{"id":20909,"date":"2024-02-16T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T14:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2024-02-16T10:52:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T15:52:35","slug":"bbc-two-unveils-cast-of-pilgrimage-season-six","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/bbc-two-unveils-cast-of-pilgrimage-season-six\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Two Unveils Cast of Pilgrimage Season Six"},"content":{"rendered":"

The seven celebrity cast members of the sixth season of BBC Two\u2019s Pilgrimage<\/em>, tentatively titled Pilgrimage: The Road to Wild Wales<\/em>, have been unveiled.<\/p>\n

Taking part in a journey along a route that celebrates early Celtic Christian saints are wildlife presenter Michaela Strachan, former reality TV star Spencer Matthews, journalist and TV presenter Sonali Shah, comedian Eshaan Akbar, The Traitors<\/em>\u2019 Amanda Lovett, actor Tom Rosenthal and TV personality and former model Christine McGuinness.<\/p>\n

They all have varying levels of faith and spirituality. Strachan places her faith in the natural world. Matthews was christened in the Church of England but is still searching for answers to life\u2019s big question. Shah was raised in a Jain household. Akbar is a lapsed Muslim. Lovett is a practicing Catholic. Rosenthal calls himself \u201careligious.\u201d And McGuinness considers herself spiritual but doesn\u2019t practice one particular faith.<\/p>\n

The seven pilgrims will follow the North Wales Pilgrim\u2019s Way, created in 2011, which is linked by ancient churches dedicated to sixth- and seventh-century saints but also takes pilgrims through places of natural beauty in the mountain ranges of Eryri and the North Wales coast.<\/p>\n

The pilgrims will travel for two weeks on foot and by bus, starting their 220-kilometer journey at Flint Castle on the bank of the Dee Estuary and following the coastal path to Greenfield Valley and the official start of the pilgrim way. They will then face challenging paths and climbs as they tackle the foothills of mountain ranges in North Wales and take on England and Wales\u2019 highest peak, Yr Wydffa. They\u2019ll sleep in basic accommodations, from a caravan to a climbers\u2019 hut.<\/p>\n

Their final destination is Bardsey Island, or Ynys Enlli, a popular destination among early Christian monks and hermits, who belied it was the end of the world and a place where the distance between heaven and Earth becomes intangible and thus a place of guaranteed resurrection.<\/p>\n

The 3×60-minute season is produced by CTVC. The seven pilgrims each commented on why they chose to join the pilgrimage.<\/p>\n

