Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild (2023)

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild – 2023 Series

About New Lives in the Wild

Returning for its new series, adventurer Ben Fogle set off to meet more people who have turned their back on the rat­race and set up home in remote locations in the UK and beyond in Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild. We watched as Ben joined a variety of brave individuals who chose to venture down a very alternative path to everyday life: from a former American professional sports­star who now lives in his own mountain cabin and a junk artist who found solace in an o ff­grid desert community to a Hollywood actress who’s swapped the bright lights for a horse sanctuary in Uruguay. Throughout the 12 ­part series, Ben seeks to discover the motivation and reality of abandoning a life dominated by debts and daily grind in search of something different.

PR Overview

tpr media was delighted to promote Renegade Picture’s successful series Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild for the second time. We began working in December 2022 with the first episode confirmed to air on Channel 5 on the 3rd January 2023. We carried out a high­visibility campaign across TV and radio, broadsheets and midmarket tabloids.

Overall there were a total of 670 pieces of coverage between 3 January ­ 4 April across national and regional press, radio, TV and listings magazines. The programme regularly topped viewing stats with 1.1­1.5 million weekly viewers (according to Broadcast Now). The sum of opportunities to see (OTS) was 380M and advertising value equivalent (AVE) was £9.04M (these figures only account for print and online press and don't include TV and radio).

Initially Channel 5 confirmed a seven episode run of the series, this then extended to 9, then an additional 3 ‘return’ episodes were added running up until 4th April. There was also a two week gap between episode 9 and 12. Changes in scheduling posed a few obvious issues when giving notice to press and securing previews.

TV and radio highlights from the campaign included ITV’s This Morning interviewing Ben Fogle live in the studio with Phil and Holly. Ben and contributors Mike Basich and Chris Lewis were all interviewed on Times Radio on separate occasions throughout the run. Producers Natalie Wilkinson and Sean McDonnell were interviewed together on BBC Radio London’s Jo Good Show at the beginning of the series and Chris Lewis was interviewed towards the end.

National features included an interview feature with Ben in The Mirror at the start of the series. The Mirror Online also ran a feature on George and Sophie and Lyndon and Ruth following interviews with both the couples; this ran in print in The Sunday People. The Sun ran an online piece about contributor DNA and the Metro shared an article on Pirate Rob. The Mail Online ran weekly features for each episode including exclusive clips in advance of the programme, This is Money and WhatsNews2day also shared the Mail Online articles. Radio Times online ran a feature on the first episode with exclusive clips. There were also some strong regional features on individual contributors.

Reviews throughout the series were extremely positive in publications including The Sun, Radio Times, The Times and Daily Mail. See selection on page 27. As well as this, there were over 600 national and regional previews and listings of the series across broadsheet, mid­market and tabloid outlets. Please see a small selection of highlights from this series’ campaign in the following pages.

This Morning – Monday 6th February

Radio

Times Radio: Ben was interviewed on The Hugo Rifkind Show about the upcoming episode on Pirate Rob, living off­grid and Antarctica. Contributor Mike Basich was interviewed on The Hugo Rifkind Show at the start of the series ahead of his episode. Contributor Chris Lewis was also interviewed on the Ed Vaizey show at the end of the series

BBC Radio London: Producers Natalie Wilkinson and Sean McDonnell were interviewed on BBC Radio London’s Jo Good Show at the beginning of the series discussing the past 17 series and how they find contributors.

Contributor Chris Lewis was interviewed for over 10 minutes on the Jo Good Show, they played a clip from the show and discussed his journey.

National Features

2/01/23 (Print and Online) ­ Article by Chief Feature Writer, Emily Retter, following phone interview with Ben Fogle.

ADVENTURER BEN FOGLE ON WARZONE REUNION

Going back to see friends in Ukraine felt harder than climbing Everest

EXCLUSIVE

BY EMILY RETTER Chief Feature Writer

Ben Fogle is used to sitting down with his wife and two children at the kitchen table to tentatively float the idea of a risky trip.

The presenter, author and adventurer – back on TV this week with a new series of Channel 5’s New Lives in the Wild –has rowed the Atlantic, raced to the South Pole, climbed Everest and visited remote locations in 40 countries during 11 years of the show.

This time he wanted to gauge his clan’s thoughts on a trip to war-ravaged Ukitfthbtil

Ukraine, not for the cameras but simply because he felt he must go.

The 49-year-old had filmed in the country before, visiting the Chernobyl nuclear exclusion zone for another show, when he made friends with locals who had returned there to live following evacuation after the 1986 disaster.

The Russians occupied the area early in the conflict, only leaving when they realised they were being poisoned with radioactivity by digging trenches in the highly contaminated site.

Ben desperately wanted to see his friends and help them, especially the many elderly folk who live there.

He has not spoken widely about his bhhd

trip in September, when he escorted out security vehicles he had personally donated and made stops in Bucha and Irpin, scenes of horrific atrocities.

Ben still sounds deeply moved.

“They cried when I came to their houses with food for them, and yet they gave me fresh produce,” he recalls.

“It was one of the most profound trips I have had, it took me a while to decompress. I found it a harder proposition than crossing the Antarctic or climbing Everest, to be with people who had no choice.”

HE adds: “On the train out, seeing thfbihd the men of age being marched off because they are not allowed to leave, it really hit me, that loss of liberty. I have never seen or known that before.”

His friends escaped the worst violence but had been punched, slapped and robbed. Many remained depressed. Yet they still retained a spark of humour, Ben recalls.

