There was a moment early on in the new season of Race Across The World that made me wonder if it was all a bit more planned than the makers want us to believe.
I mean, there has always been some cheeky editing in the show, making it look as if people are rushing towards the next checkpoint at the same time from different angles, when, as later becomes clear, they were actually six hours apart.
But when this year’s teams, having all met in Palermo and learned together where they were racing to (and none of them knew where it was), it did feel slightly suspicious that they all shambled off in different directions for no obvious reason, and there happened to be a camera waiting for them all.
Still, it was a properly daunting challenge: make it all the way (on about £23 each per day) to Hatgal in Mongolia. None had ever heard of it. Take it one step at a time, though: the first target was Fiskardo. Nobody had heard of that either.
Asking people in the streets where it was wasn’t always helpful: everyone assumed it was somewhere nearby, but it turned out to be on Kefalonia, with two stretches of Mediterranean and the whole Italian mainland between them and it. Good to know, though; races are at least easier when you know what direction to run in.
This year’s pairs are, as usual for this series, chosen for audience interest rather than vexation; among them are a couple of young Scouse men who think everything is going to be too easy, that all they have to do is rely on their charm, but who have already learned a lesson or two; and there’s quiet, retired architect Mark and Margo, who at first seems annoyingly bubbly until you learn they are there together because of Margo’s sisterMark’s wife, whose dying wish was that they become friends; and there’s even a bit of local interest in father-and-daughter contestants Andrew and Molly, who’ve come from Derry to spend time together and allow Andrew to make good on a lifelong wish to travel more.
Any of them might win, but mostly that doesn’t even feel like the point; there’s one moment here when one pair helps another out, and several where they just take time out to explore.
You probably won’t even care who’s winning, you’ll just enjoy seeing new places, and watching people having even more stress in their travels than you do, but (usually) working it out with wit and a bit of kindness.
Both of which set this reliably warm adventuring far apart from most “reality TV” shows.
Pilgrimage: The Road To Holy Island, BBC1, Sunday, 9pm
BBC’s Easter series Pilgrimage has also, despite our initial celebrity-aversion, turned out to be a kinder and more thoughtful programme than it could have been.
Still, the new series, in which a group of footsore TV types walk together towards Lindisfarne, looked a little bit less intriguing than usual, with recognisable celebrities Ashley Banjo, Jayne Middlemiss and Patsy Kensit matched by the less familiar Tasha Ghouri, Hasan Al-Habib, and Ashley Blaker.
But there’s an interesting (and potentially fractious) mix of beliefs there, and the route, one of the most important pilgrimages in Britain, takes in Northumberland and the Scottish Borders and a range of old sites.
It’s not necessarily profound, aside from a few reflective moments; if anything Al-Habib’s presence pushes it further towards comedy than usual (not terribly funny, but he explains where that comes from in his personality).
Your main question might be if Patsy Kensit is all right. She was never a convincing actor, but there seems to be something genuinely amiss with her speech: her tone never alters, never sounds interested, and her facial expressions are equally limited, so it feels vaguely uncomfortable whenever the attention is on her.
Mostly, though, everyone taking part is interested in the others, and nobody has been trying to hog the conversation. So if it never gets to the peaks or dark valleys of faith, it remains a pleasant enough springtime stroll through its foothills.
Homicide: New York, Netflix
Also returning was Netflix’s Homicide, the glossy crime series from producer Dick Wolf; and while Netflix might tell us this is the second season of ‘Homicide New York’, you might just think of it as the third series of ‘Homicide’, following previous seasons in Los Angeles and, yes, New York. It’s the same well-staged study as before, the interviewees (mainly the cops involved, and the family and friends of the victims) reciting stories they have clearly told before, perfectly framed in tightly-controlled lighting (dark blue backgrounds, warm skin tones).
This time there seems to be a focus on high-wealth, high-rise cases, perhaps even with a tinge of celebrity; the first, episode, for example, examines the 2016 death of Joey Comunale, and involved one Jimmy Rackover, the arrogant sort-of-adopted son of the wealthy “jeweller to the stars” Jeffrey Rackover.
It’s very slick and clearly on the side of the police, and with one episode per story surely some nuances are missed; but it’s still an effective bit of storytelling, with lucid explanations and some surprising details about each case. And that one-episode-per-story format at least gets to the point quickly.
Are You Autistic? VM1, Thursday, 9pm
VM1 screened a film called Are You Autistic, which had a vaguely challenging title, but which was far more involving than I expected.
Broadly, it caught up on recent research into autism as the numbers of people with some kind of autism diagnosis has grown, but it also makes a point of challenging the old stereotype of most autistic people being males obsessed with maths.
In fact, as presenter (and NHS GP) Dr Claire Taylor shows us, there are a few key factors (some social difficulty is common), but a wide range of experiences. Many of them are beneficial too, and not just in a Hollywood ‘A Beautiful Mind’ kind of way.
One section I found particularly fascinating was an auditory test that illustrated the sensory overload some people feel: some autistic people take in a much wider range of information from, for example, a room where several conversations are happening, which is an advantage in some situations; but equally they may struggle to focus on a single voice or other sound, so that busy environments can be utterly exhausting.
I must admit I found myself thinking back to so many pubs, shops, TV debates, and unfathomably shattering work meetings where I could hear everything all at once but could follow nothing.
You might have learned something yourself to make you reconsider, which I suppose is the point of that title.
Taylor herself has a similar experience, and part of the value is in watching her learning about her own personality and catching up on information not available 20 years ago when she qualified as a GP.
We could all do with more shows like this, about a range of mental and physical health issues.