Five things we did in preparation for 007: Road to a Million S2

Hi everyone. This is the script for a podcast that I have released regarding our preparation for 007: Road to a Million season 2. Here are five things we did in preparation for our reality TV debut and how we prepared ourselves for all the James Bond type challenges we encountered on the show. We are team Rob & Alex and in the script below, the R and A reflects who said which line in the podcast. 

1. We studied S1 and watched it again in anticipation for something similar. 

Was it useful? 

A: Not really, obviously they didn't visit the same locations in S2. 

R: There were some amazing locations in S1 that I would have loved to have visited. 

A: Likewise, the format of the programme did change somewhat in S2, so we just had to roll with the punches and react to whatever was thrown at us. By the first mission, we were already expecting the unexpected rather than trying to predict what would happen. 

R: Thankfully we also watched loads of other competitive reality TV programmes, so we were aware of the different elements of the formats that we encountered in S2.

2. We watched the entire James Bond collection and read up on the locations. 

Was it useful? 

R: Well yes and no, as we visited some iconic locations like the Sinn Sathorn tower in Bangkok, Prater Park in Vienna and Mexico City. We have absolutely no idea where they were going to send us, they don't tell us in advance, we literally find out when we arrive at the airport and get our boarding passes.

A: Recognizing the locations gave us a good sense of what to expect when we arrived on site, but bear in mind there are 25 films in the official James Bond Series so we learned about a lot of different locations, most of which were not relevant at all to what we did on RTAM S2. 

R: But of course, this is very similar to studying for any kind of exam where you have no idea what you're going to be tested on, all you know is that it will come from somewhere on the curriculum. 

A: I did manage to remember some of the names of the locations in Mexico City like Teatro Fru Fru, which proved to be helpful to our teams. But there was just so much in 25 films, I felt like it was like reading 25 Shakespeare plays for an English literature exam not knowing what you may be tested on - there's only so much information your brain can realistically retain.  And it is not an open book exam, it's not like I could just take out my phone mid-task and start googling the details - we didn't have access to our phones or the internet during the entire process. 

R: We are both big James Bond fans of course, so that was a fun process for us! 

3. I did a crash course in many languages in preparation for a possible scenario where we had to interact with the locals. 

R: Was it useful? This is really more for you Alex. 

A: Not at all. You would've heard me struggling on in Thai in Bangkok but I never claimed to speak Thai. I did a crash course in Thai when I knew I was going to be RTAM, but at the same time, I was also studying loads of other languages like Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Vietnamese, Turkish and this was all based on the possible locations that we could visit. So on top of studying all the Bond films, I was studying like 7 languages that I don't speak at the same time. Sometimes I got lucky: I already speak German quite well and that was just a happy coincidence that we were sent to a German speaking country. The same thing with Mexico, I'm totally fluent in Spanish as well. 

R: When we were in the Bahamas, that was an English speaking country. 

A: So learning Thai for example didn't give me any advantage since it was impossible to master more than just the basics in Thai when I was simultaneously learning so many languages and the languages that did come in very useful like German and Spanish, I have already learnt many years ago. But as Rob said, we have no idea where we were going, like they didn't tell me in advance, we are going to Thailand, then I would've focused on learning Thai and not have bothered learning anything else, but without knowing what they had in store for us, it was impossible to learn everything which covered all the possible locations taken from the James Bond films. 

4. We started doing a lot of puzzles everyday. 

Was it useful? 

A: Sort of. We realized from watching S1 that there was an element of solving puzzles and fair enough, we definitely encountered some of that. 

R: And whilst every puzzle is different and unique, having done loads of puzzles in the past doesn't necessarily prepare you for the next one you see but it does give you the confidence to know you will be able to do it. 

A: Some were easier than others and often it depended on staying calm under pressure. 

5. We worked really hard to get fitter, improve our fitness. 

Was it useful? 

A: Oh yes definitely. Most missions were quite physical - you could see that when I started climbing up that antena in Bangkok, I was enthusiastic and cheering myself on. But by the time I was up there for a while trying to solve the puzzle, I was so exhausted. In Vienna, there was a lot of running around Prater Park as it was a huge place and the more time we could save by running from one location to another, the more time we had on the clock to diffuse the bomb at the end. 

R: You were spared the running in Mexico City but Dylan and I did an insane amount of running there and in the Bahamas, there was so much swimming so all in all, if we were not already in good physical shape, then we would've been in trouble. 

A: We do plenty to stay fit anyway - Rob swims a lot and I train gymnastics about 5 times a week. 

So which one of these five things was most useful?

R: Probably the last one, being physically fit. I think it is the most obvious aspect to prepare for and the missions are already very difficult, we wouldn't want our lack of fitness to hold us back when we were racing against the clock. 

A: Everything else we encountered was a bit random and we had no idea what we would be tested on but there would usually be a physical element to the missions.

R: Oh yeah, totally. That's so true. 

In hindsight, would there be something else you wish you had done? 

A: Not really, psychologically I think it was good to do some preparation just to feel ready - at least we were showing up at the starting line feeling like we had done a lot of preparation. 

R: Whether or not that preparation was useful or not is a moot point - it gave us the feeling of feeling prepared and boosted our confidence. I would have felt a lot more nervous if I had done absolutely nothing to prepare myself for this. 

How did we find the time to do all that preparation? 

A: We are both self-employed, we run our own companies and businesses, we are only accountable to ourselves, I run my own corporate finance consultancy and I get to pick and choose my own projects. 

R: So we chose to prioritize our preparation for RTAM in 2024 and we pretty much made it our full time job in the second half of 2024 whilst just doing enough on the side to keep our own businesses ticking over. The moment we finished filming each episode, we went right back to running our own businesses and we're grateful to have had the opportunity.