User Reviews

For some bizarre reason this series occasionally emerges under the title "Where the Wild Men Are" - an own goal if ever there was one, not least because a number of the people featured are women. Indeed, for my money the episodes featuring Lucy Aitken Read in New Zealand and Glasgow's Susan Aitchison in Ethiopia are two of the absolute best.

The format is constant, as the somewhat Prince William-like Ben jets off to live for a week with people who have forgotten about comfort zone (or at least what most people would describe as such) and gone off to live in the wilderness, or at least in an exotic location. The circumstances are actually a little bit more diverse than one might imagine (as is the level of (remaining/residual) wealth that these people possess), though it is typical for the locations presented to have a wow factor on some level at least. Enough at least to encourage the viewer to believe - for moments at least - that our heroes somehow made a wise(-ish) decision.

An element of deceit is most likely present here, it has to be said. When Ben went to a Siberia there was of course no way to hide the presence of mosquitoes, but - for example - our presenter never ever admits to encountering, say, ticks or leeches, which I'm sure he must do in at least some of the venues. Also there is no intimation of his having had diarrhoea, or vomiting, yet I am unable to believe his trips are entirely free of these inevitable downsides that SHOULD NOT be (fully!!) hidden from view...

There is usually an eco-message in there somewhere - in the sense of living sustainably, threats to habitats, or (in the case of the above Siberia episode) - the amazing suggestion that what looks the world's largest natural wilderness full of taiga forest is actually an anthropogenically-ruined ecosystem that ought to be full of large animals and open space, as opposed to stunted trees with nothing much living among them.

Many other episodes are equally fascinating, and where full honesty is present it appears as Ben interrogates the escapees to try and establish their motives more fully. This never fails to be interesting, and often emtionally charged, and Fogle is the ideal person to form a bond with the people involved (the fact that a camera crew is present is of course a further deceit).

Needless to say, the open conversations about lifestyles quite often prompt Fogle into revealing something about himself, and this is interesting too. He admitted more than once that he was a poor school pupil who got little out of his education - a remarkable fact given his considerable eloquence and delicacy on the show, even as he is also more than resilient enough to able to "rough it" or "tough it out" when necessary.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing of all is the way that few of those making "new lives in the wild" seem as weird or anti-social as you would expect them to be, at least not with a sympathetic (but nevertheless penetrating) questioner and analyst like Ben Fogle, who seems to parallel the also-rather-unassuming (and also self-educated and also excellent) Simon Reeve.

An understanding of the human condition, of nature, and of the human being in nature would seem to be a basic thing for all of us to acquire, and this programme offers all of that and more. It's a great format almost entirely dependent on the character of its host.

Best show on tv very inspirational thanks Ben. Been watching from the start. Now focusing on sustainable energy on some of the characters 👌hard work amazing rewards.