Race Around the World

"Race Around the World" was an Australian documentary series produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1997 and 1998 . It was based on a Canadian(Aa) television series.

Both seasons were hosted by Richard Fidler, a former member of the Doug Anthony All Stars comedy group.

Premise

For each series, eight "racers" were selected from video auditions from the Australian general public. The only stipulation for the video auditions was a lead in of ten seconds of black. John Safran submitted his audition with ten seconds of yellow. The successful applicants undertook a brief course in documentary film-making, before deciding on an itinerary for their journey around the world. They were then given a digital video camera, and sent to their first destination.

Over the next 100 days, the racers were required to devise, arrange and film a series of ten four-minute documentary films, as well as a stand-by documentary and five "postcards". This gave them ten days to travel to their next destination, film the video, and send it back to the ABC in Sydney with detailed editing instructions.

The series was broadcast as a weekly half-hour program, with four films shown per episode. Each film was then judged by a panel of three media and film experts including Sarah Macdonald, Tony Squires and Sigrid Thornton, as well as being put to a popular viewer vote. Points were deducted for late submissions.

Racers in the first series (1997)

* Ben Davies from Sydney, New South Wales
* Bentley Dean from Sydney, New South Wales
* Scott Herford from Sydney, New South Wales
* Daniel Marsden from Brisbane, Queensland
* Olivia Rousset from Perth, Western Australia
* Claudia Rowe from Melbourne, Victoria
* John Safran from Melbourne, Victoria
* Kim Traill from Melbourne, Victoria

Olivia Rousset was the winner of the first series.

Racers in the second series (1998)

* Cate Anderson from Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales
* Rachel Bannikoff from Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
* Tim Bryson from Adelaide, South Australia
* Sheona McKenna from Melbourne, Victoria
* David Shankey from Brisbane, Queensland
* John Thiris from Sydney, New South Wales
* Catherine Turner from Sydney, New South Wales
* Tony Wilson from Melbourne, Victoria

Tony Wilson was the winner of the second series.

After the Race

Although receiving fairly high ratings for its timeslot, "Race Around the World" was a considerable logistical and financial drain on the publicly-funded ABC. In 2000, the series was scaled down into a local version restricted to the Australian continent, entitled "Race Around Oz".A youth orientated program titled "Race Around the Block" was also trialled on ABC with students making low-budget local productions in the same style as "Race Around the World".

Host Richard Fidler undertook a few more television hosting gigs, including the short-lived ABC art and culture chat program "Vulture".

Most of the racers from the series went on to pursue careers in media and film-making:

* Perhaps the biggest success story amongst the racers has been that of the controversial John Safran. Safran actually came last on the first series (won by Olivia Rousset), despite winning the popular vote. The reason for this was that Safran had been disqualified from one round after submitting a film in which he had covertly filmed priests giving confession in Rio de Janeiro. Safran filmed a pilot for a comedy series to be aired on the ABC, but the series was axed. This happened because Safran filmed a piece that aimed to give A Current Affair host, Ray Martin, a dose of his own medicine by filming outside his house and going through his garbage, and Martin was so horrified by the experience that he made sure that Safran's show would never come to be Fact|date=May 2007. He later made a two comedy documentary series for SBS: "John Safran's Music Jamboree" (partly directed by fellow "Racer" Olivia Rousset), "John Safran vs God" which received cult followings, as well as the show Speaking in Tongues.
* Olivia Rousset, Bentley Dean and Kim Traill are reporters for the SBS program "Dateline".
* Like John Safran, Tony Wilson went on to host the breakfast show on Melbourne radio station 3RRR, and has written a novel called "Players" (ISBN 1-920885-58-7).
* During the first series, the initial nine contestants was reduced to eight as young Melbourne contender Alex Musgrove was forced to withdraw due to an extensive toe surgery.

External links

* [http://www.abc.net.au/tv/race98/ "Race Around the World" website (ABC TV)]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165439/combined "Race Around the World" at IMDB]