umping into a turquoise infinity lake at the top of a Oaxacan mountain, Dom and his sister, Lizzie, are awestruck. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as beautiful as that in my entire life,” Dom says. “I’d have been gutted if we’d missed this.” Meanwhile, two rivals in their adventure, the married couple Jen and Robbie, are hot, sweaty and weighed down by their giant rucksacks on the outskirts of Mexico City. They have mistakenly travelled to a metro station, rather than an international bus terminal 100km (62 miles) away. “Oh my God,” fumes Jen. “Where’s the bloody bus station? We’re LOST.” Anyone who has strapped on a backpack and boarded a 6am long-haul flight will have nodded in recognition all the way through the latest series of Race Across the World (BBC Two). As the contestants soon found out, that is the thing with travel: sometimes you accidentally discover a hidden wonder of the world, other times you are sunburnt and on the edge of a breakdown at a ticketing booth. Perhaps it was this sense of holiday deja vu – alongside the heartwarming displays of kindness from strangers – that made more than 4 million people watch the five couples, unaided by smartphones or air travel, race 25,000km through Latin America. Halfway through the series’ broadcast, the Covid-19 pandemic spread rapidly, prompting most countries to lock down and suspend international travel. With each following episode, Race Across the World took on a bittersweet quality, as journeying so freely – and being within touching distance of strangers! – instantly looked as if it were from another era. While only one couple took home the £20,000 prize in Sunday’s episode (no spoilers ahead), the greater prize for all the contestants was being among the last people – for a while, at least – able to explore the world on a whim. “It’s pretty crazy watching the race back now,” says Dom, back home in the UK. Lizzie agrees: “It definitely makes it seem more epic than we ever realised before.” They add that the show – and those 28-hour bus rides – unwittingly prepared them for life in isolation: “We are both quite used to waiting now – but at least we have the comfort of our phones, TV, beds and proper meals. We’re still bickering every day, though …” Tim Harcourt, the show’s executive producer, says: “Watching the show back now, it reminds me that we all took our freedom to travel for granted. But I hope the series serves as inspiration that’s especially needed during these times. Families and young people especially are tapping into these shared experiences and discovering the world the only way they can at the moment – through exciting, adrenaline-filled travel TV.” With holidays cancelled, weddings and festivals postponed and people having no idea when they will be allowed to leave their home towns, Harcourt is right in that viewers are looking to TV to transport them across continents and cultures. Historically, travel on TV has been a form of escapism or inspiration. In the late 60s and 70s, bright, magazine-like shows such as Holiday and Wish You Were Here…? promoted the wave of cheap charter flights and package holidays in Europe. In the 00s, things shifted to reality TV competitions such as Shipwrecked and Coach Trip. These shows are broadcast alongside celebrity travelogues from stalwarts such as Michael Palin, Joanna Lumley and Billy Connolly, through to Jack Whitehall, Russell Howard and Sue Perkins. Channel 4’s successful Travel Man series – which has been running since 2015 – announced a change in presenter from Richard Ayoade to Joe Lycett last year. But with most on-location TV grounded like the airlines, what does the future hold for our armchair travels on screen? Foodie jet-setters can still torment themselves by watching the final series of The Trip – in which Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon eat in fancy restaurants around Europe, doing Marlon Brando impressions – which aired on Sky earlier this month, mid-quarantine. Josh Hyams, a producer on The Trip to Greece, is in the early stages of developing another travel series. He says: “When I watch The Trip again, it feels like glimpsing back to an easier and less complicated time. Coronavirus has rendered making a travel show like this impossible for the moment. “I hope that, once the virus has passed, we can rely on travel shows coming back as before. However, the problem will always be whether one can get insurance that covers a production for any outbreak or delays. That will determine when a show will be able to come back.” The BBC’s Pilgrimage: The Road to Istanbul also experienced a similar strange shift in world-changing events midway through transmission. But its executive producer, Caroline Matthews, believes the timing of the series’ broadcast – in which seven celebrities walked the Sultan’s Trail from Serbia to Turkey – and its theme of peaceful contemplation struck a chord with viewers in lockdown: “I saw on Twitter that quite a few people have been commenting on the mindfulness and spirituality that’s kind of been resonating with everybody at the moment because we’re going through such tough times,” she says. Matthews says they would have expected to be in the development stage for the fourth series – which films in September – but this has been put on hold. “We do have a slight advantage in that a pilgrimage is all about physical distancing and isolation by its nature.” On the issue of the need to be mindful about bringing a cast and crew into remote areas in future, she adds: “We have a skeletal crew – the minimal amount of people to deliver the show, anyway. We’re just going to have to be more creative and resourceful in how we film – splitting into smaller groups and a lot more self-shot. We always use local runners, crew and drivers, too.” Producers will no doubt be looking to the travel industry for guidance, as it tries to work out how it can function after the pandemic. Fiona Reece, the founder of the PR and content agency Travel Tonic, says: “There’s still a huge appetite for exploration, but I think, post-corona, people might feel nervous about travelling again. There’s nothing on television that really exists to give people advice on how to book, where would be safe to travel to. I think this crisis has really highlighted the need for advice on TV shows again, like we used to see with Holiday or Wish You Were Here..?” Reece believes the focus will be on UK-based holidays: “Some people will want to go back to their favourite places, such as Devon and Cornwall, but others will want to go where they can escape the crowds. I think there’s going to be much more interest in remote places, plus glamping, camping and road-tripping in camper vans to explore the British Isles.” Matthews is also looking at filming on home turf again: “When lockdown is lifted, we’ll start work on locations. At the moment, we’re looking at pilgrimages abroad and in the UK. Maybe this is where we all fall back in love with the UK again.” As for Race Across the World, plans for the first celebrity version were postponed in March, but Harcourt remains optimistic: “We haven’t started casting for the next series, but I am confident we will be ready to go as soon as travel restrictions are lifted for one of the routes we want. “Travel TV is a window on the world that awaits us all. The effort to overcome this crisis needs to be a team like those trying to win Race Across the World – we need good communication, patience, risk aversion, foresight and planning, coupled with a bit of luck.” Race Across the World: Revealed is on BBC Two on 3 May at 8pm; series’ one and two are available in full on BBC iPlayer