“There were plenty of humorous stories of Russians terrified of finding themselves in the Chernobyl exclusion zone,” he says. “They had obviously heard at school about the dangers of this place and the elderly women teased them that their willies would fall off, that they better get out of there because the elderly people had built up a resilience but they would fall sick.”

Nevertheless, Ben was disturbed to see

enoug h to f o ll ow their instincts.

“Their lives aren’t necessarily easier or more straightforward, they are just simpler and happier.”

He would love to be one of them.

Before meeting his partner Marina, while she was walking her dog in a London park, and marrying her in 2006, Ben made his name as a castaway on the 2000 BBC reality show of the same name.

He admits he was very close to starting a more reclusive life.

“I had looked at islands, lighthouses, lots of options all around the world,” explains Ben, whose head became filled with ideas when he went away filming.

“My wife used to dread me coming back because I would be all enthusiastic, suggesting we sell up and move to an island in Norway or to a little camp in Canada.” Having children, Ludo, 13, and Iona, 11, brought the couple stability although Ben admits that he is still torn.

He’s genuinely just happier in a wild location and one day in the future is still keen to immerse himself.

“hhldh

“When I have a low day, I have thought I would really like to just give this up. It’s just that other things do get in the way. Life gets in the way.

“That doesn’t mean I’ve conceded. I still pride myself in bringing up my children in a happy, family-orientated, natural way despite the fact we are not living in a cabin in the woods.”

Before the pandemic the family moved from London to the country, where they now live surrounded by fields. When we speak, Ben happens blibihill

the land littered with mines, booby traps and even saunas left in the Russian trenches and dugouts.

“I felt it was important that I saw firsthand what had happened. It takes your breath away to see the scale of destruction, the burnt-out buildings,” he says.

“I went to the church in Bucha, where the mass grave had been found, to show my respect. It was important to me to see and understand.”

It put into context his TV work, which is sometimes risky and arduous although largely fun. But he hopes a show like New Lives in the Wild can also make an important contribution.

In it, he visits individuals who live off-grid in the remotest locations, and who, he says, hold the key to happiness in living simpler, more contented lives.

In the new series, which includes the 100th episode, Ben meets all kinds of people – from an actress to a homeless person – who show how it’s possible to change the way you live.

“I think they have got it right, we have it wrong,” he says. “But the difference is they are brave and foolhardy hfll

to b e c li m bi ng a hill on a family walk.

He and the kids grow vegetables and keep horses, dogs, ducks and guinea pigs.

It sounds perfect, and he enjoys the balance of being able to travel for two weeks of every month.

Generally, that’s the family’s rule but he is not without guilt.

As he puffs up the hill – something surprising to hear given his TV exertions – Ben reveals that he is due to leave for Antarctica for another Channel 5 show.

He plans to retrace Captain Scott and Ernest Shackleton’s steps, wearing the same clothes and using the equipment they had around a century ago on their doomed Antarctic expedition.

It means he won’t see his family for a month. “I’m away a lot and that is really hard, especially as the children grow up. I don’t want to miss out on their lives,” he says.

their lives, he says.

“We have made it work, it’s what the children and Marina have always known, but I do have guilt, of course.

“But when I am here I am very present. We are very disciplined with those ground rules – when I am home that is what I do.”

When he’s not picking the children up from school or helping them with homework – which he loathes – Ben still uses his family time to do what he does best: walk and explore, but this time with his wife and children in tow.

It’s a tamer kind of wild.

■ Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild returns to Channel 5 tomorrow at 9pm.

emily.retter@mirror.co.uk

@emily_retter

I felt it was important that I saw first-hand what had happened BEN FOGLE ON HIS LOW-KEY TRIP TO UKRAINE

BOND Ben with Baba Hana, 90, and soldier on return trip to Chernobyl area

SUMMIT With toys given to him by his kids for Everest climb in 2018

21/01/23 ­ Mirror Online article based on interviews with George and Sophie and Lyndon and Ruth. See extract below.

Exclusive:

Ben Fogle's new TV series meets British families living in the wild including Sophie Watkins and George Lidgley and their kids who live off the grid in the Tuscan mountains

Ben Fogle meets the families living in the wild (

Image: Channel 5)

There is no electricity, the roof is full of holes and the walls are crumbling – yet to Sophie Watkins and George Lidgley and their two small children their house is paradise.

To many it would sound like a home from hell but the intrepid British couple could not be happier with the life they have carved out from a ruin on a Tuscan mountainside.

The pair thrive in a back-to basics, off-grid existence in a tumbledown house in Italy’s Casentinesi Forest National Park.

Their toilet uses compost and their shower is outdoors. And because power comes from just one basic solar panel, by 5pm on most winter evenings they live in blackout, entertaining each other around an open fire, relying on candles for light.

To Sophie, 29, it is bliss. She says: “You walk out of your front door and you are immediately in nature.

“Everywhere you look, you’re surrounded by trees and see thick forest.

“From our annexe, you look across at this amazing mountain range and the beautiful rock formations and can see landslides.

“You feel in awe because it’s just completely untouched nature. You feel like you’re the only person that exists sometimes.”

Sophie Watkins and George Lidgley have gone off the grid (

'We live in a ruin with no electricity and only half a roof but to us it's paradise'

22/01/23 ­ Feature with George and Sophie and Lyndon and Ruth following interviews with both couples.

We live in a ruin with no electricity and only half a roof but we’re so happy

by Louise Lazell

THERE is no electricity, the roof is full of holes and the walls are crumbling – yet to Sophie Watkins and George Lidgley and their two small children their house is paradise. a

I love the freedom and how basic everything is

HI HONEY: The couple keep 11 hives of bees

PLACE LIKE IT Sophie, George, India and Kai with Ben Fogle on TV

NATURE: Family’s home is surrounded by thick forest

Home’s where the crocs are..

