Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild Evaluation and cuttings

Compiled by tpr media consultants +44 (0)20 8347 7020 | sophie@tpr-media.com www.tpr-media.com

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild About New Lives in the Wild Returning for its 16th 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 ­ Series 16. He joined a variety of brave individuals who chose to venture down a very alternative path to everyday life. We watched as Ben travelled from a remote Portuguese mountain to a real life nomad land in the Arizonian desert. Throughout the eleven­part series, Ben seeks to discover the motivation and reality of abandoning a life dominated by debts and daily grind in search of something different. A commonly occurring theme sees nature as solace from the often harsh realities of the fast­paced world we live in. The series sensitively addresses discussions of mental wellbeing and how the natural environment can provide an alternative ‘cure’.

PR Overview We began working with Renegade Pictures on their long­running series Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild in December 2021 with the first episode confirmed to air on Channel 5 on the 4th January 2022. We carried out a high­visibility campaign across TV and radio, broadsheets and mid­market tabloids.

Initially Channel 5 confirmed a 6 episode run of the series, this then extended to 8, then an additional 3 episodes were added running up until 29th March. There were also occasional week­long gaps between episodes to make way for one­off dramas. Changes in scheduling posed a few obvious issues when giving notice to press and securing previews. However, overall there was a total of 575 pieces of coverage from 1st January ­ 29th March 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).

A day before the first episode aired Ben Fogle was interviewed live on BBC Breakfast which has an average of 5.7 million daily viewers. On Tuesday 4th January Ben was then a live video guest throughout Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine Show. Throughout January Ben was also interviewed on Times Radio’s Hugo Rifkind Show and BBC Radio London’s Robert Elms Show. Later on in the series, episode 5 contributor Helen Hart was interviewed on BBC Radio Scotland’s Afternoon Show and episode 8 contributor ‘box van Dee’ was interviewed on Times Radio.

National features included a brilliant double page feature (Print and Online) in the Sunday Times on the Irish couple featured in episode 2 of the series; “We built a healing eco­paradise on an Irish bog”. The Mirror ran an interview with Ben Fogle in print and online; “Ben Fogle wants to spend retirement living on a remote island with his wife”. The Mail Online and Radio Times both 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.

The Daily Express also ran two features throughout the series.

As well as this, there were over 500 national and regional previews and listings of the series across broadsheet, mid­market and tabloid outlets. Please see a small selection of key cuttings here.

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Analytics

Total News Reach

Total News Value

43.3m

5.1m Top 10 Sources by Reach

Top 10 Sources by Value Source Name

Value

Mail Online UK(Web)

1,221,311.00

Source Name

Article Reach

The Guardian.Com (Web)

9,010,830

Daily Mail

482,321.73

Mirror.co.uk (Web)

3,183,673

The Guardian.Com (Web)

315,253.00

Lad Bible (Web)

2,652,783

The Herald

176,477.78

Mail Online UK (Web)

2,009,108

The Daily Telegraph

173,417.68

Dailyrecord.co.uk (Web)

1,386,667

The Sun

153,758.40

The Sun

1,217,029

Metro

147,669.33

The Sun (Ulster)

1,217,029

The Sun (Scotland)

140,758.60

Daily Express (Web)

1,204,633

Radio Times

137,569.46

The Daily Telegraph Online

1,136,292

Radio Times (Web)

134,904.00

Daily Mail

1,133,268

Media Types 01/01/2022 – 01/04/2022 3 8

2

1

UK Nationals 1

UK Additional Regionals Internet

50

UK Key Regionals 183

85

Magazine, Consumer Irish Nationals International Unknown

116

Irish Online 132

Irish Regionals

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Broadcast Television Monday 3rd January ­ BBC Breakfast

Tuesday 4th January ­ Channel 5 Jeremy Vine Show

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Radio Friday, 7 January 2022 ­ BBC London, Robert Elms Show Show ­ interview with Ben Fogle

Saturday, 8 January 2022 ­ Times Radio, Hugo Rifkind Show ­ main programme interview with Ben Fogle

Tuesday, 8 Feb 2022 ­ BBC Radio Scotland ­ interview with contributor Helen on The Afternoon Show with Janice Forsythe

Friday, 4 March 2022 ­ Times Radio ­ contributor Box van Dee interviewed with Ben Fogle by Hannah McInnes standing in for Michael Portillo

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National, Regional and Online Features

9/1/22: The Sunday Times ­ Double page feature (Print and Online) ­ “We built a healing eco­paradise on an Irish bog” ­ “A couple who spent 38 years reviving this barren landscape are now looking for new custodians — compost loo included!” https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/we­built­a­healing­eco­paradise­on­an­irish­ bog­9b8l3kxj9

LOVE IN A BOGGY

CLIMATE

A couple who built a healing eco paradise on an Irish bog are now looking for new custodians — compost loo included! By Hugh Graham

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road and no They are the quiet stars of infrastructure. the 16th series of Ben Fogle’s So why did New Lives in the Wild. The they buy it? “I golden-haired TV presenter went up a hill estimates he has met 100 above the castaways living in remote lake and saw a flash of light,” places, but believes this story Georg recalls. “I had this of a couple who fell in love, feeling that we had found the created an eco paradise and place we were looking for.” healed their pain in the most After they arrived, however, unlikely of places, an Irish they sorely missed seeing bog, is his best yet. trees, so have since planted “A bog is synonymous with 3,000 (one fifth of the land a dark and oppressive place,” Fogle says. “Most people try to is arable). “Trees are a symbol of home,” Georg says. get away from bogs. That is They lived in a caravan for why Georg and Bettina could two years before they started secure that land. No one else building their house, three wanted it. But the before-andyears without electricity, four after pictures are astonishing. without water and five without It shows the power of man — a telephone. They got by on and woman — to turn an gas stoves and candlelight, inhospitable place into a says on a Zoom call from using a local well, harvesting thriving and beautiful habitat Ireland. “We were on a healing of wildlife and colour. It is a rainwater and bathing journey. We wanted to find a (naked) in the lake. All the place in the wilderness and place of great healing and while home schooling two heal that disconnection.” happiness. Georg and Bettina children. “It was a very They could not find that are a very spiritual couple. creative time,” Georg says. special feeling in the Alps so They believe in serendipity “I loved having no decided to up sticks for a bleak and destiny. I stayed for a electricity,” Bettina adds. bog in the West Country of week and came away feeling “Instead of smartphones Ireland after seeing a property uplifted.” Fogle thinks more and TV, we read a lot of ad in a German newspaper. will live like them in the future books. We had to create They have spent the past 38 as people start taking a our own life within.” years reviving the barren personal responsibility for They do have electricity landscape — and their climate change and nurturing today in their four-bedroom psyches. Now in their their mental health. house, which was designed by seventies, they are thinking of In 1984, when the Georg to have an “organic selling. If you long to escape couple viewed the shape” to blend with the the turmoil of the world, the property, there landscape. Three wood stoves bog may be your salvation. were no trees, no provide heating, backed up by Th th i t t f d d an electric for l i storage heater h f

hen Georg and Bettina Peterseil bought a 25-acre property in Co Mayo in 1984, they were spiritually broken.

Bettina, who was born in Hamburg at the end of the Second World War, grew up ashamed of being German, surrounded by a sense of guilt and melancholia. Georg, a Viennese architect, was trying to recover from a traumatic and abusive childhood and a divorce. They met in 1979, and when Bettina inherited some money they decided to make a fresh start. “We felt very separated from the earth and from other people,” Georg

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it could be a person.”

Don’t expect a traditional property transaction. They have not mentioned a price.

“We have to grow with the idea,” Bettina says. “It’s a process the other person has to be willing to enter. months. It fills four It’s about figuring it out wheelbarrows and takes 20 and trusting.” minutes. “It’s not as “It can go fast, it can go unpleasant as it might sound,” slow; we are open,” Georg Bettina says. “We use it to says. The Peterseils haven’t fertilise the garden. It the foggiest idea where they symbolises working with will move to. They might nature, transforming it into even stay on if someone else something useful.” wants to work the land. “We When they arrived not even don’t have a plan. Since the dandelions grew here, so two of us met, our life has Bettina picked “bright stuff worked best when we moved from the side of the road”, into the unknown.” replanted the wildflowers, and nature added more colour to Ben Fogle: New Lives in the the mix. “Bettina’s flowers are Wild is on Channel 5 at 9pm on her spiritual food,” Georg says. Tuesdays. Georg and Bettina The peat also brings her feature in this week’s episode. If peace. “The bog gives me you are interested in becoming shelter,” says Bettina, who the next custodian of the bog, walks on it barefoot. “It sucks send an email to homehelp@ me in, takes me deeper into sunday-times.co.uk myself. It has a healing quality.

When I lie on the heather I feel happy. Bogs are also rich in carbon.”

Yet living the wild life isn’t easy now that they are in their seventies — they spend most of their time cutting branches and chopping wood to keep the stoves going. Georg says it keeps him in shape, but he’d like time to write a book (Bettina is also a writer).

So they are contemplating selling, but not to just anybody — they are looking for a “custodian”. It won’t be their children because they have very cold days.

They grow much of their own food — potatoes, kale, carrots and Brussels sprouts do well here — and use a compost loo, clearing the waste with a shovel every two

BEFORE

settled in Germany. “We are at a stage in our life when it would be good to step back,” Bettina says. “Our question is, how could this natural paradise now best serve other people? Who do we pass the baton to so they can continue our journey? It could be a charity, it could be a trust, it ld b ”

From left: the domed bedroom where Ben Fogle slept for a week; Georg and Bettina Peterseil with the adventurer; the couple lived in a caravan for t b f

two years before building their home; the lake where they swim

Belfast Co Mayo

Galway

Dublin

25 miles

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2/1/22: The Sunday Times (print and online) “Great outdoors a ‘white middle­class theme park’ National parks should be the natural habitat of Britons of all backgrounds, not just the well­off, says the adventurer Ben Fogle” https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the­great­outdoors­is­a­white­middle­class­ theme­park­dsqqf2rcw

Great outdoors a ‘white middle-class theme park’ National parks should be the natural habitat of Britons of all backgrounds, not just the well-off, says the adventurer Ben Fogle Ben Spencer and Hannah Al-Othman The countryside has become a “theme park” enjoyed only by the white middle classes, the broadcaster Ben Fogle says.

