Part of the pairs of season 14 of Beijing Express, during the first stage tour in Uganda in March 2020. -
Patrick ROBERT / M6
M6 launches Tuesday, at 9:05 p.m., the broadcast of the fourteenth season of
Beijing Express
.
Filming, which began in March 2020, had to be suspended for several months due to the health crisis linked to Covid-19.
During the press conference, host Stéphane Rotenberg and producer Thierry Guillaume returned to the extraordinary aspect of this shoot.
20 Minutes
tells the story.
The
Beijing Express
candidates
throw themselves into each other's arms, embrace their hosts, move without hydroalcoholic gel at hand ... The first episode of the fourteenth season of M6's adventure game broadcast on Tuesday will recall "world of" before ”.
It was shot just before the Covid-19 pandemic brought the planet to a halt, last March.
However, the show was quickly caught up by the health crisis: after ten days, filming was suspended and repatriation hastily organized from Africa.
The adventure resumed at the end of the summer, on a new route.
The production will hide nothing of the vicissitudes undergone.
“It's a testimonial season,” says host Stéphane Rotenberg.
It brings together all the stresses, difficulties, joys, enthusiasms of previous editions.
»
20 Minutes
retraces this chaotic journey with the host and with Thierry Guillaume, the producer of
Pékin Express
.
March 5, 2020, filming begins
The eight pairs are on the plane that takes them to an unknown destination.
Shortly before landing, Stéphane Rotenberg reveals to them, through a video message, that the race will start in Uganda.
The excitement of the candidates is at its peak.
They will quickly learn that the journey will then pass through Ethiopia and Dubai.
They are “on the slopes of Terre Rouge”, as indicated by the subtitle chosen for this fourteenth season.
The production had concocted this course to make it the most difficult since the launch of the show.
“In Uganda, there are very few private cars, the villages are very isolated,” says Stéphane Rotenberg.
March 16, 2020, the cold shower
The third episode has just been put into a box when, thousands of kilometers away, Emmanuel Macron announces the closure of borders and airspace.
As for the filming of
Beijing Express
, it is "astonishment", says Stéphane Rotenberg.
Repatriation is inevitable.
“For us, that didn't mean just getting back on the plane but repatriating 250 tonnes of equipment and 130 people while we were lost in the mountains nine hours by car from Addis Ababa [the Ethiopian capital].
“For the candidates, it's a cold shower.
They fear that this is the end of their adventure, that their first three stages will not even be shown on TV.
April 2020, the planned recovery
“From what we heard in March, we said to ourselves that at the end of summer there would be a possible window to resume filming,” explains Thierry Guillaume.
The producer then makes the rounds of the meals: the pairs are ready to leave, they are motivated and will be able to free themselves.
It remains to rethink a route.
“The difficulty was to launch the scouting, which lasts about four months.
The authorizations, the locations, the writing… all this represents incompressible time.
"
May 2020, a new route spotted
"We feared a new closure of the airspace so we opted for a European country and another country close to the Shengen space", advances Stéphane Rotenberg.
Concretely, the race will resume in Greece, then in Turkey.
The tracking is started.
"Without knowing whether at the end of August it would still be possible," explains Thierry Guillaume.
We took the risk.
Until two or three days before the resumption of filming, we asked ourselves questions.
"
September 2020, filming resumes
The pairs still in the running meet in Greece for the filming of the rest of the season, renamed "The Route of the Three Continents".
In addition to the usual rules, there are health instructions: physical distancing, wearing of masks, tests… Hitchhiking and being hosted by locals has turned out to be more complicated.
Some have spent nights under the stars.
“There has not always been an absolute refusal,” points out Stéphane Rotenberg.
People at the table were more careful or asked candidates to sleep in the garden or in a shed.
"The host adds:" In such a context, when someone helps you and agrees to give you food and board, it seems incredible.
"
At the end of September 2020, the accident
On a Turkish road, an 82-year-old motorist loses control of his vehicle and crashes into two cars.
In the first are two
Beijing Express
candidates
, a cameraman and the driver who hitchhiked them.
In the second, another Turkish driver and two members of the production.
If, on the side of the show, everyone is unharmed, the octogenarian succumbs to his injuries in hospital a few hours later.
“It was a shock, it was very complicated to live,” says Stéphane Rotenberg.
The accident will be "briefly" mentioned during the broadcast on television, argues Thierry Guillaume because "it had repercussions on the race: a pair had to leave.
But "there will be no picture."
The two candidates repatriated to France in the process benefited from psychological follow-up.
October 2020, heatstroke in the home stretch
“A few local clusters have made us change our routes, especially stopover towns,” says the leader.
The authorities began to alert production to the risks ”.
“We were hot, confirms Thierry Guillaume.
The idea of making the final in France crossed our minds.
But the victorious pair was able to cross the finish line in Istanbul.
Looking back, the production wonders how it managed to box all the episodes.
“Despite everything, the magic of
Beijing Express still
works”, welcomes Stéphane Rotenberg, insisting on the fact that this upset filming did not only have complicated aspects.
He is enthusiastic: “We found ourselves in countries deserted by their tourists, we had the advantage of going to fabulous sites.
".
A way of saying that, more than ever, this fourteenth season will make us travel from our sofa.
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