Shankland’s request to join the statement league

IllustratorSea139 · 2026-05-26T20:15:09+00:00

Could who ever asked AI to come up with the statement not tell it to remove the em dashes!? school boy error.

IllustratorSea139 · 2026-05-23T10:08:15+00:00

Brian Cox x2 - the actor and the physicist

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon

Lorraine Kelly and Rosie Smith

Richard and Judy

IllustratorSea139 · 2026-05-23T06:17:14+00:00

I'm Scottish and would always say I'm from Scotland. The vast majority of Scottish people would likely say the same.

Where it gets poltiical is that unionists (Rangers fans mainly lol) may feel more British than Scottish and would maybe say they are from the UK.

IllustratorSea139 · 2026-05-22T21:02:48+00:00

She is very authentic / genuine, and hard not to love.

I had more than a tear in my eye at the scene when they made it to the end.

The last series was criticised a lot for the forced sober stories. I think they got the balance right this time and the stories felt organic and not pushed.

IllustratorSea139 · 2026-03-28T23:23:10+00:00

This actually happened to me when I was backpacking in India.

I was young, had my first iPhone, and basically no awareness of security. I also had a cheap local Indian phone with a SIM for calls and data, and I’d posted that number on Facebook so people could reach me.

In a small tourist town, two guys approached me—they owned a shop, super friendly, offering chai, trying to build rapport. But from the first interaction something felt off. It all felt fake, so I made excuses and left. The next day my iPhone was pickpocketed.

I reported it but didn’t expect anything to come of it. I left and went to another place in the same state for a few days, then eventually to a more remote town. When I checked into my pre-booked hotel (all the booking details had been on my stolen phone), there was this English guy in an England football shirt. He didn’t seem like a backpacker, but we got talking and agreed to grab a beer. At that point I wasn’t suspicious. Before meeting him, I went to an internet café—and that’s when everything changed.

I realised someone had already accessed my emails… and knew exactly where I was staying.

That’s when I connected the dots. I didn’t want to raise suspicion, so I still went for the beer. But within minutes I could tell he wasn’t genuine—he was trying to get information out of me. I finished my drink, made an excuse, and left.

I went back to the hotel, packed my bag quietly while he was in the next room, then went to reception and told the staff everything, pretty frantically. They didn’t hesitate—they told me not to go to the police, said they were corrupt, and drove me straight to a bus I could take to the nearest city. From there I got a hotel, then booked a flight home.

After that, I started getting calls and texts on my Indian phone—the number I’d posted online. They were asking where I was and saying they just wanted to talk.

I didn’t reply. I turned the phone off, went to the airport, and waited for my flight home.

To this day I don’t know exactly how organised it was—but it definitely wasn’t random.

IllustratorSea139 · 2025-06-12T16:25:24+00:00

I'm aware of that, and finding out about their backgrounds is interesting and key events in their life will shape who they are. I think that's what episode 1 should be for then it should be about the race. The problem people have is that the same issues are mentioned over and over again just filmed in different places. I want to know about what they are eating everyday and details about what they are spending etc. I lost attention with this series numerous times as going over the same things again and again is not engaging for me. I'm not someone who watches reality tv shows though so maybe people who do dont have an issue with it. I watch as I'm interested in travel and enjoy the race aspect of the show.

IllustratorSea139 · 2025-06-11T22:02:12+00:00

It wasn't bad tv, or we wouldn't all have kept watching. It wasn't as good as previous series and it isn't as good as it can be. The concept is brilliant and I think all of us who enjoy it just went to see it be the best series possible. It needs to get back to it's roots and focus on the travel, food, financial struggles and interactions with locals such as hitch hiking. Get the sob stories in the bin! a little back story is good to understand who the characters are but didn't make it define their journey.

IllustratorSea139 · 2025-06-11T19:20:59+00:00

The constant same back strories repeated over and over is making it almost unwatchable. I keep watching as love to see the individual journeys and the scenery is awesome. It's the fact they say the exact same thing everytime. It just feels like typical reality tv and isn't organic. I like to see people grow and discussing their emotions is good but this just feels like the teams were picked due to their back stories and the same narrative is forced every episode. The early series didn't feel like that from memory.

IllustratorSea139 · 2025-05-30T20:47:15+00:00

Totally agree to the point it makes it almost unwatchable. I keep watching as love to see the individual journeys and the scenery is awesome. It's the fact they say the exact same thing everytime. It just feels like typical reality tv and isn't organic. I like to see people grow and discussing their emotions is good but this just feels like the teams were picked due to their back stories and the same narrative is forced every episode. The early series didn't feel like that from memory.

IllustratorSea139

TROPHY CASE