In an interview lamenting the breakdown of the UK’s relationship with nature, Fogle said the idea of spending time outdoors had become “alien” to most people. “It’s too hippy,” he said.

“It’s seen as tree-hugging.”

The 48-year-old adventurer said Britain’s faltering link with nature was driving a mental health crisis — and called for schools to help to tackle this by teaching all lessons outdoors. “For 20 years I have been championing the importance of access to outside spaces and lots of schools are starting to have forest schools, but it’s still minimal,” he said.

“It might be an hour a week if you’re lucky. Our whole education system should be outside. If I was education minister, I would just turf all the classrooms

Only 1 per cent of visitors to England’s national parks are from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. Richard Leafe, chief executive of the Lake District National Park, said in 2019 that if a greater diversity of visitors could not be attracted, organisations such as his would no longer deserve the name “national parks”.

Haroon Mota, 36, set up the group Muslim Hikers in lockdown last year. He fell in love with the outdoors on a geography field trip to north Wales, but realised many others from Muslim backgrounds had not been introduced to the countryside in the same way. He agrees that the countryside is too white. “I can relate to that,” he said. “I started hiking 15-20 years ago and back then it was even less diverse than it is now. I hiked for several years before I even bumped into someone of brown-coloured skin.

“There’s a huge level of underrepresentation in the outdoors from our communities. It’s not within our sort of DNA . . . and that’s something that I’ve been working on.”

The group’s first event, in the summer, sold out in 48 hours, with 80 people signing up to climb Snowdon. More than 70 per cent of those registering have been women. The main barriers to participation, Mota said, have been “a lack of awareness, a lack of confidence around the outdoors . . . lack of role models . . . lack of people from our own communities doing these sort of things”.

He said that racism also puts some off. Pictures he posted online of a Christmas Day hike received abusive responses.

“We understand it is a small minority of people making

outside into woods and forests and national parks.”

However, he admitted it would be “an ecological disaster”, adding: “We’ve enough footfall as it is in our rural spaces.”

Fogle acknowledged the pandemic has gone some way to improving the relationship with nature, with many people embracing the outdoors for the first time during the dark days of lockdown. But Britons were still too cut off from nature.

“You only need to travel to Scandinavia or to Canada to see how people work with and embrace the landscape around them,” he said.

“In the UK we don’t even have wilderness, really. We’ve got some beautiful national parks that we should be very proud of. But it’s almost a theme park — you might go and play on an assault course built in the woods. When it comes these comments,” Mota said, “but the to the outdoors, it’s something that’s still impact and consequence of these can be detrimental for people who already feel very white middle-class.” less empowered to get outside.”

He said there was much that organisations could do to widen participation, including engaging with community groups and faith organisations. A key issue is that the outdoor industry has one of the country’s least diverse workforces.

A government-funded project called Generation Green seeks to change that.

Harriet Saltis, 31, a ranger for the Peak District National Park, said the aim of the project was “to get young people, especially from marginalised audiences” heading outdoors. “Every young person should get a night under the stars as an experience,” she added.

Since 2013, Fogle, who is working with the technology company HP as part of its Forest Positive programme to raise awareness of the need for reforestation in the UK, has been visiting those living offgrid for his show New Lives in the Wild. He recently moved with his wife Marina, 41, son Ludo, 12, and daughter Iona, 10, from London to rural Oxfordshire. @Ben_Spencer

The Lake District National Park is keen to attract a greater diversity of visitors.

Haroon Mota, right, became hooked on hiking after a geography field trip ALAMY

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2/1/22: The Mirror (print and online) ­ “Ben Fogle wants to spend retirement living on a remote island with his wife” https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv­news/ben­fogle­wants­spend­retirement­25834814

HIDEAWAY DREAM

FAMILY Ben, Marina, Ludovic and Iona

SANDY Runs animal refuge on a small Greek island

LIFE IN NATURE

22 2 YEARS YE EAR AFTER CASTAWAY

I’ll retire to a remote island with my wife and we’ll go off grid

Ben strides on beach in new series

ALEX Quit his retail job to farm in Portugal

EXCLUSIVE

BY KATIE BEGLEY

I

T has been more than two decades since Ben Fogle shot to fame after marooning himself on a remote Scottish island for the BBC reality show Castaway.

It was an experiment to see whether a group of strangers, cut off from the world for a year, could create a self-sufficient community.

Not only did the experience launch the telly presenter’s career, 22 years later it forms the very foundation of his retirement plan.

When he calls time on showbiz, Ben says he’s going “off the grid” with wife of 16 years Marina, in the remotest possible location.

“I think we all have our retirement mapped out,” says the fatherof-two. “For some people it’s a golf membership, a convertible car and lots of wine for lunch.

“For me, it’s always been a little cabin on an island somewhere with my own canoe and loads and loads of dogs and I just forage.

“That’s basically what I’d do all day. My grandchildren and children will come to visit me and my wife and it’s just a simple life. That’s all I want, a little off-the-grid house.

“Right now I’m hooked into the material world and I’ve always liked this idea that maybe I could abandon all of that.”

That deep-rooted call to nature is probably why he’s so dedicated to his Channel 5 programme, Ben

BEN FOGLE Fogle: New Lives In The Wild, which returns this week for a new series that marks 10 years since it began.

In it the 48-year-old travels the globe to meet men and women who have swapped traditional lifestyles for lives full of adventure.

This series fans will meet Alex Sully, who quit a high-flying retail job for a 35-acre Portuguese farm.

Pensioner Sandy Britton gave up her family wealth to run a refuge for animals on a tiny Greek island.

Davina Foster and Todd ReadBloss ditched London to raise their kids in a remote part of Cornwall so they wouldn’t be impacted by d

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ra ci sm , and Austrians Georg and B ettina m Peterseil have been living in the bog land of Ireland’s County Mayo for more than 40 years.

The one thing that links all the people featured on Ben’s show is that they have followed their dream – something he thinks a lot of British people are too scared to do.

Ben says: “We all have excuses why we’re not going to do something. “ Th ere’s always a reason not to get out of bed early and go for that run, to eat that one extra packet of crisps, to have that drink...

“But if you actually follow those hopes and aspirations, as all of the people that I’ve met over the last decade have done, then you can find that happiness so many of us

outdoors all day long collecting their firewood or putting in water piping, whatever it is, they’re more connected to nature, which is something that I’ve long been an advocate of.”

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e have a mental health crisis right now,” says Ben. “The more people that spend time outdoors the better and all of these people on the show get to do that.

“So they look after their mental health, their physical wellbeing, their diet, what they drink, even their digital diets.

“Stripping all that back, going back to basics, means you cut out all the noise.”

Ben isn’t judging anyone for being sucked into the “gluttonous” lifestyle of the modern world because he fully

admits he’s caught up in the cycle too. He obsessing over what people would engages with social media but towards comment on my own posts... it just felt the end of last year he realised it was like it was becoming more important than other things in becoming a problem. my life. So I deleted While he admits all the social media he’s “someone who apps from my phone. doesn’t really have I’ve had to try “I tried to make it addictive traits”, and step back harder for myself to changes in his habits access it and that sparked concern, so from Instagram. really helped. he decided on a I could see it “I actually deleted digital detox.

“I’ve had to try and getting addictive Twitter completely a year ago and that step back a bit from BEN FOGLE SAYS GIVING UP SOCIAL are looking for.” So why are so many was so liberating.

Instagram because I MEDIA HABITS CAN BE LIBERATING people seemingly unfulfilled by their “It totally changed could see it becoming current daily lives? my life because I addictive,” he admits.

“I think at the heart of all of this “The amount of time I was spending think one of the problems with social is a lot of us have made our lives on it, just picking up my phone every media is that you’re living in a virtual very complicated,” Ben says. time I had an empty moment and world. You’re just showing people what “We think we’ve made it simpler scrolling for no specific reason and then you want them to think, which is a with technology, apps and online y heavily edited snapshot. Then you’re delivery, but they have actually looking at what other people are doing made our lives way more compliwhich... induces jealousy or anxiety.” cated. And by making them way As we look to the year ahead, many more complicated, they’re much Technology, apps will be thinking of changing their lives more stressful. and may be inspired by Ben’s show. and online “It’s almost like we have created a So what advice does he have for vicious circle of anxiety.” delivery have anyone thinking of throwing caution to He adds: “I think we’re quite the wind and heading into the wild? made our lives gluttonous, and not just in our He says: “It’s about adding life to your consumption, but also when it more complicated days, not days to your life. comes to spending.

“I think all the people that I have BEN FOGLE ON WHY HE THINKS SO “Whatever we do, we do to visited have really embraced that. I would MANY PEOPLE LIVE UNHAPPY LIVES extremes. What I’ve found is that say as we, hopefully, begin to recover people who live quite physical lives from this pandemic, just follow your where they have to get up and be dreams and live your life. Just go for it!”

■ The 16th series of Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild begins with Alex’s story tomorrow at 9pm on Channel 5.

features@mirror.co.uk @DailyMirror

DEBUT Ben on BBC’s Castaway

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3/1/22: The Daily Express: “Ben Fogle, 48, will go ''off grid'' with wife when he calls time on showbiz” Ben Fogle, 48, will go ''off grid'' with wife when he calls time on showbiz BEN FOGLE said he has his retirement life "mapped out" and intends to go "off the grid" with his wife Marina. Ben Fogle, 48, knows exactly what he wants to do once he quits his career in the spotlight. The TV star said his plan is to go "off the grid" on an island with his wife of 16 years Marina.

