Race Around the World
Encyclopedia
Race Around the World was an Australia
n 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.
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.
Olivia Rousset was the winner of the first series.
Series Producer Paige Livingston
Tony Wilson was the winner of the second series.
A youth orientated program titled "Race Around the Corner" was produced by ABC Children's Unit with students (12-16 years of age) 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:
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
series produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
in 1997 and 1998 . It was based on a Canadian(Aa) television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series.
Both seasons were hosted by Richard Fidler
Richard Fidler
Richard Fidler is a well-known Australian Republican and Australian ABC TV and radio presenter. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as a member of the Doug Anthony All Stars , an Australian musical comedy group also comprising Tim Ferguson and Paul McDermott...
, a former member of the Doug Anthony All Stars
Doug Anthony All Stars
The Doug Anthony All Stars were an Australian musical comedy group who performed together between 1984 and 1994. The band was an acoustic trio comprising Paul McDermott and Tim Ferguson on main vocals and Richard Fidler on guitar and backing vocals...
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 SafranJohn Safran
John Safran is an Australian documentary maker and radio broadcaster, known for combining humour with explorations into religion and other issues...
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
Digital video
Digital video is a type of digital recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal.The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article.- History :...
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
Sarah Macdonald
Sarah Macdonald is an Australian journalist, author and radio presenter.After completing a cadetship at ABC Radio News, Sarah worked as Triple J's political correspondent in Canberra, later hosting the Morning Show....
, Tony Squires
Tony Squires
Tony Squires is an Australian media personality, currently presenting the sport report on Seven News in Sydney. He is perhaps best known as the presenter of the comic sport news show The Fat, which ran on ABC television from 2000 to 2003....
and Sigrid Thornton
Sigrid Thornton
Sigrid Thornton is an Australian multi-award winning actress.-Early years:Thornton was born in Canberra, the daughter of Merle, a teacher of women's studies and writer, and Neil Thornton, an academic. She spent most of her formative years growing up and attending school at St. Peter's Lutheran...
, 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 SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales... - Bentley Dean from SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales... - Scott Herford from SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales... - Daniel Marsden from BrisbaneBrisbaneBrisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, QueenslandQueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean... - Olivia Rousset from PerthPerth, Western AustraliaPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Western AustraliaWestern AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east... - Claudia Rowe from Melbourne, Victoria
- John SafranJohn SafranJohn Safran is an Australian documentary maker and radio broadcaster, known for combining humour with explorations into religion and other issues...
from Melbourne, Victoria - Kim Traill from Melbourne, Victoria
Olivia Rousset was the winner of the first series.
Series Producer Paige Livingston
Racers in the second series (1998)
- Cate Anderson from Kangaroo Valley, New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
- Rachel Bannikoff from CanberraCanberraCanberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, Australian Capital TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryThe Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory... - Tim Bryson from AdelaideAdelaideAdelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, South AustraliaSouth AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland... - Sheona McKenna from Melbourne, Victoria
- David Shankey from BrisbaneBrisbaneBrisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, QueenslandQueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean... - John Thiris from SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales... - Catherine Turner from SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales... - Tony WilsonTony Wilson (Radio Presenter)Tony Wilson is a Melbourne based Australian radio and television personality, successful writer and prominent speaker. He gained notoriety as the winner of the second series of the ABC television show, Race Around the World, in 1998, and has since become somewhat of a cult figure in Melbourne...
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 Corner" was produced by ABC Children's Unit with students (12-16 years of age) making low-budget local productions in the same style as "Race Around the World".
Host Richard Fidler
Richard Fidler
Richard Fidler is a well-known Australian Republican and Australian ABC TV and radio presenter. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as a member of the Doug Anthony All Stars , an Australian musical comedy group also comprising Tim Ferguson and Paul McDermott...
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 SafranJohn SafranJohn Safran is an Australian documentary maker and radio broadcaster, known for combining humour with explorations into religion and other issues...
. 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 JaneiroRio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. - Olivia Rousset, Bentley Dean and Kim Traill have worked as reporters for the SBS program Dateline. Traill's book "Red Square Blues: A Beginner's Guide To The Decline And Fall of the Soviet Union" is due for publication by Harper Collins in September 2009.
- Scott Herford has produced three Australian independent feature films.
- Like John Safran, Tony Wilson went on to host the breakfast show on Melbourne radio station 3RRR3RRR3RRR is a popular Australian community radio station, based in Melbourne. It is the largest per capita subscribed radio station in the world....
, 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.