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AA 19-year-old girl named Kush Burman is thinking about her relationship with her best friend, Jo Diop.
“I think it’s only in the last few days that I’ve realized that I enjoy having Jo here,” she says, tears welling up in her eyes. “I really appreciate that Jo always takes care of me in some way.” I don’t think Jo would understand, like, the difference.
“I mean, yeah, he’s my best friend.”
The two lads from Liverpool, the BBC’s latest stars Run Around the Worldwhich ended this week, originally described their tour as a final “side quest” before they move on to senior life.
Yet as he rode buses, taxis and sometimes ran from Sicily to Mongolia, he unknowingly opened up his own adventure. Their openness and unwavering support for each other has made their friendship a solution to the conflict about dangerous masculinity.
The two’s kindness also confirmed the quality of the high-profile television show, at odds with the conflict and brutality that has become the hallmark of many television shows.
Catching that sensational item, however, came at the end of a grueling process involving five couples who embarked on a 7,500-mile (12,000km) journey – including background checks, interviews and meetings.
Designers cast their net over the generations and search for the smallest details of the relationships of thousands of people who want to travel.
“Producers are really looking for that little story that makes them different – and honestly, that’s a big challenge,” said Fatima Salaria, an executive producer who has worked on shows like The Apprentice.
“The show is a real competition, but what you see are these beautiful relationships, personal growth and meeting strangers.
Another TV personality said that, in a world full of negative news, broadcasters want “the best TV”.
“There’s never been enough excitement, comedy television is being commissioned for a while, then when things come along, everyone loves them,” said Ben Wicks, managing director at Expectation TV, which has recently commissioned such hit shows as The Dyers’ Caravan Park.
“The joy of doing things in the real world in this way is not only do you get to tell stories that don’t get told anywhere on television—the stories of the working class that get ignored—you get to do it in a really interesting way.”
Race Around the World also finds couples who want to embrace the trend without the lust for fame that comes with other races. And once the actors are in place, the key to unlocking the show’s personality is to let the cameras roll.
“Happiness comes from seeing people being themselves,” said Michelle Singer, executive producer of The Assemblya popular show in which neurodivergent audiences ask the most obscure questions. He has also been praised for his big heart.
In all these programs, Singer said, there was “a time and place to listen to each other and enjoy being together”.
In the most recent series of Race Across the World, it was Jo and Kush who drew the biggest audience. After a rough start, they eventually found their sports shoes to be a contender until the end.
The personalities of the two could not be more different. Kush talks about her constant struggle with anxiety and talks about how her father’s death got to her, while Zen-like Jo knows when to let her friend out and when to try to cheer her up.
There are tender moments, like Kush thanking Jo for being with him when he struggles to make up his mind. In Turkey, Kush sees a basketball court – the perfect place for Jo to get distracted. He said: “I can tell Jo.”
Whether he won or not, for those who haven’t seen it, is a question that will be well answered BBC iPlayer.
For MPs who have fought to show good male role models, the duo and the show have been very inspiring.
Jess Phillips, a former defense minister, said: “I’m a mother of two boys and this is my experience of boys’ relationships – we don’t see enough of them.
“There are bad people we have to worry about, but men and boys need to see this, which is like their real life. Being kind and taking care of each other – that’s true manhood.”
Amanda Martin, co-chair of Labour’s parliamentary group and mother of three sons, added: “That’s the friendship of the ‘boys’: it’s real support, not weakness. Representation is important.