A veteran presenter, Ben shot to fame after taking part in a social experiment on the Scottish island of Taransay for the BBC reality show Castaway.

It has since been 22 years and numerous projects that gave Ben his authority as a broadcaster.

But now the New Lives In The Wild star has laid out a plan for the day he finally retires from public life.

"I think we all have our retirement mapped out," he told Mirror.co.uk "For some people, it's a golf membership, a convertible car and lots of wine for lunch.

"For me, it's always been a little cabin on an island somewhere with my own canoe and loads and loads of dogs and I just forage.

"That's basically what I'd do all day.

"My grandchildren and children will come to visit me and my wife and it's just a simple life."

He concluded: "That's all I want, a little off-the-grid house.

"Right now I'm hooked into the material world and I've always liked this idea that maybe I could abandon all of that."

Ben and Marina have two children together - Ludovic Herbert Richard, 12, and Iona, 11.

The couple also share several dogs that Ben frequently posts on his Instagram account.

Ben recently showed his love for his pets as he shared a heartwarming video of his two black and one golden Labrador dogs.

The clip features the pups taking a nap on the sofa, leaving no room for anyone else to sit.

Ben simply captioned the post: "New Years Eve….."

The clip swiftly garnered comments from fans, with some gushing over the cute animals. cupsoncows wrote: "That's the ultimate chilled new year's eve!

"Happy and healthy new year to you all." irminacorder added: "What a great life these 3 have." ginnyeslick simply stated: "This is so precious." (sic)

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4/1/22: The Daily Express ­ British expat ran away to `magical'' Portugal to `heal'' ­ now `loves his hippy dippy life' https://www.express.co.uk/travel/articles/1544904/british­expat­portugal­ mountains­ben­fogle­channel­5­hippy British expat ran away to `magical'' Portugal to `heal'' - now `loves his hippy dippy life'' BRITISH expats in Portugal may move for the weather and the culture and lifestyle, but one man moved to escape his past on Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild on Channel 5. Ben Fogle is meeting expats all over Europe and finding out about their new lives. On tonight's show, he went to Portugal to meet Alex, a British expat who bought a "whole mountain" in Portugal.

While Alex didn't seem to know exactly what he was doing on his 35 acres of mountainous land and was still learning how to manage it, Ben Fogle tries to understand why he'd move to such a remote area.

The "beautiful" Portuguese countryside is home to the Briton and his dog.

He bought the land for "100,000, not cheap but in comparison to England…" and lives off his savings.

He said: "I've saved a lot of money, it should last me 10 years if I'm careful.

"I worked really hard and this is the reward at the end."

Alex barely spent any money, with most of his house furnished with things he's found in bins and recycled materials.

His bed "is just a mattress on pallets" and "everything is free when you just find them".

One of his biggest expenses was the "68 euros a year in tax", with gas the only other big spending of the expat in Portugal.

The massive property comes with a lot of perks, including "being an explorer on his own property" with many areas he'd still not explored.

And the views were "epic, so magical, I love it".

But the area of Portugal Alex lived in is prone to fires and "the situation was scary", the Briton said.

His solitary life in Portugal was not helped by the fact he spoke "hardly any Portuguese" besides basics such as hello and thank you.

After quitting his job in 2013, Alex found the derelict farm in the Portuguese mountains and moved to the land two years ago.

While there are "loads of flies always", the beautiful setting was "healing" to the British expat.

With a troubled past and "almost like PTSD", he said he was trying to "heal his broken heart" in nature.

He said: "Somebody close to me took their own lives and it shocked me beyond words beyond anything you can imagine.

"I wanted to be more free to work on me more, to enjoy the world."

The Briton had no plans to ever return to England and Ben said he was "stranded in paradise".

He said: "Most of my time is switching off, not thinking about the problems of the past."

To help him manage the land, he has workaways come to the farm and work for food and lodging.

One such worker came three months ago and has big plans for the property.

And ex-dominatrix who "had a big accident in the studio and was put in jail for 10 days" because somebody died, she spent time in India and now has a "spiritual practice".

She and Alex plan on opening a retreat on the property.

Alex said: "I want to open a healing centre here and help people."

While he left England to escape his past, Alex was now quite content.

He said: "I love my hippy dippy life."

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The Mail Online ran weekly features on each individual episode and contributors alongside exclusive clips, see small selection below.

3/1/22: The Mail Online ­ “It's just a simple life': Ben Fogle reveals plans to spend retirement on a remote island with his wife and says he wants to 'abandon the material world” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article­10363579/Ben­Fogle­reveals­plans­ spend­retirement­remote­island.html ''It''s just a simple life'': Ben Fogle reveals plans to spend retirement on a remote island with his wife and says he wants to ''abandon the material world'' Ben Fogle has revealed that he wants to spend his retirement on a remote island with his wife Marina. The writer and adventurer, 48, has told how he would prefer a 'simple life' when he gets older and that he wishes to 'abandon the material world'.

It comes as the star's Channel 5 programme, Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild, returns this week for a new series that marks 10 years since it began.

Dreams: Ben Fogle has revealed that he wants to spend his retirement on a remote island with his wife Marina The father-of-two told The Mirror of his future plans: 'I think we all have our retirement mapped out. For some people it's a golf membership, a convertible car and lots of wine for lunch.

'For me, it's always been a little cabin on an island somewhere with my own canoe and loads and loads of dogs and I just forage.

'That's basically what I'd do all day. My grandchildren and children will come to visit me and my wife and it's just a simple life. That's all I want, a little off-the-grid house.

'Right now I'm hooked into the material world and I've always liked this idea that maybe I could abandon all of that.'

Plans: The writer and adventurer, 48, has told how he would prefer a 'simple life' when he gets older and that he wishes to 'abandon the material world' (pictured with Marina last year) Ben's new show sees him travel the globe to meet people who have swapped traditional lifestyles for lives full of adventure.

The TV star shares his two Ludovic, 11 and Iona, 10, with wife Marina who he married in 2006.

It comes after last year Ben revealed that he doesn't have 'tough enough skin' to take part in a reality show in the 'age of social media' after appearing on Castaway which kickstarted his rise to fame two decades ago.

He recalled his experience on the BBC reality show which saw him spend a year in Scotland battling the elements.

Speaking to The Express , he revealed that he wouldn't appear in a reality show today, adding: 'Would I do it today? Probably not. In 2021, I don't think I would want to appear on a reality TV show in the age of social media.'

It's back: It comes as the star's Channel 5 programme, Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild, returns this week for a new series that marks 10 years since it began (pictured on Castaway in 2000) 'I don't think I have a tough enough skin to endure it.'

The adventurer had been working at Condé Nast for a year when the BBC announced the first reality show which Ben then applied to be a part of. of.

'It was very different to reality shows now, it was for a whole year and it had an innocence about it,' he explained. 'It was pre-social media and a much time to be realityshows show now, contestant is today.'

'It waseasier very different to areality it was than for aitwhole year and it had an innocence about it,' he explained. 'It was pre-social media and a much easier time to be a reality show contestant than it is today.'

After appearing on the show, which was his TV debut, Ben recalled how he suffered a breakdown.

After appearing on the show, which was his TV debut, Ben recalled how he suffered a breakdown.

'Back then, yes, I had a small wobble after I came off, but that was pretty short lived,' he explained.

He went on to admit that he would've still participated in the show if he knew of his struggles that would follow his experience - adding that he is 'pretty robust' - but said he wouldn't encourage his children to ' go out of their way to humiliate themselves on TV.' Family: The TV star shares his two Ludovic, 11 and Iona, 10, with wife Marina who he married in 2006

tpr media consultants – April 2022

9/2/22: Mail Online: “It's a better life, not an easier one: Headmistress, 50, who quit to buy a croft in the Shetland Islands admits it's been tough to tend to 40 sheep, live in a 'rotting' home with no kitchen for 3 years and work to fund renovations” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article­10490565/Couple­reveal­quit­jobs­buy­ remote­85­000­croft­Shetland­Islands.html

Couple reveal they quit their jobs to buy a remote £85,000 croft in the Shetland Islands

A couple who quit city life in 2018 for a £85,000 croft and run down cottage on the Shetland Islands revealed how they were still battling with renovation works three years on, on last night's Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild.

The adventurer travelled to Yell, one of Shetland’s North Isles, which counts 1,000 inhabitants, where he met Helen Hart, 55 and Jason Tilbury, 57, for the Channel 5 show.

They told him how Helen decided to quit her job as a headmistress in Kent after growing disillusioned with the daily grind, and sold her house for £125,000, with Jason quitting his job as an ambulance driver to go with her.

The couple, who did not live together before the big move, bought the 26-acre croft and its rundown cottage in the hope of a better life on the most northerly part of the UK. At the time of the show, which was filmed in 2021, they were still struggling to finish the renovations of the cottage, whose rotten floors needed to be stripped and replaced because rain water and damp dripped down the walls.

They also told Ben they lived for three years without a kitchen and a sink, which had finally just been installed before his visit, leaving viewers impressed by their dedication in sticking it out.

Ben Fogle, left, travelled to Yell, one of Shetland’s North Isles, which counts 1,000 inhabitants where he met Helen Hart, 55 and Jason Tilbury, 57, for Channel 5's New Lives in the Wild , airing at 9pm The couple had a lot of responsibility, looking after 40 sheep on their croft, and admitted they had had to learn as they went and take on extra jobs to pay for the house and the sheep.

Helen used to be a passionate teacher who rose through the ranks, however, becoming a headmistress at an independent school had not been as fulfilling as she would have liked, and found herself on the verge of burnout aged 50.

She decide to quit her job and sold her four bed semi detached house, packing all her belongings into a car and moving to the cottage on Yell in 2018.

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Jason bought into her dream and followed her to the Shetland Islands, where he helped to renovate the centuryold cottage, which was in dire need of renovations.

