Essex best friends to star in BBC driving gameshow

Two best friends will be racing onto your television screens this Saturday (July 9) after taking part in BBC 1’s new quiz show - The Getaway Car.

Sophie Whitaker, 21, from Great Notley, and Megan Clark, also 21, from High Easter, were flown out to Cape Town in South Africa last November to film the programme.

The show, which is hosted by Dermot O’Leary, features five two-person teams competing against each other in a series of driving challenges, culminating in a battle with Top Gear character The Stig.

The friends are no strangers to television after Sophie appeared as a contestant on ITV’s Take Me Out last year, while Megan has previously starred in MTV’s Ex On The Beach.

Sophie said: “Cape Town was amazing and we were out there for eight days. The filming days were long and tiring but we did get a couple of days off to explore which was great.

“The show is sort of like Total Wipeout for cars, and Megan was the driver, I was the co-driver. As we’re both blondes from Essex, we went on the show to prove people wrong of our Essex stereotype.

“Dermot was lovely and came out with us all for a drink one night. He and I had something in common as we both attended Colchester Sixth Form, and we had a good chat about that.”

The Getaway Car is on BBC1 on Saturday, July 9, at 6.50pm.