Worlds Apart is a new Channel 4 gameshow that takes place in Japan, a place I want to visit, having seen a zillion videos about just how stunning and well-behaved it is, especially in comparison to the UK.
It features 6 young Brits who’ve rarely gone abroad before, who’ve been paired with pensioners who thought they’d never travel again (hence ‘Worlds Apart’). They’ll take on challenges, go on a treasure hunt and win coins. The person with the most will win a stack of cash, but either way, they get an incredible holiday!
The first task is to “Look for a place to go when you’re caught short“, with one pensioner finds a toilet with frosted windows. Meanwhile, 73-year-old Tony and much younger Emma go for an 8-course tasting menu as their first foray into learning about Japanese culture. However, I note that they can BOTH easily use chopsticks. I can’t!
Still, this experience gives them clues to looking for items they’ve eaten in the local flea market, such as finding a bowl from which they ate one of the items.
Elsewhere, Rosie and Lawrence, have to match five electronic devices to their year of release, namely: Nintendo Gameboy, 35mm camera, Tamagotchi, portable CD player and Nintendo Wii. I could do this, but if you’re closer to 70 or 20, you might not, as you fall either side of those release windows.
I also liked the challenge of separating a number of Buddhist proverbs from movie quotes, the latter including “With great power comes great responsibility“, from the many Spider-Man movies.
And for another pairing, for Aaron, a sushi restaurant is certainly a world away from KFC and Burger King!
That said, there are some challenges which I wouldn’t be able to figure out, and for the couple who have the least amount of coins at the end of each city challenge, they’ll be eliminated, so it’s an early dart for someone!
Overall, Worlds Apart can be quite fun at times, and this also includes a trip to the stunning consumer hub of Shibuya, but while I know the opener has to show each pairing meeting up, it does feel like it slows the pace down, so while it looks amazing, I hope future episodes speed things up a bit.
Worlds Apart continues next Tuesday on Channel 4 at 9.15pm, and will be on All 4.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Cert: 
Running time: 45 minutes per episode
Release date: October 7th 2025
Channel: Channel 4
Format: 1.78:1
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.