Helen decided to quit her job as a headmistress in Kent after growing disillusioned with the daily grind and sold her house for £125,000, with Jason quitting his job as an ambulance driver to go with her When Ben visited, the couple had been living on the cottage for more than two years and a half, but work still needed to be done.

The cottage is connected to the grid, and has running water. The couple use peat sourced from the island for free in order to warm their home, however they admitted they often run out.

'Each year we've been here, we don't have enough peat to see us through the year,' Helen said.

They sometimes have to go without electricity, and has only received a wind turbine two days before Ben's arrival The couple had also just got their kitchen sink, after three years without one.

Helen and Jason had to learn how to look after a croft by themselves. It was Helen's dream to move to Yell 'We have not had a kitchen sink for three years,' Helen said, adding that they didn't have a kitchen for the first twoand-a-half years.

Helen revealed the couple used to do the dishes in a basin in the bathroom, and in the shower, saying: 'It was like a camp.'

Jason, who had no experience of building when the couple moved into the cottage, admitted the couple had no idea so much effort would be needed to make the cottage hospitable.

'We knew it needed work,' he said, 'but we thought we'd just have to paint it.'

And Helen had to admit that the weather had taken its toll on the house on more than one occasion.

The couple admitted they did not know how much work they'd need to put out in order to live their Shetland Islands dream 'One night, it was literally flooding in, we didn't have anything to stop the rain. It was actually drenched inside, it was a waterfall,' she told Ben. 'The windows were leaking so much, or were completely rotten,' she added.

Jason, who was doing most of the renovation work, admitted to Ben that the task had been frustrating.

He explained to Ben that the floorboards of the cottage's three rooms were rotten by damp, and needed to be stripped out.

However, the show was filmed when timber supplies were short in 2021, and Jason was still waiting to receive the new floorboards he needed.

He also revealed that delivering to the remote island had an extra cost, and that the works could be delayed by late deliveries or if he did not count the amount of wood he needed properly.

'Realistically it's going to take me the rest of the year to do,' he told Ben. 'You should be quite relaxed but it sounds like you need to have military planning to do stuff like this,' Ben observed.

Helen admitted moving to Shetlands had been her idea, and Jason had gone along with it.

Helen, let, admitting buying the croft and looking after 40 sheep had not been part of her plan when she decided to move to Yell Jason said he didn't like the cottage when he first came to Yell, because the isle does not have the forest he loves.

Ben said he felt that Jason had bought into Helen's dream, but 'was not sold on it yet,' at the time of his visit.

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On top of their renovation work, the couple had to look after the croft and its 40 sheep, which required a lot of expenditure.

Helen explained that if they didn't take care of the croft properly, the local authority could rent it out to someone who could.

In that scenario, Jason and Helen would remain the owners of the land, but would not live on it.

The pair had learned to be crofters as they went, herding and shearing the sheep by themselves, with Jason admitting: 'We've touched the surface of doing it.'

In order to keep the farm running, they both had had to take jobs with Jason working in the Yell fishing industry and Helen teaching at the local school.

The former headmistress from Kent said she was driven on the edge of burnout by the demands of her job 'I feel there is a lot to do around the house and around the croft, I do feel that this is much more than we both envisaged and much more than you chose,' Helen told Ben. 'The croft wasn't planned. It was one of those serendipitous moments, I didn't know the croft would be such an amazing to have and to be part of,' she added.

'The fact we ended up buying a croft to buy the house we wanted is a bonus.

She added that 'coming up here was about a better life, not an easier life.'

'When I got to bed at night, I reflect back on the things we've done that day and if something has gone wrong or if we didn't get that much achieved, I think "But we did it all for ourselves, we're doing it for us".

Jason and Helen had not lived together full time yet by the time they decided to move to Yell in 2018 'If everything goes into hell in a hand basket, we have our house that we own, we have our animals and more importantly in the Shetlands, we've got warmth and we don't have to rely in any system. We can heat ourselves and our water with that,' she added.

'It gives us freedom from all those systems of modern life.'

Helen loved her life as a teacher but grew tired of the daily commute and the non-stop emails.

'I had no time, I was getting up at 5am in the morning, travelling for an hour on the motorway, sometimes an hour and 30 minutes if there was traffic.

'I was just angry with everything, I was angry and frustrated with everything.

'The emails, I think it's the email for me that symbolise it all. They would just come through thick and fast. There was an unwritten expectation that your responded to it like a phone call,' she added.

Viewers were impressed by Helen and Jason taking the plunge and described their decision to move to the Shetland Islands as 'brave' She said her workload meant she 'didn't have time for a life, let alone a hobby.'

'I didn't have time to stop and think of question anything. I couldn't stay doing that for much longer and still be sane.

'Looking back, if I had stayed there much longer I think I probably would have ended up in a bit of trouble,' she added.

When she reached 50, she felt the need to live differently, and she fell in love with the Shetlands by chance during a holiday.

'The minute I stood on the land, I suddenly had this really overpowering feeling like "Here, nature is all around you". The air was fresh and suddenly I could breath,' she said.

She added coming to Yell had been like 'an injection of life.'

'I just want to stop and breath and live, she told Ben.

tpr media consultants – April 2022

22/2/22: Mail Online: “Muslim parents­of­five reveal how they used a CHILDREN'S BOOK to build their family home” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article­10538991/Muslim­parents­five­reveal­ used­CHILDRENS­BOOK­build­family­home.html

Muslim parents-of-five reveal how they used a CHILDREN'S BOOK to build their family home

A Muslim family who left city life behind to start a farm from scratch and produce sustainable halal meat told Ben Fogle how they built their house using a children's book on tonight's episode of New Lives in the Wild.

In the show, which airs at 9pm on Channel 5, Lutfi and Ruby Radwan, two Londoners turned Oxford University academics turned farmers, welcomed Ben on Willowbrook Farm, a 46-acres holding they bought for £130,000 after selling their house in 2002.

The parents-of-five live on the farm with their children, aged 16 to 31, and look after hens, milking goats, ducks and sheep, as well as alpacas. They live off their own meat and the vegetables they grow on the farm, which is the first and only organic halal farm in the UK. Lutfi, who was inspired to get away from the city after a research trip to Sudan in the noughties, revealed the whole family pitched in to build their home on the farm, which is made of mud, clay and straw sourced from the holding.

The father-of-five added the family used the children's book Harry Builds a House by Derek Radford for guidance as they laid the foundations for their home, building it in just two years.

Scroll down for video On tonight's New Lives in the Wild, Lutfi and Ruby Radwan, two Londoners turned Oxford University academics turned farmers, welcomed Ben Fogle, left on Willowbrook Farm, a 46-acres holding they bought for £130,000 after selling their house in 2002 The couple used clay, mud, straw and sand to build their own house and looked after the electricals and plumbing themselves Two decades on, Lutfi and Rubi's children are all invested in the farm and its future, but admit they have encountered racism because of 'how they look'.

Meanwhile, whilst their parents said they don't want to pressure their children into taking on the farm, for middle son Halil, 28, and his wife, Lamia, the 'overwhelming' reality of looking after the holding has just set in.

Ben was deeply impressed with the family's home, which is located in what he called 'quintessential British countryside.

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The house was built using clay, mud and straw all sourced by the family on their land, bought at the turn of the millennium.

The whole family got involved in the building, with Lutfi admitting they had to learn on the job, especially with the plumbing and the electrics.

He told Ben how they relied on Harry Builds a House by Derek Radford, which tells the story of a hippo and his friends building a home, in order to build their own abode.

He joked the 'wonderful' children's book is 'very detailed' and taught the family how to lay their pipes.

Ben said he didn't know if the family was 'pulling his leg,' but soon realised they were serious. He asked them if they had found building a house from scratch 'daunting.

'Not daunting, exciting,' Ruby said, albeit admitting building the house took a strain on the couple and that they 'almost fell out of love' because of it.

The house which took two years to build according to Lutfi and five according to Ruby, is a fully realised building with a sewage system, several rooms, a functioning kitchen and a large lounge overlooking the farms.

The couple live in the main house with three of their five children, including Camilla, 21, who looks after the farm's horses and Ali, their youngest, 16, who is learning his way around farming.

The two eldest sons, Adam, 31 and Halil, 28, live with their own family on other houses built around the holding. The fifth child did not appear in the programme.

During his stay, Ben slept in a caravan parked on the holding and learned from Ruby and Lutfi that they too stayed in caravans in the first few years on the farm while they built their home.

Lutfi explained the family had very little money when they first arrived because they spent all the proceeds of their house sale on buying the land and their first flock of chickens.

Nearly 20 years on, however, the farm is a thriving enterprise.

Lutfi, who oversees any of his children's undertaking on the farm, explained to Ben that being Muslim, the family produce Halal meat, which means 'correct,' 'pure'; and 'organic' in the Quran.

He said: 'The welfare of animals is very much part of the halal process.'

Father-of-five Lutfi revealed how the family used clay, sand and straw sourced from the farm to build their home Ben learned about Lutfi and Ruby's sustainable farm, which produces halal meat and makes a limited profit He said halal meat makes you 'conscious you're taking a life at that point', and that the family make sure their animals are calm before they kill them and say a prayer for them.

This idea for a country life and the couple's curiosity over where their food comes from began during a year they spent in Sudan doing research for Oxford University.

'The germ of the idea was working in Sudan. We had gone to live there for a year with two children at the time,' Lutfi said.

'We reflected upon the whole experience,' Ruby agreed, adding the couple had a wakeup call while visiting a Sudanese market where they were asked which sheep they wanted to kill in order to eat its meat.

'We're both Londoners, we moved from London to Oxford where we had a young family, and we were more connected with the environment,' Lutfi said.

'We moved away from the urban life to the rural life, I guess it was a natural progress.'

The couple admitted that starting the farm while building their house and looking after their young children had been 'exhausting.'

'We'd come and just collapse into bed in our muddy clothes. You have to be here every single day, stuff has to be done, you can't stop and you can't take a break,' Ruby said.