THE first thing Lyndon and Ruth Pinches taught their girls after building a safari lodge in Zambia surrounded by leopards, hippos, crocodiles and snakes was how to not get eaten by wild beasts. Their property is 100 miles from a village shop, 250 miles from the nearest city, Lusaka, and a four-hour drive from a hospital.

Ex-Army officer Lyndon, 40, who served twice in Afghanistan with The Rifles, says: “We have to drive and meet any ambulance half-way.”

He and his wife fell in love with Africa after working with an anti-poaching group in Malawi for six months in 2014.

In 2016 they sank £70,000 of savings and Lyndon’s redundancy payout into building three safari lodges in Kafue National Park to house 200 guests a year.

The pair lived in a tent under a tree during the work –while supply teacher Ruth, 37, was pregnant.

Bringing up kids Indiana, six, and Ivy, four, in the bush had unique challenges.

Ruth says: “When a baby cried it sounded like a distressed animal and hyenas would come around the campfire. But Lyndon had a gun so we were safe.

“A baby monitor wouldn’t tell you if there was a snake around, so I had to strap my babies to me all the time. We never sugarcoated anything. Our girls know the dangers.”

Horror struck when a worker was eaten by a crocodile while fishing at the camp in February 2019, while lightning strikes caused by 40 degree temperatures triggered Lyndon’s PTSD.

But bush life also had tremendous benefits. Ruth adds: “We would wake up and see an elephant eating from a tree or a leopard in the bushes – moments people would pay to see.”

The couple now run the lodge from Swindon, Wilts, where Indiana is in school.

Lyndon says: “I miss the wild. We built that place with nothing but our bare hands. We would love to go back.”

■ George & Sophie are on Ben Fogle: New Lives in the

Wild on Channel 5 on January 31 at 9pm; Lyndon and Ruth on February 14

LODGE: Only electricity is solar

PARK LIFE: In Zambia

reporter Claire Toureille ran weekly features on each of the episodes (twelve features in total). The articles were accompanied by pictures and exclusive clips, we have picked out 3 extracts below.

3/01/23 ­ “Pro snowboarder reveals how he quit his $150,000­a­year career that felt 'like a circus' to live in a tiny solar­powered hut in the snow”.

Mike Basich, 50, from Nevada, is retired 1990s snowboarding champion Athlete won $150,000 at the height of his career, but abruptly retired aged 27 Told Ben Fogle he grew 'burnout' from the sport and felt he lived in a 'circus' Now father-of-two, lives in a small hut in the snowy mountains of Sierra Nevada Read more: Couple who were dedicated to the church for decades reveal how they gave up monastic life to get married

By CLAIRE TOUREILLE FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 11:34, 3 January 2023 | UPDATED: 12:11, 3 January 2023

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A former pro snowboarder who helped pioneer the sport revealed how burnout led him to quit competing and move off-grid.

Mike Basich, 51, was at the height of his career in 2001 and ranking number two snowboarder in the world, earning $150,000 a year through sponsors when he quit the competitive side of the sport to buy 83 acres of land in his native Sierra Nevada, where he built a tiny hut.

More than twenty years on, Mike welcomed Ben Fogle for a new episode of New Lives in the Wild, airing tonight at 9pm on Channel 5, where he explained to the presenter that burnout and feeling like his life was 'a bit of a circus' pushed him to take a step back and reconnect with nature.

Pro snowboarder reveals how he quit his $150,000-a-year career that felt 'like a circus' to live in a tiny solarpowered hut in the snow

Mike Basich, 51, left competitive snowboarding whilst he was earning $150,000 a year through sponsors, and bought 83 acres of land in his native Sierra Nevada, where he built a tiny hut. Tonight, he welcomes Ben Fogle in his life for a new episode of New Lives In the Wild, airing at 9pm on Channel 5

'That's a masterpiece': Ben Fogle visits stunning

25/01/23 ­ “I left Hollywood to live alone on a 400­acre farm in Uruguay and I've not had a visitor in three years”.

I left Hollywood to live alone on a 400acre farm in Uruguay and I've not had a visitor in three years

Rhona Mitra, 46, British actress who left Los Angeles to move to Uruguay in 2017

Told Ben Fogle grew disillusioned with modern world after autoimmune disease

Added she prefers to rescue animals on her 400 acres farms to dating any man

Read more: Artist reveals why he chose to live in lawless Californian community

By CLAIRE TOUREILLE FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 14:40, 25 January 2023 | UPDATED: 13:25, 27 January 2023

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An actress has revealed why she left the glitzy red carpets of LA for a remote life in Uruguay on Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild.

Rhona Mitra, 46, grew up in West London but found fame onscreen after moving to Los Angeles in the '90s, where she starred in flicks like Sweet Home Alabama and series including The Practice and Boston Legal. She wa also the first official live action Lara Croft in 1997,

On the Channel 5 show last night, Rhona explained that after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2012, she grew disillusioned with her life and bought a derelict 400-acre farm in Uruguay in 2017, where she lives alone in a house she made from horse manure.

Rhona Mitra, 46, grew up in West London but found fame on screen after moving to LA in the 90s, where she starred in flicks like Sweet Home Alabama and series like The Practice and Boston Legal. She revealed why she left the glitzy red carpets of LA for a remote life in Uruguay on last night's Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild on Channel 5

Ben learned about the tough life Rhona faces on the farm, including being intimidated by neighbours and having no back up plan if anything should happen to her

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15/02/23 ­ “We moved to Zambia to open a safari lodge ­ some friends have been eaten by crocodiles but growing up here has made our daughters more confident”.