\u201cA pilgrimage is when you walk and sleep on church floors and eat dead rats and stuff, which I\u2019m looking forward to,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cI\u2019d be pretty low in the faith knowledge bracket, but I\u2019m on a quest to broaden my knowledge and religious horizons. I\u2019m an open mind, an open book. I want to learn about different faiths, cultures and religions and develop a firm understanding of my faith and how it can potentially play a larger role in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSince my autism diagnosis, it\u2019s really made me want to grab opportunities with both hands,\u201d explained McGuinness. \u201cI want to say yes to more things, things that I would always say no to, because I find socializing quite awkward. I don\u2019t really like being pushed out of my comfort zone , but I\u2019m realizing more and more that I want to live, I want to do more things, I want to have good memories, I want to make friends, I want to learn more about other people, and the only way I can do that is by pushing myself a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strachan commented, \u201cI think this pilgrimage is going to be really good for me. These days we all tend to live busy, complicated lives, and what I love about walking is all you\u2019ve got to think about is putting one foot in front of the other. I find it very cathartic; it\u2019s my form of meditation. There\u2019s a simplicity to just walking. Walking, thinking, taking time to connect with nature. I guess that\u2019s my form of spiritual engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say that if you go on a pilgrimage, there\u2019s a hope that by the end of it there will have been some sort of realization, so I\u2019m looking forward to finding mine,\u201d Lovett said. \u201cI do have a strong Catholic faith. I still pray, and I believe there\u2019s an afterlife, but I\u2019m excited to explore other people\u2019s faiths and religions and how they view life. I\u2019ve always been the mum, the gran, the worker, and I sort of forgot about me. I\u2019ve done school runs for 32 years, and I\u2019ve found my time now. I\u2019m looking forward to learning about myself, digging deep and processing and seeing how I\u2019ll evolve in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy am I doing this pilgrimage? I\u2019ll be honest, I think it\u2019ll be fun, believe it or not,\u201d Akbar said. \u201cI\u2019m not a great fan of walking without a purpose; I don\u2019t like hikes, I don\u2019t like going up and down different types of terrain, I don\u2019t like sleeping in uncomfortable situations. My immigrant parents worked way too hard for me to start fetishizing poverty by choosing to make my life too difficult. I\u2019m really looking forward to the experience, but I can\u2019t promise that I won\u2019t moan for most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shah explained, \u201cIt felt like the opportunity of going on a pilgrimage like this came at the right time in my life. I grew up in a liberal Jain, East Africa-Indian household in Northwest London, where faith, race and culture were very intertwined. While I have always been comfortable with who I am and the way I live, in recent years, with my kids asking more questions, I realized that using the word agnostic hasn\u2019t been quite right. I was also curious about what, if anything, I could add to the party as someone who was born into a faith that many people have never heard of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested by anybody with any thoughts as to what it is we are all doing here,\u201d added Rosenthal. \u201cIt\u2019s fairly confusing, and if I spend all my time watching Arsenal and the The Traitors<\/em>, I\u2019m never going to find out. Dedicating myself to a pilgrimage for two weeks is a wonderful opportunity to reflect upon my spirituality and to make a TV show my grandmother will actually enjoy watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daisy Scalchi, BBC\u2019s head of religion and ethics for television, commented, \u201cPilgrimage<\/em> is a series like no other, getting into the heart and soul of who we are and what makes life meaningful. All seven pilgrims embraced the journey wholeheartedly, with extraordinary honesty and generosity toward one another. It\u2019s inspiring and thought-provoking to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the strongest series we\u2019ve ever made\u2014the pilgrims immersed themselves fully in the experience with extraordinary results,\u201d added Caroline Matthews, executive producer and CEO at CTVC. \u201cI echo what Christine said: Pilgrimage<\/em> has been insane!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The seven celebrity cast members of the sixth season of BBC Two\u2019s Pilgrimage, tentatively titled Pilgrimage: The Road to Wild Wales, have been unveiled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":20910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[9076,699,9077,9078,9079,9080,9081,9082,9083,9084,9085,9086,9087],"class_list":["post-20909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-amanda-lovett","tag-bbc-two","tag-caroline-matthews","tag-christine-mcguinness","tag-ctvc","tag-daisy-scalchi","tag-eshaan-akbar","tag-michaela-strachan","tag-pilgrimage","tag-pilgrimage-the-road-to-wild-wales","tag-sonali-shah","tag-spencer-matthews","tag-tom-rosenthal","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nBBC Two Unveils Cast of Pilgrimage Season Six - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/bbc-two-unveils-cast-of-pilgrimage-season-six\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BBC Two Unveils Cast of Pilgrimage Season Six - TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The seven celebrity cast members of the sixth season of BBC Two\u2019s Pilgrimage, tentatively titled Pilgrimage: The Road to Wild Wales, have been unveiled.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/bbc-two-unveils-cast-of-pilgrimage-season-six\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-16T14:00:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-16T15:52:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2017\/07\/BBCTwo-PilgrimageTheRoadtoWildWales-0224.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/bbc-two-unveils-cast-of-pilgrimage-season-six\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/bbc-two-unveils-cast-of-pilgrimage-season-six\/\",\"name\":\"BBC Two Unveils Cast of Pilgrimage Season Six - TVREAL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-16T14:00:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-16T15:52:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/bbc-two-unveils-cast-of-pilgrimage-season-six\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/bbc-two-unveils-cast-of-pilgrimage-season-six\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/bbc-two-unveils-cast-of-pilgrimage-season-six\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"BBC Two Unveils Cast of Pilgrimage Season Six\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\",\"name\":\"TVREAL\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\",\"name\":\"Jamie Stalcup\",\"description\":\"Jamie Stalcup is the executive editor of World Screen. 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