Rumpus Media has been commissioned to produce a thirty-part series, A Week To Beat The World for CBBC.
Presented by Strictly Come Dancing celebrity contestant Karim Zeroual
and comedian Camille Ucan, the series will be stripped across six weeks and see six young sports stars on an adventure of a lifetime as they travel around the world to see if they can compete in some of the toughest, most unusual sports on the planet.
From rugby, boxing and US Football to gymnastics, sprinting and horse riding – all the kids compete at the highest level in the UK – but can they adapt to sports they have never even heard of before?
Each week focuses on one of two teams of kids – either the girls or the boys – in a different country and immersed in a new sport and culture. Sports from the series range from pitz in Guatemala , Mongolian horse riding, lion dancing in Malaysia, capoeira in Brazil, sumo in Japan and the Maasai games in Kenya.
The teams will spend the week attempting to master a new sport each week before an epic final challenge at the end of the week where they take on the locals at their own games and each of the five shows follows their five days of progress and training. This is a no holds barred introduction to the countries they visit – and they will need all their determination, focus and sporting skills to survive.
The teams will stay with local hosts and get the chance to experience cultures and environments from around the world – everything from eating goats head and tongue in Mongolia, chilli eating in Guatemala , playing in a steel band in a Brazilian favela to hand fishing in Japan.
Iain Wimbush, Joint Managing Director, Rumpus Media said: “It has been fascinating to take children who are at the top of their sporting game in the UK to different parts of the world to compete in sports they’ve never tried before. Which skills are and are not transferable? How quickly can you pick up new skills? Is a week long enough to beat the world?
Perhaps more than that it is particularly uplifting to see that no matter the cultural differences or the difference in skills, and no matter where you are in the world sport is a great force for unity and joy.’
Hugh Lawton, Commissioning Editor, BBC added: “TV has always been a window on the world for the viewers but this series opens that window wide –informing about new cultures, highly entertaining and hopefully inspiring adventure and a get up and go, active lifestyle”.
A Week To Beat The World is a 30 x 15’ series produced by Rumpus Media. Iain Wimbush is Executive Producer and it will transmit in October.
Staff Reporter
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