Ruth and Lyndon Pinches moved to Zambia to open lodges six years ago They are raising their daughters Indiana and Ivy near the Kafue river in the wild Read more: I'm a homeless single dad and I've been arrested

By CLAIRE TOUREILLE FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 08:23, 15 February 2023 | UPDATED: 08:29, 15 February 2023

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A couple have told Ben Fogle that growing up in the Zambian wilderness has made their daughters more confident - in spite of all the dangerous wildlife lurking around.

Ruth, 36, and Lyndon Pinches, 39, moved from the UK to Zambia six years ago to open a safari lodge business where tourists pay £218 per person per night.

The couple admitted on last night's New Lives in the Wild that there's dangers from the local wildlife on the edge of the Kafue river, which includes lions, cheetahs, leopards, hippos and crocodiles.

They told Ben Fogle that there were initially worried about Indie and Ivy not having contact with other children, but added growing up in the wilderness has made the two girls more 'confident.'

We moved to Zambia to open a safari lodge - some friends have been eaten by crocodiles but growing up here has made our daughters more confident

Ruth, 36, and Lyndon Pinches, 39, moved from the UK to Zambia six years ago to open a safari lodge business where tourists pay £218 per person per night to stay at. They are raising their two daughters, Indiana, called 'Indie,' and Ivy, in the wilderness. Thet met Ben Fogle for New Lives in the Wild, airing tonight at 9pm on Channel 5

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The couple moved to Zambia six years ago with the aim to build touristic lodges and help with local conservation work.

They used Ruth's saving from her teaching career and former soldier Lyndon's army redundancy money to fund the project.

Ben travelled to the lodge by car to meet them, on the edge of the Kafue River, in Zambia's oldest and largest national park.

He had very strict instructions not to get out of the car for any reason, due to the wildlife living in the park.

Upon arriving, he was taken with the beauty of the family's surroundings, saying: 'What an amazing place for the girls to grow up.'

'We've had leopards coming through here, hippos coming out the river, crocs everywhere, loads of antelopes,' Lyndon told Ben.

They also warned him against snakes, while their father added: 'The day, you're fine, just don't go in the long grass, stay two metres back from the river,

'At night time we'll always have someone to escort you around with a torch,' he added.

Ben was blown away by Lyndon, Ruth, and their family, as well as the lodge.

'What a place. It's quite hard to find a family from a totally different culture, from a different country living here.

'It's quite a simple set up. I know that just behind that very thin canvas, there are crocodiles and hippos and lions and cheetahs, and that's one of the exciting things about coming to a country like Zambia,' he said.

'But quite brave to have your two very young daughters living here as well.'

The couple are so isolated they have to harvest and forage as much food as they can, with Lyndon making trips to the nearby village to stock up on food and fuel.

When the family and Ben took a tour of the park, Lyndon escorted them with a shotgun.

The couple admitted in New Lives in the Wild that they have had to make do with the dangers of the local wildlife on the edge of the Kafue river, which includes lions, cheetahs, leopards, hippos and crocodiles

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(Online) ­ 17/01/23 ­ Feature on DNA with clips and photos ­ “SCRAP PEEP I quit 9­5 to live in off­grid ‘Slab City’ – if you annoy the neighbours there’s a savage rule but I have no regrets” by Josh Saunders. (Extract below)

WITH burned-out vehicles, scrap-metal trailers and unbearable 50degree heat, Slab City looks like a scene from the post-apocalyptic lm Mad Max.

Yet here among the makeshift camps – made from old school buses, cars and branches – is where former construction worker 'DNA', 49, nally feels at home

many of the norms and rules of wider society.

Yet the supposed ‘Utopia’ has a dark underbelly blighted by drugs, violent thieves and arsonists - and there is a brutal way neighbours 'burn out' locals they don't like.

The town's bohemian occupants, known as ‘Slabbers’, features in tonight’s episode of Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild, on Channel 5.

Self-monikered DNA, who moved here four years ago, explains: “When I rst go here I was afraid someone might steal my stu.

“I had the mindset of a new person coming into town, ‘What could potentially be here?’ because you hear all kinds of rumours. Some of them are true, very much so.

Construction worker DNA quit the nine-to-ve life for a free-spirited community in the desert

DNA lives in Slab City, an o-the-grid community, based in California's Sonoran Desert Credit: Getty

Located on an abandoned military base, in California’s Sonoran Desert , Slab City is branded “the last free place” by its inhabitants and casts aside

Homeless single dad stopped

times by police convinced he’s kidnapped own son

Comment

Ruth LawesWednesday 8 Feb 2023 10:56 am

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A homeless man has opened up about the prejudice he experiences from police officers who believe he has kidnapped his own son.

Rob, known as Pirate Rob, appeared on Tuesday’s Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild during which he spoke about his unorthodox lifestyle.

The 49-year-old, who lives in homeless community Slab City in California for part of the year, also calls home a make-shift tent on an island in Oregon.

Describing himself as a ‘bouji bum’ because of his ‘high-class’ tastes, Rob show Ben around his abode and discussed his family life.

Rob is father to an 18-year-old son, Damien, who he lives with, as well as two daughters, explaining Damien’s mother left when he was younger.

Asked by the presenter why he had chosen this lifestyle, Rob explained he found it ‘safe’ as, in the outside world, ‘so many people try and tear him away from me.’

‘It’s just so overwhelming I’d rather just come out into the wild,’ he added Ben asked him who the people were trying to ‘tear’ Damien apart from him, with Rob replying: ‘It was everyone. ‘It would be the old lady down the road seeing my son with me, thinking he must be up to no good or something.

