Feb 20 (edited) • General discussion
Watch British TV With Me – Thursday 19th of February, 2026
José Carlos joined me last night for another session of UK TV watching, which, conveniently for him, started right after his regular weekly class.
On the telly tonight was a BBC show that José Carlos recognised from the Spanish version of the same format: Race Across The World.
Five pairs of contestants compete to get from London to Singapore with a budget of £1,300 (about €1,500) and no mobile phones or access to the internet. In this episode they had to get to their first checkpoint in Delphi in Greece.
With the subtitles José Carlos found everything quite easy to understand. The only difficult moments came when a father and son from Yorkshire spoke -- yep, that accent again! (I've created a special Yorkshire section in the classroom if you want to improve your comprehension of these accents).
Here's the noteworthy vocabulary from the episode:
1) To hitchhike
Definition: To travel by getting free lifts from passing drivers.
Example: They hitchhiked across Spain during the summer.
2) Dosh
Definition: Money (informal, British).
Example: That new phone must have cost a lot of dosh.
3) Flag someone down
Definition: To signal for a vehicle or person to stop by waving.
Example: She flagged down a taxi in the rain.
4) Blow your budget
Definition: To spend more money than you planned.
Example: We blew our budget on the hotel and had to cut back on meals out.
5) Keep your cards close to your chest
Definition: To keep your plans or intentions secret.
Example: He’s keeping his cards close to his chest about the promotion.
6) Cushy
Definition: Easy and comfortable, usually referring to a job.
Example: She landed a cushy office job with great benefits.
7) Poorly (adj.)
Definition: Slightly unwell (British informal).
Example: I won’t come in today — I’m feeling a bit poorly.
8) Take a turn for the worse
Definition: To suddenly become more ill or more serious.
Example: His condition took a turn for the worse overnight.
9) Their tactic paid off
Definition: Their strategy was successful.
Example: Their tactic of lowering prices paid off.
10) To hustle
Definition: To work energetically and persistently, often to earn money or gain an advantage.
Example: She hustled to build her business from scratch.
11) To blag something
Definition: To obtain something by persuading someone confidently, often without the right to it (British informal).
Example: He blagged his way into the VIP area.
Join me next Thursday for the next Watch British TV With Me session (you can find it in the calendar).
P.S.
For future sessions, if Thursday is difficult to attend, what other days and times work better for you?
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Watch British TV With Me – Thursday 19th of February, 2026
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