‘We’re the first in-laws ever to compete on Race Across The World’

If you could pick anyone to take on Race Across The World with, who would it be?

Bearing in mind you’ll barely leave each other’s side for two months, share a bed, share trauma, be filmed almost 24/7 and be pushed to breaking point almost every single day.

Your in-law is probably at the very bottom of that list, but for Margo and Mark, there was no one else – even though they were, by their own admission, ‘effectively strangers’.

But they’d made a promise to Mark’s late wife and Margo’s sister Julia: after she died, they would somehow find a way to close the distance between them and even become friends.

What better way to fulfil that promise than racing 12,000 miles with no phone or credit card, from Palermo, Sicily, to Hatgal, a remote village in northern Mongolia?

‘We tolerated each other’

‘It was my idea to apply,’ Margo tells Metro. ‘I want to run away from domesticity and go on an adventure. I saw Race Across The World, and it just came into my mind, “Ask Mark.”

‘It’s the maddest thing because we’re just not someone you choose to go on a holiday with, let alone this kind of thing, but I just had this feeling it was the right thing to do. I asked him, and he said yes because Julia wanted us to be friends.’

Mark says: ‘It was her last dying wish… but also I wanted to experience the excitement of Race Across The World.’

Before Julia fell ill, Mark and Margo endured 37 years without understanding each other. Julia was the glue that brought them together, and without her, they would come undone.

‘We tolerated each other,’ Margo concedes. ‘I thought he was boring and judging me.’

Mark agrees: ‘I thought you were loud.’

‘I am loud, but also I’m a bit like water off a duck’s back – you can judge me, it’s not my concern. There was very much that dynamic between us. Then we did come together [when Julia got sick], and we were both doing our jobs very well, like me bringing all the good times to Julia, and Mark the medicines, making sure she kept to the appointments. We were a great tag team, but we both had very defined roles, and on the race, it’s different.’

The discomfort they have in each other’s company very quickly becomes apparent. On the first night, Margo tucks into bed and looks over to see Mark mummified in what he calls his ‘modesty cocoon’ – an unnecessarily protective sleeping bag to ensure the distance is well maintained all through the night.

Laughing, Margo explains: ‘We didn’t really know each other, we had preconceived ideas, the first few days there was a modesty cocoon and then it just became really comfortable.’

There are few – if any – shows where you’ll get more excitement than Race Across The World, and this course looks like the most ambitious one to date. The first episode opens with a shot of the final lap: a treacherous desert of snow for the remaining teams to wade through, with the £20,000 cash prize in sight.

Not giving too much away about the adventure that will unfold over the course of eight episodes this spring, Margo insists: ‘We’re older but not old, but wait until you see – no spoilers – but there is plenty of action with the older guys.’

The perfect alibi

But for Margo, getting to the starting line was an almighty task in itself, let alone even thinking about the finish.

‘I’m a carer for my mum, she’s 95, I’ve got a family, and I’ve got my job – to actually put things in place, that was my preparation. I couldn’t really think too much about the race, we were even having things done to our house so that people could stay with her while I was away, because I’m there every day.

‘When you’re a carer, you want to have a break, and carers deserve a break, but it’s emotional and practical, so it was a massive challenge in itself to get me to the start line, but a lot of people, family and friends, came and supported me. It literally took a whole village to get me to the start line.’

But Margo’s mother proved useful when it came to her cover story. Every player has to somehow slip away from their day-to-day life, have zero contact with family or friends for the entire time, and provide a plausible explanation.

‘I told my mum I was working away, and because she’s very creative, she made up this story that I was teaching hypnotherapy in Bournemouth! If I told her the truth, she would have forgotten she couldn’t tell anybody. She’s got some cognitive decline, so she made it the story, and she was very convincing.’

Mark was fortunate his son had unknowingly provided the perfect alibi. ‘He was going to Japan to study for a year, and it just coincided with three days before we left, so it was very convenient.’

Margo and Mark are one of five teams pushing themselves to limits they didn’t know existed, competing against best friends Jo and Kush, siblings Katie and Harrison, cousins Puja and Roshni, and father and daughter Molly and Andrew.

Race Across The World returns Thursday, April 2 at 9pm on BBC One.

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