Lutfi admitted he reached a point where exhaustion took over.

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Lutfi, a father-of-five, said he does not want to pressure his children in taking over the farm once he is too old 'I reached one point where my body rebelled against me and I remember one morning letting the birds out and it was a snowy morning and I stumbled and I just fell on the ground, and I just didn't have the physical strength to get up.

'And I laid there in this blissful state, it was almost a spiritual coma and I just laid there thinking, "No one else is up, no one else can come and get me, I can't move".'

However, both agreed they found starting the farm 'exciting.'

'That adrenaline of selling your home for a bunch of magic beans, owning your land, having control of your destiny, not working as a paid employee but making up as you go along, I found that very exciting,' Lutfi said.

The couple's 28-year-old son Halil, which is the middle child, is raising his family on the farm, and said he hopes to take over the holding with his wife and their family.

Halil explained that there is an ethnicity gap within the British farming community because the families who migrate to the UK often prefer to take on academic roles rather than farming.

'The people like us would feel out of place in the country side, there is a lot more multiculturalism going on in towns and villages,' he said.

He also admitted the family have experienced racism, due to how they look.

'It's not about our family or who we are, it's because of how we look.' he told Ben. 'What we're doing and who we are as a family is not going to be a problem, the only difference is that we're a bit brown,' he said.

Ruby said she felt dialogue about the issue is important.

'Sometimes people don't ask questions because they think they're gonna offend you, and often, we don't want to give information because we don't want to feel like we're indoctrinating or talking about things you're not really interested in,' she said.

'Prejudice can only be tackled with dialogue and contact,' she added.

Ruby and Lutfi also discussed their sustainable business model with Ben, explaining that starting the farm has driven them to eat less meat, and that they have made a conscious choice not to expand the farm in order to keep their exploitation small.

'It is difficult, we're not going to expand as a business model,' Lutfi said.

'We could get more sheds, more birds. It's the capitalist way but it's not the way for us,' he added.

Ruby admitted the income they get from the farm is limited, but said it is enough to keep them going.

None of the children living on the farm are money driven, and in spite of the demands of the farm, they do not feel trapped.

Adam, the eldest son, 31, admitted to Ben he is learning to fall back in love with farming after his interest in the holding started to 'wane.'

Meanwhile, Camilla, who was three when the family moved to the farm, said she feels she can do what she wants in life without being pressured by money concerns, thanks to the work her parents put in.

However, while Lutfi and Ruby love to keep an eye on the farm - with the mother-of-five joking she'll die looking after her vegetable patch - the couple have started to speak of their retirement.

'We hope that we will still be able to contribute on the farm, still be able to live on the farm,' Lutfi told Ben. The adventurer asked the patriarch if he is worried about putting pressure on his children to take over.

In Harry Builds a House, the hippo and his friends lay down the pipes and foundation for their home

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'We try very hard for them not feel that. When you look around, the environmental thing we have and the reputation we're developing from what we do, they have to live up to that. But I never want them to live with that pressure,' he said.

He added that all his children feel 'connected to the farm,' but have 'different ideas,' and that he is not sure which way things will go.

Halil's wife Lamia admitted to Ben that taking care of the farm is a huge undertaking.

'The more we're trying to take over, the more we see, "Oh we haven't thought of this aspect of the farm",' she said.

'They do a lot and it's very overwhelming,' she said, talking about her parents-in-law.

However, she said the family was trying to get to a stage where everyone could pursue their own roles on the farm and not be pressured into doing something they don't want to do.

Ruby did not seem to worried about the future, as she told Ben: 'satisfaction implies a completion', adding: 'It's never finished, it's never going to end, there is always more an new exciting things to move on to.'

However, the parents-of-five said they could not be prouder of their family.

'That's just really lovely, it is a privilege to be with all of them together like this and feel "Wow, this is my family",' she told Ben.

9/3/22: Mail Online: Domestic violence survivor, 69, reveals how she fled the life that made her suicidal to become a nomad in her 60s and says 'I haven't been afraid since the day I left' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article­10591491/Nomadic­singleton­69­fled­ abusive­relationship­life­filled­joy.html

Nomadic singleton, 69, who fled her abusive relationship for a life filled with joy

tpr media consultants – April 2022

A woman who spent most of her life feeling worthless has revealed how becoming a nomad in her 60s has finally brought her a peaceful life filled with joy and happiness.

Appearing on last night's episode of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild, Dee, 69, revealed how she now travels the deserts of Arizona after fleeing from her controlling and coercive husband in Modesto, California, five years earlier.

She now lives in a 6ft by 10ft box van, which she renovated all by herself, and shares her life on her YouTube channel to encourage others to get back to nature.

This is despite battling a string of health problems, including a stroke, chronic pain and breakig her back, as well being close to going blind after four eye surgeries.

However, Dee told Ben that she was suicidal when she left her ex-husband and that life on the road has finally given her happiness.

Viewers were hugely impressed by Dee's story, hailing her as 'inspirational' and 'extraordinary', saying she proves it's never too late in life to make a change.

In last night's episode of New Lives in the Wild, Ben Fogle traveled to the mountains of Arizona to meet Dee, 69, who has been living as a nomad for the past five years Dee escaped her life in Modesto California after she couldn't take anymore abuse from her husband. He controlled everything she did from when she went to sleep to what clothes she wore Bon in Washington DC in 1952, for most her life Dee lived in the city working a variety of jobs from a poker dealer to making Venetian masks, but she found that happiness eluded her.

She suffered several failed marriages and was limited by serious health problems.

It all came to a head five years ago when the pressures of her abusive marriage and the pain she was experiencing from her illness made her life more and more of a struggle.

Dee who now lives in the mountains near Lake Havasu City said: 'Five years ago I got a divorce, tried living on my own. It was very hard, it was impossible.

Viewers were impressed by 'strong' and 'inspirational' Dee and said she proves it's never too late in life to make a change 'It got to the point where I couldn't pay the bills and I couldn't buy food. I couldn't buy anything so I took off.'

She revealed to Ben that she left everything behind with little more than the clothes on her back.

She is no stranger to the nomadic lifestyle, explaining that she grew up with seven people in a station wagon and traveled from when she was six-years-old.

However, she was bullied as a child and called 'white trash,' leading her to believe that she was unworthy of love.

Throughout the episode she revealed how this feeling only become stronger over time and how she felt her life had no value.

'Truthfully, when I left Modesto, California a little over five years ago, I didn't want to go on, I really didn't want to go on,' she admitted.

In this week's episode Ben joined Dee in her box van, experiencing what it is like to live without a base. He joined in cleaning her solar panels and helped to build his own bed for the back of her car 'I was miserable. I was in a very abusive relationship, marriage. I hate to talk about him as he's just passed, but I didn't want to go on anymore, I wanted to quit.

'I couldn't do anything. I had no control when I wanted to go to bed, when I wanted to get up, when I ate, or what I could wear. I just knew I had to get out.'

Recalling how she finally took the leap, she said: 'It was breaking free from so much. I didn't want to be a victim anymore. I wanted to find some joy.

'I wanted to make some choices in my life, even if they were wrong. I have not been afraid since the day I left.'

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She said that she felt her choice was 'either I end it all or I get moving'.

'I got moving and I'm glad I did that. I'm free, how many people can say that?' she asked.

Dee, with her small dog Maxie, has since taught herself how to live in a small vehicle, in which she is exposed to elements.

She has had to become self sufficient and is an excellent carpenter, which she proved by making Ben a bespoke bed for the car after he was 'twisted' from one night of sleep on the back seat.

Dee built her van herself after living in her car for six months. She even built a copper toilet for the vehicle 'When I first started my journey, I lived in a car for six months,' she said.

Dee took out the back seat and the passenger seat made a wooden frame for the car.

In the early days she was surviving on just over $800 a month from social security.

She has since upgraded to a 6 foot by 10 foot box van, which she renovated all by herself.

She told Ben that 'it is a home' explaining that she has everything she needs.

'I have a bedroom, I have a kitchen, I have a bathroom.'

She even built herself a copper toilet and has solar panels on the roof of the van for electricity.

She said: 'I love working with wood. I built a handicap van when I was in the wheelchair.'

Asked to expand on this by Ben she explains that she was in a wheelchair for five years after being diagnosed with chronic pain in different parts of her body and losing the strength in her legs at the same.

Ben questions how she overcame this adversity and started walking again.

She says: 'I got tired of not living my life. I got tired of dying basically and I decided "I'm going to live". So I got out of the wheelchair and started walking a block, then two blocks.

The 69-year-old explains how she has never been happier and for the first time ever has found love for herself 'It was painful at first, then I started dance. I danced three times a week and I loved it! I did the swing, twirling around the floor doing the twist, I had a blast.'

However, it is revealed that Dee continues to suffer with ill health and had a stroke, broke her back and is close to going blind, even after four eye operations.

It is bittersweet that after finding joy in life, at nearly 70 years of age, in the unrestrained life of a nomad that Dee has to consider the reality of her situation and admit that her lifestyle is unsustainable.

When asked if she will find somewhere permanent, she says: 'I don't like the word permanent. Because of my eye, because of my health I am afraid I will go blind. So I have rented a space in an RV camp so I have a home base.

'You learn to deal with changes out here, my life changes every day of my life, so I just adapt. I may not like everything to start with, but I learn to accept it and find joy in it.'

Dee has named her box van Dee-lightful, which she says is for 'Dee-lightful adventures.'

When questioned about the etiquette of traveling she explained that there are 'unsaid rules,' and that you want to 'respect' you neighbours and do not approach them without warning.

Ben questioned Dee about her safety, to which she responded that she has a 'what they call a sapper' and can shock someone if she needs to She also has a pepper spray and a 'good knife, with a jagged edge' She said: 'Something could happen, but I just don't let it stress me out.'