‘The police instantly judged and constantly tried to tear us apart. We even had police take us to the police station and put us in different rooms and he’s just a little kid.

‘They were telling me they would take him away from me if he could. For what reason?’

Speaking more about his experience with the law, Rob revealed he’d had the ‘cops thinking I’d kidnapped him more times than I could count.’

He added that in one day alone he was approached three times by different officers.

Rob explained that he had ‘always dreamed of being a dad’ and wanted to be a different parent from his own ‘overbearing’ father.

In previous episodes of the docuseries, Ben has met other people living off-grid including a former Sydney businessman David Glasheen who lost £6.5million in one day.

After losing the fortune, David traded the city life for Restoration Island, an isolated backwater off the tip of northern Queensland, where he had even founded his own microbrewery.

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild is available to stream on My5.

Online feature with clips and photos on contributor DNA in Slab City ­ “Homeless single dad stopped ‘countless’ times by police convinced he’s kidnapped own son” by Ruth Lawes.

‘countless’

Online

gggp

The TV presenter is back with a new season of New Lives in the Wild. Ben Fogle heads to the slopes for the season premiere of New Lives in the Wild, with the TV presenter meeting snowboarding star Mike Basich in a first-look clip at the upcoming episode.

The season 17 premiere sees Fogle head to Sierra Nevada mountain range in the US to visit Basich, who left the sport of snowboarding to pursue a quieter life at his hand-built log cabin.

In the sneak-peek clip, which can be shared exclusively by RadioTimes.com, Fogle chats to Basich about his choice to give up his career to "reconnect with the natural environment".

When asked whether he misses competition, Basich says: "No. Full freedom. I've never felt better. The snow is going this way, I'm going to follow it."

The clip also teases moments later in the episode, including how the ex-professional "got his kicks by pushing his body to the edge" by jumping out of helicopters before embarking on a "life-changing project".

"I had a fire about a year ago, the whole place burned inside," the American snowboarder says. "That's the one thing I can't get back is time for my kids, so that's a hard thing to process and accept to know that I've got to figure something else out."

Lauren Morris

[sourcelink]https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/documentaries/ben-fogle-snowboarding-legend-new-lives-in-wild-preview-exclusive-newsupdate/ [/sourcelink]

feature about episode 1 with Mike Basich featuring photos and clips ­ “Ben Fogle meets snowboarding legend in New Lives in the Wild preview”.

Various stories throughout the series were picked up by regional press, see a few examples below.

Feature about contributors George and Sophie ­ “Off­grid Italian life of Norwich family feature in TV show”.

Off-grid Italian life of Norwich family feature in TV show

GRACE PIERCY

grace.piercy@newsquest.co.uk

The off-grid life a Norwich man has built with his family in the Italian mountains has taken centre stage in a Channel 5 series.

George Lidgley, 35, and Sophie Watkins, 29, live with their two children, Kayo and India, in the Casentinesi Forest National Park.

Broadcaster Ben Fogle stayed with them for his series New Lives in the Wild, where he travels to remote places to explore the lives of those who have moved there.

The episode began with Fogle having to walk up a mountain for an hour to even find the family home which gets heat from log burners, power from solar panels and water from a nearby stream.

George grew up in Norwich and at 18 moved to Tuscany to take care of the mostly derelict property he had spent his childhood holidaying in.

He and Sophie met a few years later when she came to volunteer in Tuscany to escape the fast pace of London life in her early 20s.

During Fogle's stay, he helped reroof their home, harvest honey from their 15 beehives, pick fruit and vegetables from the garden, gather firewood for winter and lay new gravel on the access road.

He was able to see the risk involved in the off-grid life when the family cow Moona broke into the garden and destroyed most of thfhihhd

the crops, many of which had been cultivated for months.

Both George and Sophie agreed that they could see themselves spending the rest of their lives working on what they call “the project” – the house, its land and their family.

They said “the project” is constantly changing with them only at the start of their journey.

Fogle's stay ended with a family trip to some nearby natural pools.

The episode of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild aired on January 31 and is available, along with other episodes, to watch on My5.

Ben Fogle visited George Lidgley and his family in the Channel 5 series New Lives in the Wild Picture: CHANNEL 5

Feature about Contributor Chris Lewis ­ “Ben Fogle Makes Trip to Dorset to Visit Marathon Walker”.

Feature about contributors George and Sophie “Ben Fogle meets Norwich family living off­grid in Italy”. (Extract below)

New Lives in the Wild was consistently previewed as a pick of the day throughout the weeks in print and online. Reviewer Christopher Stevens also regularly reviewed the shows positively, see examples below.

CHRISTOPHER STEVENS LAST NIGHT’S TV

Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild Bradley And Barney Walsh: Breaking Dad

Even the flintiest of hearts can’t help but succumb to Ben’s charm

THAT Ben Fogle, what a charmer he is. If he ever switches career to enter politics, one rueful smile and a couple of soulful gazes will send him straight into Downing Street.

Ben makes a career of coaxing grumpy curmudgeons to love him, employing the self-deprecating wit of Louis Theroux, with the cheeky twinkle of Ant and Dec.

Later in this series of New Lives In The Wild (C5) , he returns to the lawless Slab City in California, where he has befriended its population of junkies and weirdos. This time, though, he was in the rainforests of northern Australia to meet an eco-hermit named Bette. Bette was 79 and what the locals called ‘a colourful character’. When construction companies tried to drain the Queensland swamps, it was Bette who lay down in front of the bulldozers — and, at first, she took the same obstructive attitude to Ben’s arrival.

