an inquisitive soul and wants to use the trip as a chance to relive his youth. “I have experience and am fairly capable in outdoor activities,” he says. “Being a surfer, you're used to dealing with lots of situations very quickly. A lot of my friends define me as affable. I get on with people quite well. I've just spent a few weeks in a caravan with my family so can handle confined spaces.”
Chloe-Anne
A historian by trade, 27 year old Chloe-Anne lives in Oxford and applied for the show as a way of honouring her grandmother’s memory. She says she’s not going to compromise her morals for the show, but she brings her own skills: “I’ve always been into puzzle solving and that’s the way I view history – like a huge detective puzzle of the past. It’s the kind of treasure hunt that can lead you all over the world, which is very similar to this game.”
Claire
Claire’s a retired detective sergeant from the police force. These days, at 51, she lives in West Sussex and says that the reason she’s been selected is that she’s “loud, confident, a bit rude and edgy. Because I'm retired and don't have any dependents, I can go missing for a while.”
Daren
58 year old Daren works as a cabbie in London. Yes, he’s passed The Knowledge. He has experience doing extreme challenges: he’s climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru with two other cabbies, and has rowed across the Atlantic with no nautical experience. He wants to use the cash prize to buy his wife a new kitchen.
Dawn
Dawn, 33, works as a care assistant in Derry. She says she’s been preparing for the challenge by eating junk food and says she hasn’t really been mentally prepping for it – but she is “a people person and I'm bubbly and chatty. Those skills are definitely going to help me because my geography is not. If I can befriend people and get to know them, then hopefully they'll point me in the right direction.”
Deborah
62 year old Deborah lives in Lytham and works as an aspiring crime writer – after working in IT for nearly 40 years. When asked to describe herself in one sentence, the result is: “She's a little bit bonkers, but you'd have a good night out with her.”
James
James is an e-commerce manager from Manchester. 23 years old, he’s one of the show’s youngest contestants, but says he has “an analytical and old timer head. I like to think I am quite mature and funny too.”
Josh
It’s a wonder Josh needs to go on a travel show at all: only 26, he works as a pilot. He’s keen to win the money and has lots of hidden skills – he played cello for 18 years, for instance. Plus, he’s had flight training, which includes “meteorology and navigation. I'm quite a social person as well. I've got a good mix of intelligence and sociability.”
Judith
28 year old Judith works as a nuclear engineer in Bristol. In addition to being highly skilled, she’s also very competitive and in it to win the money; “a chunk of it could be a really nice deposit. I would also help some of my family out and take some of the burden off my mother.”
Mahdi
Mahdi, 22, grew up in Tottenham and works as a content creator. He says life in the city has prepared him for the show: “I'm very aware of my surroundings which could be an advantage for me in this process. I’m very cautious and I think about what I’m about to do next.”
Nick
Cornwall-based is 35 and works as an endurance athlete: he’s run a marathon in every single country in the world, though as he says, “I do not know anything about any of the countries.” He’s ready for the endurance side of things, but “the hard element is going to be that I’m in a room with nine other characters. But it's going to be a break.”
Saskia
The 25 year old Saskia works as a marketing executive in Birmingham and describes herself as positive and bubbly. She’s looking forward to having a social media break as part of her time on the bus, but “I'm very determined and a very dedicated, devoted person. I don't like to quit so regardless of what it is I'll give 100%. Hopefully that will help me through the game.”
Destination X is streaming on BBC One and iPlayer