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In the early days of nomad life Dee started a YouTube channel, Box Van Dee, which now has more than 18,000 subscribers and earns her just over $4,000 a month.

'I just share the way I live and if they like it it's great, and if it's useful that's also great. That's what my channel is about, inspiring others how to do and how to survive in a life when not everything's perfect.

'To show them how they can survive no matter what their circumstances are, no matter where they come from.'

In yesterday's episode Dee put Ben to task as chief solar panel scrubber for her YouTube.

She explained that 'more and more' people are getting on the road, due to loss of their jobs or just simply because they love it.

Ben asked if those who don't choose this life for themselves grow to love it.

'It's a very difficult life at times, so I wouldn't say that many grow to love it, but some do, like me,' she said.

Towards the end of the episode Dee introduces Ben to her friends who have chosen this lifestyle after finding her YouTube channel.

Derek and Tanya were living in California when Tanya came across Dee's YouTube channel.

She says: 'I was really inspired by her, she had a lot of issues and obstacles with her health, but she was thriving and I thought, "Why couldn't we?".'

Dee who has experienced many health issues in her past fears going blind and has rented herself a spot on an RV camp for when she will need a permanent base Derek, who has been in a wheelchair for eight years, could easily relate to Dee's story.

He explains that he worked in the Navy before moving to Federal Law Enforcement, where he had an accidental discharge with his weapon at the bottom of his neck, just missing his spinal cord; but close enough to cause permanent damage.

On hearing their story Dee said: 'I want to show people that it can be done. Don't let a day pass that you don't find joy.'

Dee loves the landscape of Arizona, on her favourite spots is Plomosa Road, she said that the environment makes her feel good inside and whenever she finds a new place to camp she likes to walk and immerse herself in the landscape around.

tpr media consultants – April 2022

Radio Times ran weekly features and exclusive clips on each individual episode and contributors, see small selection below.

1/1/22: Radio Times: “Ben Fogle discusses difficulties and risks in new series of New Lives in the Wild” https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/documentaries/ben­fogle­new­lives­in­the­wild­ exclusive­newsupdate/

Ben Fogle discusses difficulties and risks in new series of New Lives in the Wild TV presenter Ben Fogle is returning for series 16 of his hit show, New Lives in the Wild, which sees him visiting people who have radically changed their lives by moving away from the hustle and bustle for a simpler life. But while migrating to a remote part of the world might seem "easier", Fogle has opened up about some of the difficulties and risks he experienced during filming for the new series.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, he revealed how the pandemic in particular has made migrating harder, saying: "The logistics of travelling around with COVID is very difficult."

And it's not the only issue.

He continued: "But certainly in terms of how people live, everyone has their own difficulties. Whether it's having access to water, too much rain, too much wind, too little rain, too little wind, all of those things. So I think almost everyone we went to had issues."

In episode one, Fogle visits a man named Alex, who now lives in a huge piece of land in a forest in Portugal, which is prone to forest fires.

So, did Alex's living conditions make Ben nervous?

"No, if I'm to be honest," Fogle admitted. "I think there's a risk in almost everything in life. I think if anything we've become too risk averse, and if you worry about moving somewhere because there may be forest fires or because there may be a hurricane or a typhoon, then you're never going to be able to pursue your dream.

"So no, it didn't. But I think you're very respectful of a big forest fire, which killed nearly 100 people. So I think you're acutely aware of the dangers, but forest fires are unfortunately a reality in many parts of the world now, particularly with the change in the climate."

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

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3/1/22 ­ Radio Times: “Ben Fogle opens up on “inspirational” older couple in New Lives in the Wild” https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/documentaries/ben­fogle­new­lives­in­the­wild­ couple­exclusive­newsupdate

Ben Fogle opens up on "inspirational" older couple in New Lives in the Wild The TV presenter was "inspired" by the pair during filming for series 16. Ben Fogle is back visiting people who have completely transformed their lives in a brand new series of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild.

The new episodes, which start on Channel 5 this week, will see the presenter travelling around the UK and Europe as he meets with individuals who have turned their back on the busy, corporate lifestyle for a simpler way of life.

And there's one particular couple who touched Ben's heart during filming for series 16.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Ben opened up about a German-Austrian couple, who he meets in episode two at their new home in Ireland.

"For me, it wasn't necessarily the most beautiful of places, but I loved their story. I thought it was very lyrical and poetic. I thought they spoke very movingly about getting old. They're the oldest couple that we've ever had on this series," he explained.

"The fact that they offered their whole life to one of the viewers of this show kind of seems amazing to me. The fact that they trust me enough that they genuinely think someone who watches it might like to move into their house moved me to tears and is one of the most beautiful things anyone's ever said.

"It's the power of trust and I was a complete stranger to them. They were without doubt the most inspiring couple I've ever met in my life. And I just thought, everything they said and everything they had created was incredibly profound."

Unattributed [sourcelink]https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/documentaries/ben-fogle-new-lives-in-the-wild-couple-exclusive-newsupdate/ [/sourcelink]

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18/1/22: Radio Times ­ “Ben Fogle greeted by horde of barking dogs in New Lives in the Wild clip” https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/entertainment/ben­fogle­new­lives­in­the­wild­ clips­exclusive­newsupdate/

Ben Fogle greeted by horde of barking dogs in New Lives in the Wild clip

The presenter's latest adventure takes him to a Greek animal shelter.

Published: Tuesday, 18th January 2022 at 3:17 pm This week’s episode of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild is a must-see for animal lovers, whisking viewers away to a sanctuary populated by more than 50 furry friends.

The latest subject of the documentary series is Sandy, a woman who made a fresh start on the Greek island Andros, where she now looks out for the local animal population.

She shares her home with 25 dogs, eight donkeys, a horse and a mule, as well as more than 20 cats, and Ben soon sees that she isn’t planning on slowing down anytime soon.

In her mission to ensure all animals are given the treatment they deserve, Sandy rushes out to investigate reports

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of a dog being held in poor conditions, confronting the owners before ultimately taking the pup into her care.

Watch the exclusive clip below.

While the somewhat confrontational nature of Sandy’s approach might make Fogle nervous, he could barely hide his excitement over the welcome party that greeted him upon his arrival on Andros.

Making his way up to Sandy’s home, he admired a sign reading “friends not food”, and introduced himself to a group of donkeys, before being greeted by a small army of barking dogs.

Check out the second exclusive below: The 16th season of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild has seen the presenter meet remarkable people in Portugal and Ireland, with next week’s finale bringing him back to the UK. Travelling to Cornwall, he’ll meet Davina and Todd, who fled the hustle and bustle of the city for a more natural way of life tending to an off-grid farm.

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild continues tonight at 9pm on Channel 5. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.

25/1/22: Radio Times ­ “Ben Fogle joins family's chaotic morning routine in New Lives in the Wild clip” https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/documentaries/new­lives­in­the­wild­exclusive­ newsupdate/

Ben Fogle joins family's chaotic morning routine in New Lives in the Wild clip

Ben Fogle returns to our screens with a new episode of Channel 5's New Lives in the Wild, with the presenter visiting a spirited couple in the rugged cliffs of Cornwall.

Davina and Todd may have swapped city life for the countryside, however in a first-look clip shared exclusively by RadioTimes.com, we see that their family's morning routine is just as chaotic as any other household's.

In the video, we watch as the couple get two of their young children ready for school, with Davina telling Ben: "This is a 'welcome to the circus' kind of thing."

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When Ben asks whether the pair had considered home schooling, Davina responds that it's "definitely not for" them, before rushing off to get little Harry to nursery.

Once the children are at school, Davina and Todd crack on with turning their 7-acre empty plot into an off-grid farm, attempting to shift 20 tonnes of clay which Ben brands as "back-breaking work".

The upcoming episode will follow the couple as they continue to prepare their land for the arrival of pigs, ducks and over 100 rescued chickens – a process that has taken five years so far.

"Me and Todd are really different but we're a team," Davina says in the second clip. "We've got the four kids to deal with. One of us drives, one of us doesn't. I do love that we make one whole person, do you know what I mean? Maybe one and a half."

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Tonight's instalment of New Lives in the Wild will also explore Davina and Todd's personal challenges, from financial worries and mental health struggles, to concerns over racial discrimination which drove their family across the country.

22/3/22: Radio Times ­ “Ben Fogle revisits artist who lived in the Sahara through pandemic” https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/documentaries/ben­fogle­new­lives­artist­ exclusive­newsupdate/

Ben Fogle revisits artist who lived in the Sahara through pandemic

Ben Fogle is continuing on his journeys to meet people who have set up new, alternative and remote lives for themselves – but on tonight's brand-new episode he will in fact be revisiting an old friend.

In the episode airing tonight (22nd March) at 9pm on Channel 5, Ben heads back to Morocco where he first met Karen in a 2019 episode of the long-running show Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild.

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In a first look for RadioTimes.com, Karen explains to Ben why her home will be "ever-evolving", and how her life is a "constant journey". Watch the exclusive clip below.

As Ben explains in the clip, Karen experienced the increased isolation of the pandemic alongside dealing with the extreme climate of the Sahara.

The official synopsis for the new episode reads: "Ben heads back to the stunning Saharan landscape of Morocco, where he first met Karen, an extraordinary artist who had turned her back on urban life to live in the middle of the desert.

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"Last time, Ben learned how Karen had transformed her arid plot of desert into a stunning artist’s retreat. They trekked into the sand-dunes, built bamboo shelters and embraced Karen’s life in her local Berber village.

"Ben discovered that he was visiting her at one of the most difficult points in her life – she was grieving the passing of a beloved friend and companion, who inspired her and helped her create her wild home.

"Now, Ben uncovers how the local community has been a source of strength to her, learns of the constant battle she faces with the elements and discovers the looming threat that could change Karen’s entire way of life."