If he wanted to eat while he was her guest, she declared, he’d have to cook for himself. He could make her meals, too, while he was about it.

And though her house in the wetlands had only holes in the walls for its windows and doors, Ben wasn’t allowed to sleep there. He got a mosquito net, a mattress and a sheet of corrugated tin for a roof.

Bette’s idea of hospitality was embodied by Sid Vicious, her mongrel terrier: ‘He’s got a bit of a personality problem,’ she warned, ‘so don’t touch him.’ Sid had an undershot jaw, which gave him a permanent snarl. Even Ben looked wary.

But it takes more than a canine punk to undermine his amiability. Ben headed straight for the kitchen, rustling up boiled pasta and a dollop of Vegemite. ‘Do you cook at home very often?’ sneered Bette. ‘Is everybody still alive in your family?’

Undaunted, benign Ben set about the household repairs. He checked the pulleys that hoist Bette’s furniture off the floor whenever her home floods. And he set to work with a shovel, clearing vegetation and spreading gravel.

Grudgingly, and with more than a hint of sarcasm, Bette said it was looking beautiful. Ben is immune to sarcasm. ‘Beautiful?’ he beamed. ‘Me, or the gravel?’

That did the trick. No woman, however cantankerous she pretends to be, can resist Ben when he’s flirting. ‘You can always take your shirt off,’ she encouraged him.

By the end of the hour, Bette was pouring out her heart to him, revealing traumas in her past that had driven her to become a recluse. All that charm had a purpose. No other interviewer on telly could have drawn those secrets from her.

Bradley Walsh has a cheeky charm, too, but it serves little purpose on his roving adventure holidays with son Barney on Breaking Dad (ITV1).

Brad and Barnes are simply tourists. They treated the people they met in Mexico as human guidebooks, barely bothering to ask their names. Most of their daredevil activities appear to be no more than expensive excursions — a dawn ascent in a hot-air balloon, a trek into a cave filled with bats and snakes, that sort of thing.

A trip to a waterpark seemed especially pointless. Why go to Mexico for that? Blackpool has far better.

The supposedly haunted ‘Island of Dolls’ was just a shoddy scam, where bits of plastic toys were displayed in jars. Even the centrepiece, an ascent up the sheer face of the Pena de la Tanda mountain, turned out to be a disappointment when heavy cloud came down, obscuring the view.

I felt like asking for my money back.

PICK OF TODAY’S TV

BEN FOGLE: NEW LIVES IN THE WILD, 9PM, CH5

IF BEN’S guide in tonight’s episode looks familiar, that’s because you may have seen her in TV’s Boston Legal or Strike Back — and the British actress Rhona Mitra (pictured with Ben) has several new films in the works, too. Rhona was also the model for the original Lara Croft, the daredevil archaeologist computer game character, and she clearly has a strong adventurous streak herself, as she now lives alone in a remote valley in

Uruguay. Ben joins Rhona at her backwoods home, where she talks about her disillusionment with the bright lights of Hollywood and how she has had to come to terms with the macho culture of this rural region of the South American country. Her admirable new mission is to rescue and rehabilitate mistreated horses, and Ben accompanies her to a local auction to look for any animals in need of her help. Later, when a violent storm rolls in as Ben beds down in his fragile shelter, it really hits home just how far

removed Rhona’s new life is from her previous existence as a star of the screen, and how isolated and vulnerable she would be should disaster strike.

Regularly featured as a Tuesday Pick of the Day alongside a photo.

10 JANUARY TUESDAY

Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild 9pm, Channel 5

This week Ben visits Bette, who lives alone in the wilds of northern Queensland. Bette is very much a no-nonsense type, so one thing she refuses to do is cook for him. It’s up to Ben, then, to serve up something tasty. Maltesers eaten with chopsticks looks an odd choice to me, but I guess it’s that or go hungry.

24 JANUARY TUESDAY

Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild 9pm, Channel 5

This week Ben is in South America, visiting the home of British-born actress Rhona Mitra. That’s Rhona on the right in this picture. And of course you’ll have noticed it isn’t Ben Fogle on the left. No, that’s a horse. Rhona devotes much of her time to rehabilitating them at her remote rural home in Uruguay.

The series featured weekly in the ‘What to Watch’ pages (in print). See examples below.

FACTUAL

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild Channel 5, 9pm

The more runs Ben Fogle’s fine series has, the richer, and more enjoyably unpredictable, the experiences and featured voices have become; tonight’s instalment is a case in point, as he reconnects with a man he first met living with his son off-grid in Slab City, California. This time he joins them in fishing for crayfish, cutting firewood, digging a toilet and embarking on the school run via kayak. GT

BEN FOGLE: NEW LIVES IN THE WILD

Channel 5, 9pm

Ben Fogle returns to Western Australia to visit 69-year-old Barbara, a Swiss woman who has lived alone in an isolated bush camp for 16 years. Since they met eight years ago, she has faced a cancer scare and dealt with the aftermath of a fire that devastated the local wildlife she cares for. Her philosophical outlook in the face of such testing events –“negative things happen to wake you up” – is admirable.

FACTUAL

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild Channel 5, 9pm

Adventurer Ben Fogle returns for another series of profiles on people who have rejected the rat race. In this opener he travels to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the US to meet Mike Basich, the snowboarder who has turned his back on fame to reconnect with nature. Prepare to seethe with envy at his hand-built log cabin.

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild Channel 5, 9pm Ben Fogle meets more people who have chosen to live off grid, trading technology for simple living; this week, he’s in Tuscany, where British couple George and Sophie live in the stunning Casentinesi Forest national park with their two young children. As ever, the affable Fogle mucks in, helping with the couple’s farmhouse renovation, making pizza and collecting honey. VL

Ben Fogle reconnects with Rob in California

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild – the Sierra Nevada

The series featured weekly in the ‘Viewing Guide’ by Ben Dowell as well as the Sunday Times’ Critic’s Choice, see examples below.

