Ages: Brian is 62 and Melvyn is 65
Relationship: Brothers
Jobs: Brian is a retired financial advisor, Melvyn is a driving instructor
Why Race Across The World?
Melvyn: "I saw the first series and thought 'I could do that', and it was as simple as that, and then I thought 'who would I want to do it with?' And that was Brian. We want to create some new memories."
Brian: "I watched the first series and thought 'this will be fun, exciting, and an adventure with an opportunity for us both to meet up', because we don't meet up that regularly at home, and spend a bit of quality time with each other, as we used to do when we were kids. It was an excuse to get together, and relive some of our old adventures when we were teenagers and young children."
Do you have a strategy?
Brian: "I suppose when we were looking at it, we thought we would plan this and plan that, and plan the other, but our strategies have basically gone out of the window, because we can't plan for anything any longer. We didn't know we would be going to China. I wanted to go to the Amazon but I think it's a long way to get there from China! The strategy is that we don't want to be kicked out first, because my children wouldn't let me live it down."
Melvyn: "The other worry from our families at home is that we shouldn't embarrass them. So we're going to go all out to embarrass them."
Brian: "We get on but we'll have a few arguments and a few discussions on the way. I've never spent eight, nine weeks with Melvyn."
Melvyn: "We've never spent that amount of time together. We used to spend two or three weeks together, fishing and that kind of stuff. But not only have we not spent this amount of time together as adults, we've never spent this much time away from our partners either. I've been married 44 years, Brian's been married 38 years, so thats a big wrench for us."
Will you be calm under pressure?
Melvyn: "I'm pretty chilled during something like that. Let the crisis go, let it take its course. Then stop, stand back, look."
Brian: "I don't mind managing crisis. I'm used to that in my working life. When situations develop, you've got to manage it, but I don't think I'll be able to manage it and control it and move it on this race. You can't just buy your way out of it. If you've got a crisis, you pick up the phone and sort it out."
What's your partner's most annoying habit?
Brian: "Melvyn talks very loudly and non-stop. I think he's getting to know when I've had enough because I'll just wander off. I also have to repeat myself four or five times which is annoying."
Race Across The World airs Wednesdays at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
Neil Wilkes
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