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6/2/22: The Sunday Post (print) ­ “I’d never heard of Shetland, Now I can’t imagine leaving” https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/property­market­shift/

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3/1/22: Hideaway dream 22 years after castaway

HIDEAWAY DREAM 22 2 YEARS YE EAR AFTER CASTAWAY

FAMILY Ben, Marina, Ludovic and Iona

SANDY Runs animal refuge on a small Greek island

LIFE IN NATURE

Ben strides on beach in new series

ALEX Quit his retail job to farm in Portugal

I’ll retire to a remote island with my wife and we’ll go off grid BEN FOGLE

EXCLUSIVE

BY KATIE BEGLEY

I

T has been more than two decades since Ben Fogle shot to fame after marooning himself on a remote Scottish island for the BBC reality show Castaway.

It was an experiment to see whether a group of strangers, cut off from the world for a year, could create a self-sufficient community.

Not only did the experience launch the telly presenter’s career, 22 years later it forms the very foundation of his retirement plan.

When he calls time on showbiz, Ben says he’s going “off the grid” with wife of 16 years Marina, in the remotest possible location.

“I think we all have our retirement

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mapped out,” said the dad of two.

“For some people it’s a golf membership, a convertible car and lots of wine for lunch.

“For me, it’s always been a little cabin on an island somewhere with my own canoe and loads and loads of dogs and I just forage.

“That’s basically what I’d do all day. My grandchildren and children will come to visit me and my wife and it’s just a simple life. That’s all I want, a little off-the-grid house.

“Right now I’m hooked into the material world and I’ve always liked this idea that maybe I could abandon all of that.”

That deep-rooted call to nature is probably why he’s so dedicated to his Channel 5 programme, Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild, which returns this week for a new series that marks 10 years since it began.

In it the 48-year-old travels the globe to meet men and women who have swapped traditional lifestyles for lives full of adventure.

In this series fans will meet Alex Sully, who quit a high-flying retail job for a 35-acre Portuguese farm.

Pensioner Sandy Britton gave up her family wealth to run a refuge for – something he thinks a lot of British people are too scared to do. animals on a tiny Greek island.

Ben said: “We all have excuses Davina Foster and Todd Readwhy we’re not Bloss ditched going to do London to raise something. their kids in a Technology, apps “ Th ere’s remote part of always a reason Cornwall so and online not to get out of they wouldn’t delivery have bed early and go be impacted by for that run, to ra ci sm , and made our lives eat that one Austrians Georg more complicated extra packet of a n d B e tti n a crisps, to have Peterseil have BEN FOGLE ON WHY HE THINKS SO that drink… been living in MANY PEOPLE LIVE UNHAPPY LIVES the bog land of “But if you Ireland’s County actually follow Mayo for more than 40 years. those hopes and aspirations, as all The one thing that links all the of the people that I’ve met over the people featured on Ben’s show is last decade have done, then you can that they have followed their dream find that happiness so many of us

people who live quite physical lives where they have to get up and be outdoors all day long collecting their firewood or putting in water piping, whatever it is, they’re more connected to nature, which is something that I’ve long been an advocate of.”

B

en added: “We have a mental health crisis right now. The more people that spend time outdoors the better, and all of these people on the show get to do that.

“So they look after their mental health, their physical wellbeing, their diet, what they drink, even their digital diets.

“Stripping all that back, going back to basics, means you cut out all the noise.”

Ben isn’t judging anyone for being sucked into the “gluttonous” lifestyle of the modern world because he fully

are looking for.” So why are so many people seemingly unfulfilled by their current daily lives?

“I think at the heart of all of this is a lot of us have made our lives very complicated.

“We think we’ve made it simpler with technology, apps and online delivery, but they have actually made our lives way more complicated. And by making them way more complicated, they’re much more stressful.

“It’s almost like we have created a vicious circle of anxiety.”

He added: “I think we’re quite gluttonous, and not just in our consumption but also when it comes to spending.

“Whatever we do, we do to extremes. What I’ve found is that

admits he’s caught up in the cycle too. He obsessing over what people would engages with social media but towards comment on my own posts… it just felt the end of last year he realised it was like it was becoming more important becoming a problem. than other things in While he admits my life. he’s “someone who “So I deleted all the I’ve had to try doesn’t really have social media apps addictive traits”, from my phone. and step back changes in his habits “I tried to make it from Instagram. sparked concern, so harder for myself to he decided on a access it and that I could see it digital detox. really helped. getting addictive “I’ve had to try and “I actually deleted step back a bit from Twitter completely a BEN FOGLE SAYS GIVING UP SOCIAL Instagram because I year ago and that MEDIA HABITS CAN BE LIBERATING could see it becoming was so liberating. addictive,” he said.

“It totally changed “The amount of time I was spending my life because I think one of the on it, just picking up my phone every problems with social media is that you’re time I had an empty moment and living in a virtual world. scrolling for no specific reason and then “You’re just showing people what you

want them to think, which is a heavily edited snapshot. Then you’re looking at what other people are doing which… induces jealousy or anxiety.”

As we look to the year ahead, many will be thinking of changing their lives and may be inspired by Ben’s show.

So what advice does he have for anyone thinking of throwing caution to the wind and heading into the wild?

He said: “It’s about adding life to your days, not days to your life.

“I think all the people that I have visited have really embraced that. I would say as we, hopefully, begin to recover from this pandemic, just follow your dreams and live your life. Just go for it.” ●The 16th series of Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild begins with Alex’s story tomorrow at 9pm on Channel 5.

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7/2/22: (Print & online): “Couple Swap Commute for Croft” https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/business­consumer/couple­give­up­stressful­ commute­26155505

COUPLE SWAP COMMUTE FOR CROFT FIELD DAY Helen Hart and Jason Tilbury.

Pic: Cascade News

FARM HANDS The pair with Ben on show

MELLOW YELLOW A HEAD teacher has given up her stressful two-hour commute to school – to become a crofter on a tiny island off Shetland.

Helen Hart, 55, and partner Jason Tilbury, 57, are the owners of South Brough Croft on Yell, one of Shetland’s North Isles, where PRESENTER Ben Fogle

Pair’s new life in Shetland features on TV show

BY JOHN JEFFAY Helen ran a school and Jason was they tend to 26 acres of land, looking an ambulance driver.

Helen said: “The moment I came after 40 sheep and 15 chickens, and here, I just felt this overwhelming running a business selling rugs.

It marks a huge change from peace and sense of belonging.”

Alongside their duties on the their life in Maidstone, Kent, where

croft, Helen works as an English teacher on both Yell and Unst, while Jason is a coastguard. ● The couple’s story is on Ben Fogle’s New Lives In The Wild on Channel 5 at 9pm on Tuesday.

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17/2/22: BBC Scotland: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/34mnMjklDY4wgTmtDv8xJL8/when­ you­know­you­need­to­follow­your­dream­you­find­a­way­of­doing­it

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National Previews and Reviews

WHAT TO WATCH

BEN FOGLE: NEW LIVES IN THE WILD Channel 5, 9pm

Ben Fogle’s always absorbing series on people who throw off the strictures of consumerist society for life off-grid returns. This week he’s in Portugal to meet a 39-year-old Briton who, following a personal tragedy, gave up a successful career in retail to live in a remote mountain hideaway.

Ben F B Fogle: l New N Lives Li in the Wild in the Wild CHANNEL 5, 9PM

A touching episode of Ben Fogle’s meet-and-greets with people who live off-grid sees him on the Greek island of Andros.

There, 75-year-old British woman Sandy lives remotely with more than 50 rescue animals and pursues a lifestyle that has helped her to cope with childhood difficulty and tragedy. VP

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild Channel 5, 9pm Continuing his series about people who have left conventional life behind to live off the land, this week Ben Fogle journeys to rural Oxfordshire to meet the hard working Radwan family, who live on a smallholding. He gets stuck in, filing sheep’s hooves and helping to build a training pen for one of the family’s horses, and learns how they observe halal farming standards while raising their livestock. VL

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New Lives in the Wild New Lives In The Wild (C5, 9pm) Ben Fogle travels to Portugal to meet Alex, who quit a demanding retail job to live alone on a remote mountain.

The idyllic setting offers an escape from a traumatic past, but Fogle’s judgments on his host are unusually forthright.

A new arrival takes the story in an unexpected direction.

DOCUMENTARY

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

The presenter begins a new series by heading to the remote mountains of central Portugal.

He goes to live with 39-yearold Alex, a British man who traded in his lucrative retail career for a mountainside hideaway. Fogle learns how Alex manages to survive with no heating, electricity or water, and joins him as he camps in a ‘floating’ tent and prunes trees to protect them from forest fires. )))))

Channel 5, 9pm Ben Fogle is in a remote corner of Mayo on the west coast of Ireland, where an elderly couple (Georg, an Austrian, and his German wife, Bettina) fashioned a colourful ecohouse on bogland 40 years ago. The way they reclaimed inhospitable territory and turned it into a demi-paradise is extraordinary, but Fogle teases out other more sombre truths from this engaging pair, including dark reflections on being born in postwar Germany and their feelings about the future when the hard work required to maintain their place may be too much. BD

MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild TUESDAY, CHANNEL 5, 9PM Ben Fogle, left, is back, ready to meet more people who have quit the rat race. First up is 39-year-old Alex, who left a lucrative retail career to live in a mountainside hideaway in Portugal. Alex reveals that he made the radical change following a near breakdown and a personal tragedy. He’s had to survive with no heating, electricity or water but is in the process of transforming a centuries-old building into his perfect home. He also tells Ben he’s now ready to socialise again.

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CHRISTOPHER STEVENS LAST NIGHT’S TV

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DIRTY FEET OF THE WEEK: In the marshes of Co Mayo, on New Lives In The Wild (C5), homesteader Bettina made Ben Fogle take off his wellies. She wanted him to ‘feel the energy’ of the bog, barefoot. Maybe Ben has found a new source of green energy . . . mud power.

