Celebrity Bear Hunt Review 2025 Tv Show Series Cast Crew Online
Bear Grylls. It’s Bear Grylls of course, not a real bear. I mention that upfront just in case, like me, your heart leapt in anticipation when the title Celebrity Bear Hunt flashed up on your screen. Exactly which minor celebs were envisioned screaming and flailing through undergrowth pursued by an ursine foe hungry for buffed, botoxed flesh will have been different for each of us – but what a vision indeed!
No doubt the day will come, and sooner than we think, when such entertainment is a standard part of the TV schedules. Until then, I’ve got to tell you: this is a remarkably full-blooded substitute. Only two episodes were available for review but by the end of them we’ve had, under the broiling Costa Rican jungle sun, boats sinking in crocodile-filled waters, two captures in camouflage nets, ravine crossings, snakes, and earnest discussions about making sure to do your daily poo before the next challenge so you can bomb along with as little hindrance as possible. The 12 celebs are divided into teams and, as soon as one of them splits from their pack, Bear – yes! – leaps out of the undergrowth, rugby-tackles them to the ground, trusses them up and leaves them in the sun to die. No, all right, not the last bit – he goes and collects them later – but the rest is true and excellent. I haven’t had this much fun watching a reality TV competition since the earliest days of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me out of Here!.
Anyone who fails a challenge and gets rugby-tackled and tied up by Grylls (of the dozen contestants, only Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen makes the “I usually have to pay extra for this” joke and I admire him and the other 11 participants for it) has to undergo a second challenge, this time in the Bear Pit – an even more croc-filled, snake-stuffed and booby-trapped section of the jungle surrounded by giant palisades that really should have got separate billing. Anyone who fails that challenge is eligible to be thrown out of the game at Bear’s behest. In tones more of sorrow than anger – as befits the Chief Scout who is only there to help you become your best self – he will explain how they were undone by their lack of situational awareness, and that the helicopter is on its way to return them to their shameful little half-lives of ease and comfort.
The celebrities are unusually good value. As well as LLB, there’s exuberant, forthright Mel B happily taking menopause advice from the inordinately charming Shirley Ballas. There’s actor Joe Thomas, quiet, anxious (“the biggest thing I’ve ever had to survive is a stressful meeting”) and homesick, whose transformation in the second episode is a rare delight – which is to say it is both unexpected and convincing. There is loudly bonhomous rapper and chef Big Zuu, who loves to lead though without any idea of what the psychological or physical qualities needed to do it well might be. When Grylls suggests that the much-vaunted situational awareness can be likened to moving through the forest like a deer, he protests – loudly, albeit correctly – “I’m not a deer-y man!”Lottie Moss (“I’m best known for being Kate Moss’s sister. Or a model”) provides the tearful vulnerability quotient. She was apparently about to re-enter rehab when this opportunity presented itself instead. I’m sure that’s fine. I’m sure that’s absolutely fine. Making up the quieter portion of the signings are journalist and TV host Steph McGovern, retired rugby player Danny Cipriani – a surprisingly soothing presence – plus singer Una Healy, model Leomie Anderson and former Wimbledon champion and more recent jailbird Boris Becker, whose picture should be in every dictionary under the word “phlegmatic”. Yes, he has made mistakes that “cost me dearly”. No, he will not be sharing any stories from his 231 days in prison – they were terrible and he has accepted what he did and then you move on. No, he never got stressed before tennis matches because he always had control of his mind. No, he was not shocked to win Wimbledon at 17 because “you are too young to know you are not supposed to do it”. It’s possibly my imagination but the whole jungle appears to still when he speaks. Apart from Big Zuu.
Oh, and I nearly forgot – Holly Willoughby is presenting, but is so extraneous to proceedings that I nearly forgot she was there. Anyway, Netflix has overall done its job well. Celebrity Bear Hunt is fast, the contestants are surprisingly funny and the jeopardy – if the third episode’s trailer and tabloid reports of the injuries and near-misses during filming are anything to go by – is real. Or at least more real than usual. The trap is set and I suspect viewers will take the bait in droves.