TUESDAY 3 JANUARY CRITICS’ CHOICE

New Lives In The Wild (C5, 9pm)

Ben Fogle’s roaming instinct takes him into Sierra Nevada mountains in the western US, where former professional snowboarder Mike Basich has retreated into nature. Hearty but compassionate, Fogle explores the emotional complications and sudden calamities of the off-grid life.

Tuesday 24 | Viewing guide

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild

Channel 5, 9pm

Our well-spoken explorer/ interrogator is in Uruguay this week visiting the British-born actress Rhona Mitra and her new home in a remote valley. Poor health, a difficult childhood and apparent disillusionment with thespian culture all drove her into this tough new life in which she works rehabilitating horses. Processing the difficulties from her past and a need to adapt to her adopted country’s machismo culture doesn’t always make life easy, we learn. And if something goes wrong there seem to be few people to immediately call on. BD

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild Channel 5, 9pm

Our well-spoken explorer/interrogator is in Uruguay this week visiting the Britishborn actress Rhona Mitra and her new home in a remote valley. Ill health, a difficult childhood and apparent dismay over thespian culture were

all factors in driving her into this tough new life in which she works rehabilitating horses. However, processing the difficulties from her past and a need to adapt to her adopted country’s machismo culture doesn’t always make life easy, we learn. And if something goes wrong there seem to be few people immediately to call on.

Mountain man: Fogle (C5, 9pm)

WHAT’S ON Television

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild 9pm, Channel 5

Fogle is on the 17th series of this watchable show – the world’s wildernesses must be teeming with former rat-racers going off-grid. Tonight, he visits Bette in northern Queensland. She takes a while to warm to her guest (and certainly won’t cook for him) but eventually the pair bond as Fogle explores his host’s motives. PH

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild 9pm, Channel 5

Fogle is on the 17th series of this watchable show – viewers can only infer that the world’s wildernesses are teeming with former rat-racers going off-grid. Tonight,

he visits Bette in northern Queensland. She takes a while to warm to her guest (and certainly won’t cook for him), but eventually the pair bond as Fogle explores his host’s motives.

Phil Harrison

Tuesday television radio

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild 9pm, Channel 5

The presenter heads Down Under to meet Bette, an elderly woman living alone in a ramshackle house in the wilds of northern Queensland. She is a no-nonsense personality and rather splendidly refuses to cook the presenter

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild 9pm, Channel 5

Fogle journeys into the heart of Zambia this week to live with a British family who have built a safari lodge on the edge of a national park. He uncovers what prompted this intrepid couple to start a new business and a family in the unforgiving bush, and learns how they have had to overcome fire and flooding to keep their African dream alive.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

GERARD GILBERT

any dinner. But as the week progresses, she warms to her guest and explains what drew her to the harsh Australian wilderness 30 years ago. She also talks about her complex relationship with men and reveals how she has been seriously threatened when defending the natural world around her from development.

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild 9pm, Channel 5

Fogle begins a new run of his series in which he meets people who have embraced remote, off-grid lives. He travels to the Sierra Nevada mountains in California to meet Mike Basich, a snowboarder who left the world of professional sport behind to reconnect with nature and pursue a quieter life. Basich took 20 years to hand-build his log cabin amid 80 acres of forest, gaining a wife and two young sons in the process.

===

Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild 9pm, Channel 5

Fogle heads to Slab City in California – an old US Army base that is now home to off-grid communities of squatters, anarchists and other societal outsiders – to meet a homeless artist called DNA. Like most residents in Slab City, he discovers that DNA had few choices, the presenter learning the harsh reality of what it’s like to be homeless in America.

PICKS OF THE DAY

BEN FOGLE: NEW LIVES IN THE WILD Ǻ l!

“Never meet your heroes” as the old adage goes, but Ben Fogle (right) didn’t know that former champion snowboarder Mike Basich was his hero until he met him for this returning series in which Ben visits people who’ve chosen to settle in Earth’s most remote places.

Mike gave up fame and fortune almost 20 years ago to live off-grid in the Sierra Nevada mountains in the USA and, if Ben’s utter awe is anything to go by, he and his family could be upping sticks from their Buckinghamshire village to the snow-capped peaks of the Tahoe National Forest before we know it. Mike, 49 – who was once ranked as the No.2 snowboarder in the world – lives in a rock-built retreat nestled within 84 acres of wilderness.

“This has blown my mind,” says Ben. “This is incredible. Look at that view!” However, as Mike explains: “It’s not all romantic out here.” He tells Ben about the two devastating

fires that not only destroyed the farm he was building for his family, but also his workshop that housed almost all of his snowboarding equipment and memorabilia.

It’s a cool insight into alternative living from a man Ben describes as having “a beautiful, wild spirit”.

BEN FOGLE: NEW LIVES IN THE WILD REAL LIFE 9pm C5

New episode You may recognise Ben’s (left) latest host Rhona Mitra (right) – she’s a British actress who made her mark in US shows including Strike Back. After being struck down by a debilitating autoimmune disorder, Rhona left Hollywood behind to live alone in a remote area of Uruguay. It’s a fascinating episode in which Ben encounters a “Biblical storm”.

picks tv

tfftth

BEN FOGLE: NEW LIVES IN THE WILD, Channel 5, 9pm: Ben returns to meet more remarkable people who’ve settled in some of the planet’s most remote places.

