As Race Across The World reaches its gripping climax, how the show turned into a very emotional journey for a pop star and his mum

Should you happen to have been passing through a bus station in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh towards the end of last year, you may have recognised a member of a popular boy band looking exasperated as he scanned the concourse for his mum.

Emma Judd — 63-year-old mother of McFly drummer Harry — was nowhere to be seen, having disappeared to buy some water. And, having gone to find her, the duo then missed their bus.

At the time, mother and son were starting out on the celebrity version of the TV series Race Across The World, which sees teams of two undertake a 10,000 km land race from Africa to the Arctic, with a limited budget (only topped up if they work along the way) and no technology to navigate the way.

It’s safe to say that few of the 2.6 million viewers who watched the first episode would have put money on the pair doing well in the competition: on their first leg from Marrakesh to the Portuguese town of Pinhao, they came in last, almost a day behind the others.

The doubters included 37-year-old Harry himself, who admits — in a statement that will resonate with any number of mothers whose life skills have been taken for granted over the years — that he ‘underestimated’ his mum.

KATHRYN KNIGHT: Emma Judd — 63-year-old mother of McFly drummer Harry — was nowhere to be seen, having disappeared to buy some water. And, having gone to find her, the duo then missed their bus

Mother and pop star son have come first in several of the competition’s legs, to the astonishment of their fellow competitors, which include All Saints singer Melanie Blatt and mum Helene

Shame on us all! For over the last few episodes in this compulsive BBC1 show we have seen retired nurse and force of nature Emma uncomplainingly (arthritis be damned!) jogging up hills with her wheelie case, bedding down on grubby ferry corridors, and wielding mops to top up their funds.

Mother and pop star son have come first in several of the competition’s legs, to the astonishment of their fellow competitors, which include All Saints singer Melanie Blatt and mum Helene.

Yet just as compelling as the race against the clock has been watching the mother-son dynamic of Emma and her youngest son Harry who, as she candidly admits, pretty much broke her heart when he left home at 17 to join McFly and never came back.

In a series of epic train and bus journeys — and bonding over cross-stitch — we see them catch up on lost time.

It would be a granite-hearted viewer who did not experience a moistened eye as the likeable, thoughtful Harry describes how he hid his battle with anxiety in his early 20s as he didn’t want to let his mum down. Or as his mother talks about the grief of unexpectedly losing her brother Mark in a car accident.

They’re chatting to me today ahead of tonight’s final — about which they remain tight-lipped — and have an easy and affectionate rapport.

Both say that while, on paper, a backpacking trip is not the most obvious holiday choice for a 60-something mother and her 37-year-old son, they both leapt at the chance to do it.

‘Obviously I see Mum a lot, she’s a lovely grandma to my children, but when I’m with her usually she still goes into Mum mode, cooking and getting the Hoover out. We still have nice chats, but everything is rushed, isn’t it?,’ Harry says, turning to her.

Along with older sister Katherine and brother Thomas, Harry was raised in middle-class comfort in Suffolk by Emma and his dad Christopher, who worked in the City.

When some school friends had lost the drummer in their band, he joined them, and before long had been persuaded to audition for a new band in London.

‘I thought that sounded quite exciting, but going to London meant missing my cricket match,’ he recalls now. ‘I called Mum and asked if that was OK.’

‘Actually,’ Emma interjects, raising an eyebrow, ‘You told me cricket was cancelled.’

Either way, she said yes, and smiles as she recalls telling Harry’s father what he was up to. ‘He said, ‘why not, nothing will come of it’.’

Emma admits that Harry, her youngest son, pretty much broke her heart when he left home at 17 to join McFly and never came back

Not quite: instead, Harry was offered a place in the band — much to his parents’ dismay.

‘They basically told me to go back to school, and I remember saying they couldn’t stop me, and if they did, I would never forgive them,’ Harry recalls. ‘Two weeks later, Dad was driving me to London.’

Emma sobbed her way through her son’s first big gig at Wembley.

‘I was so proud — that was my boy up there, but I missed him so much,’ she says.

Today, a father of three himself — Harry has Lola, seven; Kit, five; and two-year-old Lockie with Izzy, his musician and mindfulness practitioner wife of 11 years — he admits it is only now that he understands how his mother felt.

‘At the time I was like ‘see ya’. I couldn’t understand why Mum was so emotional,’ he says.

He wasn’t the best at keeping in touch either. ‘I got nothing,’ says Emma, wryly. ‘There was no communication at all.’

Tough as it was for Emma, Harry’s departure proved to be the start of a stellar career. McFly subsequently beat The Beatles for the Guinness World Record of youngest band to reach No 1. Yet, as Harry admits, fame is a mixed blessing.

‘It’s strange, because growing up, I loved the attention, I wanted attention,’ he says. ‘But, as an adult, suddenly it’s different.’

Until their marathon voyage, Emma was unaware that Harry had struggled to cope with being in the public eye, drinking too much and taking too many drugs (he now does not indulge in either, and hasn’t for many years).

It is at this point that he confides he didn’t want to worry her.

‘You could never let me down,’ Emma tells him reaching for his hand, later telling the cameras that her son’s consideration for her feelings left her feeling ‘truly loved’.

‘What I loved most was what the camera didn’t show — ten-hour bus journeys just talking about life with Mum,’ says Harry. ‘I really enjoyed talking about her childhood.’

Much of this chat is done over diligent cross-stitch: McFly fans might have been surprised to see Harry expertly wielding a needle and thread over a piece of tapestry during filming, but it turns out he’s a convert to this niche pastime.

‘Mum does one every year and brought one along for me to help pass the time,’ he recalls. ‘Obviously I said ‘no thanks’ at first, but then I thought ‘why not?’ and was just completely hooked. It was incredibly therapeutic.’

Until their marathon voyage, Emma was unaware that Harry had struggled to cope with being in the public eye, drinking too much and taking too many drugs

Harry says he was overwhelmed by the fortitude of a woman whom he knows for the past 11 years, has struggled with the arthritis.

‘But it was often Mum saying ‘we’re not forking out for a room; we’ll sleep on the floor’,’ he says.

For her own part, Emma has loved regaining her youthful confidence. As good as her word, she has just returned from a trip to France, and is off to India next month.

‘Mum’s never wanted celebrity or fame, but what’s been nice is seeing the impact Mum’s had on people’ Harry says. ‘They love her energy. And so do I.’

n The final episode of Celebrity Race Across The World is on BBC1 tonight at 9pm. Catch up with the rest of the series on BBC iPlayer.

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