Jay McGuiness, Jeff Brazier and Helen Lederer are among the stars taking part in the next series of 'Pilgrimage'.
Helen Lederer is taking part in Pilgrimage
The trio will be joined by 'The Traitors' winner Harry Clark, comic Daliso Chaponda, retired Paralympian Stef Reid and journalist Nelufar Hedayat on a challenging 300km trek that will see them take on a revived medieval Catholic route through the Austrian and Swiss Alps, beginning just outside Innsbruck and ending near Lake Zurich.
The seven taking part in 'Pilgrimage: The Road Through the Alps' are all from different faiths and backgrounds, with The Wanted singer Jay questioning the Catholic teachings he grew up with, Helen having a culturally Jewish father and Protestant mother, Jeff describing himself as spiritual, having grown up going to Catholic schools, and Harry a practising Catholic. Meanwhile, Daliso grew up in a Christian family but is exploring the Baha'i faith, Stef is Christian and Nelufar refers to herself as a modern Muslim.
Jay said in a statement: “I agreed to go on this Pilgrimage because it just sounded the perfect thing to do. I was born and raised in Nottinghamshire to an Irish Catholic family and we'd go to our Catholic school and sing church songs and on Sunday, we'd all go and sit next to each other on the pew. But as time's gone on, I think that the rule book that comes with being a Catholic, is too judgmental for where I am.
"I think the closest I can get to what I am, would be considered agnostic. I don't believe there is a God, and I don't believe there isn't. I think it's impossible for us to know, and maybe that's what being a human is; we are stuck here in this mortal realm, and you only find out once you go beyond the curtain. But I would love to know a little bit more about what I am. So, I'm looking forward to that. Who knows what I'll find on this Pilgrimage.”
Meanwhile, Harrry is excited to discuss faith on the journey.
He said: “I've always had faith. I was baptized and all my family are Catholic. I was an altar server in church and played the violin in church with my sister, so I was always around faith.
"I'm so excited to go on this Pilgrimage, to meet the other pilgrims and find out about their religions, what they believe in and why, and if they don't believe, why? Because I've questioned who God is my whole life, not in a bad way, but as in no one knows who God is.”
And Helen is relishing the challenge of the pilgrimage.
She said: “The concept of a Pilgrimage is probably one of endurance, challenge, pain, anxiety, difficulties. So obviously I was drawn to it! I think it's an opportunity that probably won't present itself to me again.
My faith is that I believe in God but I'm not sure what the God is. My father was born into a Jewish family. Although my Czechoslovakian grandparents were cultural Jews, they never talked about faith. My mother came from the Isle of Wight, and I’m told I was christened.
"Being a mix means that you have respect for both things and there is a particular quality I'm learning and feeling more as I get even older, that you can't shed your background. So, with my mixed background, with all the pain of my family that isn't mine, but theirs, I want to be able to turn it into something that will give me a bit of peace.”
The three-part series will air on BBC2 and BBC iPlayer next month.
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