The latest series begins in the spectacular, snowy Sierra Nevada mountains in the US, home to former champion snowboarder Mike Basich.

He moved there 20 years ago to live off-grid and while it’s not always been a walk in the park, to say that Ben is impressed by the life that Mike has built for him and

his family up there is a big understatement. Inspiring.

PICKS OF THE DAY

Factual: Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild, C5, 9pm

In tonight’s episode Ben journeys to South America to visit Rhona (above with Fogle), a British-born actress who left Hollywood to live alone in a remote valley in Uruguay, where she is committed to rehabilitating horses. The pair attend an animal auction where they look to rescue any mistreated animals. Later on in the show, Ben experiences nature’s fury when a violent storm hits while he shelters in a fragile biodome.

Nature: Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild, C5, 9pm

TV presenter and adventurer Ben Fogle (left) continues his quest to meet people who have given up the ways of Western civilisation to embrace the wild and enjoy offbeat, adventurous lives with their families. Tonight Ben travels to the Azores islands – a remote archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean – to meet Magnus, Lucy and one-year-old Frey. The family live in an off-grid cottage on a steep-sloped mountain which Magnus’s nomadic father bought for his family back in the 1980s. For the last 15 years, they have taken on the gargantuan task of restoring the property and its land, embracing a unique and alternative lifestyle.

CHOICE

Pirate Rob sounds like the name of a character on a kids’ TV show. But I don’t suggest you point that out to the Pirate Rob we encounter tonight in BEN FOGLE: NEW LIVES IN THE WILD (9pm, Channel 5). I don’t think he’d appreciate it.

And, believe me, this is not a bloke you want to get on the wrong side of. Ben and this Rob fella have actually met before, at Slab City in California, a ramshackle

With Mike Ward

community living very much off the grid.

Even so, Ben sounds kind of wary ahead of their reunion, this time in Oregon, where Bob spends half the year on an island in an industrial river, along with his son Damien and the dog he calls (naturally) Lucifer.

“I’m a tiny bit nervous,” he admits. “The Pirate Rob I met in Slab City was quite scary.

“My memories are of a tough man who had tough laws in a lawless place...”

Elsewhere, Bradley Walsh looks even more uneasy in this week’s BRADLEY & BARNEY WALSH: BREAKING DAD (9pm, ITV1).

And yet all he’s actually doing is climbing a tree.

Admittedly, this tree is quite a tall one. Found deep in a Costa Rican forest, it stretches up 132ft. Also, it’s got an unusual, semi-hollow trunk, which effectively means you’re sort of climbing it on the inside. Or, rather, you’re not but Bradley and Barney are. And Bradley, for one, is bricking it.

“Three percent of people succeed all the way to the top,” their guide tells them.

“What happens to the other 97 per cent?” Barney is keen to know.

His dad seems less than keen to hear the answer.

TUESDAY 10 JANUARY

Television TUESDAY

DOCUMENTARY

TUESDAY 7 FEBRUARY

DOCUMENTARY

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild

Fogle: New Lives in the

Ben

Wild 9pm Channel 5 Catch up on My5 (series 4—16 also available)

Last week, Ben Fogle was clearly envious of the lifestyle of former snowboarder Mike Basich in the Sierra Nevada. But as he nervously asks his latest host about snakes and other local critters, you sense this week’s jaunt isn’t quite so enticing. He’s come to Northern Queensland to meet Bette, 79, who’s been living in a ramshackle house in the rainforest for 30 years. She’s no pushover, decrying Fogle’s attempts at cooking and getting him to help her out around the place. He gently probes to find out what drew her here and the troubles she’s had (there have been a few), and learns to understand the very pure happiness she gets from her surroundings.

GILL CRAWFORD

9.00pm Channel 5

Catch up via My5

“The best way to describe Pirate Rob is edgy I’d better be on my best behaviour.” Ben Fogle’s come to Oregon to spend time with the dreadlocked “bum” he first met ruling the roost in California’s Slab City. But Rob, who’s essentially a modern nomad, also lives in a tent on an island in the middle of a river, overlooked by factories, with his teenage son Damien (and chihuahua Lucifer…). It’s a hand-to-mouth existence Rob makes money by reclaiming cash on empty tin cans but Fogle has to put his own attitudes aside to get to know this weed-loving dad whose entire concern is for his son’s wellbeing.

GILL CRAWFORD

TUESDAY 14 FEBRUARY

DOCUMENTARY

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild

9.00pm Channel 5

Catch up via My5

The words “and potentially lethal” should possibly be added to the title of this week’s episode. Ben Fogle is in Zambia to spend time with English couple Lyndon and Ruth and their two young daughters. They’ve set up a safari lodge right on the bank of the Kafue river, within spitting distance of crocodiles and hippopotamus, and although their life seems fulfilling it has not been without its challenges.

They have been beset by flood and fire, and ex-military man Lyndon is rarely without his rifle. But Ben is clearly entranced. When he says he wants to come back with his own family, you feel he’s not just being polite.

GILL CRAWFORD

National Listings

Episodes were listed weekly across the majority of national and regional publications, see a few examples below.

TUESDAY 7

Channel 5

9pm Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild Ben spends time with Rob in Slab City

Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild, 9pm Ben vists a family in Zambia

Tuesday 10

CHANNEL 5

Channel 5

Ben Fogle revisits a homeless artist in Slab City, California, in ‘New Lives in the Wild’ 9pm, Channel 5

9pm, BEN FOGLE: NEW LIVES IN THE WILD: Ben Fogle

9pm, BEN FOGLE: NEW LIVES IN THE WILD: Ben Fogle