Who are Andrew and Molly? Meet Race Across the World 2026 contestants

It's time to clear your Thursday night 8pm schedules all over again as Race Across the World returns for another thrilling season on BBC One.

Tonight (2 April), audiences will be introduced to five intrepid duos as they embark on the journey of a lifetime, retracing parts of the ancient Silk Road.

Among those pairs are father and daughter duo Andrew and Molly, who were most nervous about whether or not they'd be able to do the race at all.

Molly told Radio Times: "It was more just doing well. We knew we’d get there eventually, but how was that eventually going to happen?"

As their journey begins, scroll on to find out more about the Race Across the World 2026 contestants.

Who are Andrew and Molly?

Relationship: Father and daughter

Junior doctor Molly, 23, and her father Andrew, 54 have always been close, but as Molly prepares to begin her medical career, she wants to prove to her dad that she is more capable than he gives her credit for.

Going into the race, to pair don't have much of a strategy, as they hope most of all they have the best possible time.

"We’re thinking about it all the time, but there is so much unknown. You don't know where you're going; you don’t know what to pack - all those kinds of things," Andrew told the BBC ahead of the race.

"So, I guess strategy has not been a part that we have really thought about. We just want to experience the culture and see things. We haven’t spoken about winning, it’s about the experiences, but the competitive nature is there within us which will come out when it has to."

While Molly added: "For us, winning would be second to doing it. We’re competitive by nature and we will give it 100 per cent no matter what, but if that's us coming last, or if that's us coming first, we will just do our best to do what we can. We haven't traveled like this before.

"We don't know languages so we’re maybe on the back foot in comparison to the other couples."

Why did Andrew and Molly sign up for Race Across the World?

It was Andrew's idea to sign up for Race Across the World, not thinking that they would be accepted to take part.

"I decided to fill out the form; Molly was sitting her finals and we just put the form in and expected nothing," Andrew told Radio Times. "Never in a million years thought we’d be picked."

As Molly described it, she and father joked it was "a joke gone too far", but soon they found themselves in Italy ready to take on the adventure of a lifetime.

Molly told Radio Times: "The only thing we said to each other before was we live and die by whatever call we make at that moment. There’s no ‘you said that’ or ‘that was a bad idea’."

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Race Across the World returns on Thursday 2 April at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer. Seasons 1-5 are available to watch on iPlayer.

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