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ROCKING BACK TO NATURE

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild TUESDAY, CHANNEL 5, 9PM Kezz and Nathalie are 40-somethings who live on England’s most northerly coastline in Northumberland. Fogle, left, asks why they gave up their rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle to become the caretakers of a secluded woodland. He lends a hand with felling trees and tackles the traditional art of charcoal-making while learning all about his open and welcoming hosts. Fogle also discovers how they have created a sustainable business using the materials surrounding their straw bale home.

NOMADIC EXISTENCE

New Lives In The Wild, 9pm, Ch5 BEN FOGLE is headed for Arizona to meet a solo traveller whose nomadic lifestyle comes with a unique set of challenges.

Dee (pictured with Ben) is a disabled retiree who set up home in a former military transport vehicle — and it’s tiny. The Arizona desert can be inhospitable, but Dee shows Ben how she has made it her home.

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d

t

Ben Fogle New Lives In The Wild 9pm, Channel 5 Ben Fogle (Photo: Mike Marsland/WireImage/Getty) Fogle ventures to the Emerald Isle to visit Georg and Bettina, a couple from Austria and Germany who made the Irish wilderness their home nearly 40 years ago. He uncovers what drove them to leave their old lives in continental Europe behind, and learns how they saw life and beauty in the middle of a desolate bog. The couple has transformed an infertile, barren site into their very own nature retreat, building an off-grid home in the process.

Television Tuesday 11 January

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Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild

9pm, Channel 5 Fogle ventures to the Emerald Isle to visit Georg and Bettina, a couple from Austria and Germany who made the Irish wilderness their home nearly 40 years ago. He uncovers what drove them to leave their old lives in continental Europe behind, and

25 dogs, eight donkeys, a horse, a mule and 20 cats...

Those are Ben Fogle’s (right) new housemates as he visits his latest off-grid contributor in Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild (9pm C5).

Sandy (left) set up an animal rescue centre on a mountain on the Greek Island of Andros using some inheritance money – but is it as blissful as it sounds?

learns how they saw life and beauty in the middle of a desolate bog.

They have transformed an infertile, barren site into their very own nature retreat, building an off-grid home in the process.

BOX VAN DEE

That’s the nickname given to modern-day nomad Dee (left), who’s given up on the usual way of living to travel across the US in a former military transport vehicle. In this series finale of Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild (9pm C5), Ben (right) travels to America’s Arizona desert to spend time with Dee.

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PICKS OF THE DAY Travel: Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild, C5, 9pm Broadcaster, writer and adventurer Ben Fogle (near left) continues on his quest to discover why so many people choose to give up their busy, modernday lifestyles to live in some of the most remote corners of the world. In the final episode of the series, Ben heads to Arizona’s sandy deserts to meet Dee (far left), a nomad travelling across the United States in a former military transport vehicle which she has transformed into a cosy mobile home. The presenter experiences first-hand how testing and challenging it is to live out of a small vehicle in the arid surroundings of the inhospitable desert, travelling side-by-side with his host in his own tiny car.

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

It looks as if this inspirational Oxfordshire pair, Lutfi and Ruby, who’ve lived off the land with their family for 20 years, have bought themselves a life-sized Ben Fogle cardboard cutout. And why not? It strikes us a fine way to commemorate the real Ben’s visit, although Ruby still seems to need some convincing.

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Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild 9.00pm Channel 5 DOCUMENTARY After a random

TUESDAY 8 FEBRUARY

TUESDAY Choices The pick of today’s TV At Z

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week off (so that Channel 5 could squeeze in The Teacher across the week), Ben returns to a part of the UK he’s previously visited on the BBC’s ticket. The landscape of Yell in Shetland has a wild beauty, but, seeing as it’s apparently the windiest place in the UK, it’s a wonder more people don’t get blown off into the North Sea. “The weather tries to kill you,” says Helen, who quit her headteacher’s job to move here from Kent with Jason, a former ambulance driver.

Both of their former professions were stressful. But, with the amount of work needed on their windswept croft, have they moved out of the frying pan into the fire? GARY ROSE

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild 9.00pm Channel 5

TUESDAY 15 MARCH

TUESDAY Choices

The pick of today’s TV

R k Till W D

DOCUMENTARY When Ben Fogle

made one of his far-flung housecalls to Lynx Vilden in the snowy far reaches of America’s Pacific Northwest in 2016, she had already spent 25 years living as prehistorically as possible. She ate bear fat, hunted with a homemade bow and arrows, and slept under buffalo skins in her Stone Age dwelling.

Fogle got stuck into her unique survival lifestyle and was his usual charming self, although you suspected he would have killed for one of the film crew’s sleeping bags.

Since then, Vilden has moved and set up home deep in the Norwegian forest. We find out why when Fogle catches up with her tonight. JR

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CHOICE With Mike Ward p y Straight after that, we’re in the Portuguese mountains, or at least Ben Fogle is, for the first in a new series of BEN FOGLE: NEW LIVES IN THE WILD (9pm, Channel 5).

His host for this first show is Alex, 39, who used to have a very stressful job in retail but decided he’d rather live in the middle of nowhere in a run-down farm building which initially had no electricity, no heating, no water, no roof but, looking on the bright side, more wasps and flies than you could possibly dream of.

BEN FOGLE: NEW LIVES IN THE WILD Channel 5, 9pm

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

Ben is on the Greek island of Andros, where his host runs an animal shelter. It means he has to spend the week in a house packed with cats, dogs and more. Not that he minds, of course.

And the setting does have its benefits. In fact, look – here’s one of the cute canine residents, helping him hone his ventriloquism act.

In this inspiring series, Ben Fogle meets people who have rejected the rat race and carved out a very different life for themselves.

Tonight, he goes to stay with elderly couple Georg and Bettina Peterseil, who left Austria more than 40 years ago to start afresh in Ireland.

Both were keen to leave their troubles behind them, so they bought a piece of land on a bog in County Mayo.

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

The presenter meets up with Davina, Todd and their family, who have spent five years turning their seven-acre plot in Cornwall into an off-grid farm. Ben dives into the hectic daily routine and quickly learns that the “good life” can be at the mercy of the west coast weather. He also hears about the couple’s concerns about discrimination and their children’s future.

While the views are stunning, it wasn’t the easiest landscape to build on, and they spent years raising their children in a static caravan without electricity, while they slowly battled the elements to erect their dream home.

It was worth the wait however as the end result is amazing, and has given the couple true peace.

But with Georg now unable to do the physical maintenance and their adult children preferring city life, they must decide what the future holds – for them and their home.

PIONEERS Ben with Bettina and Georg

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TV Listings Magazines (National)

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National Listings

CHANNEL 5

Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild, 9pm A reunion with artist Karen

Tuesday 4

Channel 5

CHANNEL 5

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild 9pm, BEN FOGLE: NEW LIVES IN THE WILD: Ben Fogle

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Channel 5

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild 9.00pm Dee meets Ben in Arizona

9.00 New. Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild

8/8 Series 16. Ben travels to the of Arizona to meet Dee, aadeserts modern-day nomad travelling across the state in a former military transport vehicle. See page 70.

Ben Fogle heads to Northumberland to meet people living ‘New Lives in the Wild’ 9pm, Channel 5

Series producer Natalie Wilkinson (S) (HD)

Channel 5

9pm, NEW LIVES IN THE WILD: Ben Fogle

9pm Ben Fogle heads back to Morocco to meet Karen in New Lives In The Wild

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Regional TV Previews BEN FOGLE: NEW LIVES IN THE WILD Channel 5, 9pm

record tv

IN this inspiring series, Ben Fogle meets people who have rejected the rat race and carved out a very different life for themselves.

Tonight, he goes to stay with elderly couple Georg and Bettina Peterseil, who left Austria more than 40 years ago to start afresh in Ireland.

Both were keen to leave their troubles behind them, so they bought a piece of land on a bog in County Mayo.

While the views are stunning, it wasn’t the easiest landscape to build on, and they spent years raising their children in a static caravan without electricity, while they slowly battled the elements to erect their dream home.

It was worth the wait however as the end result is amazing, and has given the couple true peace.

But with Georg now unable to do the physical maintenance and their adult children preferring city life, they must decide what the future holds – for them and their home.

PIONEERS Ben with Bettina and Georg

aytv d r u sat ere rts h e sta guid V T ay en-d r sev You

Top 10

Take a look at our pick of the best shows on the small screen this week

TUESDAY, C5, 9PM Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild Ben, left, ventures to the lesser- known Greek island of Andros to visit Sandy, founder of a remote animal shelter. Sandy never takes a day off and says the animals give her all she needs. But Ben sees this is at the expense of making time for herself and wonders how she will cope as she gets older.

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Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild Channel 5, 9pm Oxfordshire? Not exactly renowned for being wild and woolly, is it? But that’s where our adventurous host is hotfooting it off to this time, ready to get the inside track from some ex-Oxford academics who, though they’ve not strayed far from their alma mater, are striving to live off the grid.

Viewer Feedback

CHARTING A NEW PATH What better time than the start of the new year to show a new series of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild (Tuesdays Channel 5)? While my wife and I are big fans throughout the year, this is a particularly good time for taking stock and maybe finally chasing that lifestyle away from the rat-race that we’ve always talked about.

I was quite jealous of Alex in the first episode (4 January), who lived on a mountain in the Portuguese sunshine, although I think my wife doubts that I have the physical get-up-and-go to do the work that this location demands! I think it’s a shame that so many of us, myself included, don’t fully take on board what “life is short” really means and do something about it.

EASY-GOING FOGLE This latest series of New Lives in the Wild (Channel 5) has been truly inspirational and Ben Fogle is the perfect presenter: easy-going, curious, empathetic. He has the knack of gently prising personal stories out of his interviewees, gradually getting to know what motivates them to choose such challenging lifestyles. And, rather than being a distant onlooker, he actively engages in the daily rhythm of their lives.

Veronica Groocock Brighton, East Sussex

Lisa Best Crewe, Cheshire

tpr media consultants – April 2022