Destination X: BBC’s attempt at The Traitors on wheels proves a bumpy ride

Where the X am I? As a fabled Danish prince once said, “that is the question”. The BBC’s latest reality offering, another imported concept called Destination X, sees the passengers of the X bus spirited all over Europe in a high-stakes game of Geoguessr. In the show, which has been branded an amalgamation of prior BBC juggernauts The Traitors and Race Across the World, players travel around in a blackout bus and are forced to guess where they are headed from a series of coveted clues. As they reach their pit stops, they must enter the map room and place their X. The player with the most far-flung guess is chucked out of the bus, as the hotel-on-wheels slides into gear again. Standing at the final ‘Destination X’, for just one lucky contestant, is a cash prize of £100,000.

Much like The Traitors, soon to undergo a high-budget celebrity makeover on the BBC, Destination X is rife with scheming and backstabbing, those double-dealing reality elements which viewers always gravitate towards. Again, the casting is top-notch, with this debut British series featuring the likes of 58-year-old London cabbie Darren, often an adorable emotional wreck missing his beloved ‘Jackie P’, and endurance athlete and dog-lover Nick, a crafty and extremely watchable game player who wouldn’t seem out of place at Claudia Winkleman’s Round Table. Before the show, Nick was best known for being the first and only person to run a marathon in every country on the planet – that’s 196 of them. So, he’s certainly in the running for that prize pot. His ruthless and deceptive style of play, which host Rob Brydon jokingly admits to being aroused by in one scene, makes for first-rate viewing.

The feud between Nick and 25-year-old marketing executive Saskia is certainly a classic

Reality game shows need such gently arrogant personas to get the fires brewing, and the feud between Nick and 25-year-old marketing executive Saskia is certainly a classic, complete with rage-baiting, bluffing, and backchatting at every turn. However, the one player who sent viewers into a weekly frenzy of anger on fittingly-named social media platform X was Josh, a pilot whose often rude and cocky interactions with his peers conveniently slotted him into that reality ‘villain’ slot. Whether or not the producers sculpted Josh’s image by omitting other, more humane, interactions is something we’ll never know, although it wouldn’t be the first time a narrative has been shaped for the screen.

Brydon himself is a perfectly fine host, throwing curveballs at the players with a twinkle in his eye, although perhaps lacking the enigmatic appeal which re-invented Winkleman’s popularity post-Traitors. The Would I Lie to You host plays the part of mysterious games master – the individual, like Claudia, who is fully aware of the secrets withheld on the bus and the truths warped with malicious intent.

The show’s attempt to mediate between the diverse strengths of its BBC forebears – the wonder of travelling and the allure of plots within plots – is more successful in the latter category popularised by The Traitors. Being a show built on audience engagement (a prompt for viewers to get involved and place their X periodically flashes up on screen), we are often left in the dark – much like the players in the claustrophobic, window-deprived bus – save for the odd aerial shot of the vehicle as it knocks down the hundreds of kilometres en route to its destination.

It is a show more about building trust than visiting the painterly vistas

By replicating the players’ environment, there is a quota placed on how much we are shown of the rolling hills and seas beyond the windows. If it yearns to simultaneously be a fulfilling travel show, it falls short there. Good thing it does, then, as this only moves the complex web of alliances and betrayals into the foreground. It is a show more about building trust than visiting the painterly vistas that are but pitstops on the road to the wads of cash stowed away in that briefcase. There is only one reason why 13 strangers sit on that bus whiling away the hours, and the show succeeds in building that tension between the money-lusting characters on board.

Unfortunately for those at home, however, the difficulty level of guessing the precise drop-off points is a mixed bag. The smattering of clues stowed away in secluded corners either make Destination X painfully obvious – 1965 classic The Sound of Music, it’s fair to say, gets more than its fair share of coverage in one episode – or cast us and the players adrift in a sea of red herrings, at times numbering more than the real clues themselves. The absence of a middle ground makes the whole affair quite inconsistent and frustrating at times, resulting in some keyboard warriors labelling the show as ‘dull’. Another cause for popular dissent, and rightfully so, is the way in which the programme’s higher-ups concoct excessively powerful bonus advantages for some contestants lucky enough to have already won the challenges, unfairly throwing into peril the carefully crafted games of some of the show’s more deserving contestants. It’s twists like these that scream ‘we’re running out of ideas’ – and that was painfully obvious at times.

It proves to be a loveable enough bit of telly when stuck out to the end

Looking ahead, the road for the X Bus seems uncertain. There are only so many European landmarks known to all that the bus could visit, because – let’s face it – they’ve already ticked off most of the continental big-hitters, while the format is at risk of going stale like an unwanted croissant at a Parisian café. It wouldn’t be surprising if the BBC cancelled the project, even if it was entertaining enough to warrant a second trip. The exorbitant production cost and the logistical undertaking required may prove unsustainable in comparison to the broadcaster’s other beloved stalwarts, for example Race Across the World’s simple premise of a plane ticket’s cost and a camera crew.

Destination X, however, proves that if the casting is done right, then fireworks will spark naturally among the competing recruits, dollar signs in their eager eyes. The Brydon-fronted adventure has been declared a bit of a damp squib by the major outlets’ critics (as always throwing their opinions online after just one episode), but it proves to be a loveable enough bit of telly when stuck out to the end, complete with sufficient reality politicking and game-playing to draw you back onto the road. If the BBC doesn’t get the engine running on a return trip, then at least the outbound adventure for Brydon and co. found some success, even if it never quite entered into cruise control.

Destination X is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.