Celebrities Hunt Bear Grylls for Money

Ian MacEwan: 00:00:00

Foreign.

Hannah Fernando: 00:00:05

Hello and welcome to Binge Watch, the podcast where we take a look at the hottest new TV and film releases on streaming television platforms. I'm Hannah Fernando, the group editor of Woman and Woman and Home magazine.

Ian MacEwan: 00:00:17

And I'm Ian McKeown, writer on TV and Satellite Week, TV Times and what's on TV magazines.

th February, February: 2025

Hannah Fernando: 00:00:49

And we'll also be checking out Motherland spin off Amanda land on BBC iPlayer and going on Celebrity Bear Hunt courtesy of Netflix. But first, Ian, what is in the news?

Ian MacEwan: 00:01:01

Another Harlan Coben adaptation on Netflix. This time it's called Runaway and it will star James Nesbit as a dad whose life falls apart when his daughter vanishes.

What else is in the news, Hannah?

Hannah Fernando: 00:01:15

Well, in Paramount's serial killer sequel Dexter Resurrection, Uma Thurman will portray the head of security for an enigmatic billionaire who crosses paths with murderous Dexter Morgan.

Ian MacEwan: 00:01:28

Well, a varied selection, I think for you this week. Got a couple of dramas, both based on real events.

We've got a fantastic comedy and we've got a reality show which is where we're going to start over on Netflix. It arrived on Wednesday the 5th of Feb. It is celebrity bear hunt. And here's a clip.

12 celebrities are in the Costa Rican jungle going head to head with the legendary bear grills. Oh my God. This is my bomb to be wild.

Hannah Fernando: 00:02:09

If you're from the hood, you do not do challenges in Costa Rica. Oh my God, we going to do this. I survive prison. I want to compare that to the wild. How much away from strictly can you get?

Ian MacEwan: 00:02:23

Well, Hannah, I'm sure you've thought from time to time, I'm a celebrity, Get Me out of Here is so popular and successful, why hasn't anyone copied it? Well, it's kind of happened. This is a new reality show and as the title hints, it has Bear Grylls. The survival expert in it is.

It's set in the Costa Rica jungle. And yes, we've got some celebs who are going to be, as everyone has to be by law these days, taken out of their comfort zone. It's an eight parter.

It's hosted by Holly Willoughby. Yes. So they're kind of living together in a lodge rather than a camp. And they're going to learn survival skills.

They're going to take part in a series of challenges. So I'm gonna say, I mean, usually on I'm a celebrity, I have no idea who anyone is. However, on this, lots of people that I.

I'm looking forward to seeing. So Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen, the interior designer. Lottie Moss, Kate Moss's sister, as I'm sure she hates being called, rugby player. Danny Cipriani.

You have Boris Becker, the former Wimbledon champion who has been to prison, as he reminds us. You got Oona Healey from the Saturdays, Joe Thomas from the In Betweeners. Big Zoo. I love Big Zoo from Big Zoo's Big Eats. Mel B. The Spice girl. Lovely.

Steph McGovern. Yes. And of course, Shirley Ballast, as I call her, the Strictly Come Dancing judge. So I think it's a very good lineup.

But I started watching episode one, and of course, as he always does, Bear has to jump out of a helicopter at the start. I didn't think it was very good. What I saw initially, they have to get to the lodge. Oh, and at the lodge, there's something called the bear pit.

And this is where it's much more like, I'm a celeb, which is kind of like a giant escape room full of animals, creatures, creepy crawlies, which is almost like a punishment that you have to go into there if you failed at something else. So when it starts, they've got to get to the camp, or whatever you want to call it, via. They've got various options there.

You know, they can go by boat, they can go by jeep, they can go by helicopter. And all it seemed to be. And the idea is that, yeah, bear is trying to kind of hunt them down, catch them.

And all it seemed to be happening was that one of them would be wandering down a track and then Bear would run out from behind a bush and say, I've got you. And it was like a sort of game of celebrity. It. So I thought that it just. I didn't go any further, to be honest. I thought it was so woeful.

However, I do like the celebrity lineup. Yeah, it just didn't. It didn't pull me in fast enough. And so I haven't seen any of the stuff in the lodge. I haven't seen the bear pit.

But I will say I do like the lineup now. That's as far as I'm prepared to go at the moment, is this. I don't actually also, I. I kind of stopped watching. I'm a Celeb quite a few years ago.

Not that I don't think it's good. It's just a kind of come to the end of it, really, for me. Anyway, I'll stop rambling on. Was this for you, Hannah?

Hannah Fernando: 00:05:52

Well, as you say, it's quite a good lineup.

And I always kind of rate the, the lineup on these shows because, although having said that, Strictly is kind of is really the exception to the rule because it doesn't really matter because the kind of the format works. But with something like this, it really does depend because they're being pushed. They're in a relatively hostile environment.

I know, like you say, there's some sort of ridiculous stuff, but, you know, the bear pit is pretty hostile. It's pretty scary. It's pushing people out of their comfort zones. And it was something like this.

I think you need, as a producer will be thinking, you know what I need, you know, characters, they're gonna play up and, you know, cause a bit of a scene. And of course, they have got some strong characters in there.

And I think that, you know, they have made a few headlines in the last few weeks for exactly that. Some of the kind of loss of tempers I think I've read.

And so I think that, that, you know, it's kind of what's going on around it and the hype around it that, you know, is probably as important to this show as anything else. I mean, obviously, I mean, Holly Willoughby, this is her first outing for a while, isn't it?

Well, it's not actually Dancing on Ices, but in this sense, the last thing we saw her was the, was the kind of Wim Hof Extreme type show. And I don't know how I feel about her in roles like this. I always think of her in that this morning sort of fluffy sort of spot.

But she's okay in the role. But I always think it's funny how she kind of will go off and swan off into her nice comfy be, you know, her comfy lodge.

Whereas everyone else isn't quite in the same boat. So I, I, I think there's a lot of hype to this.

And I think arguably from what I've seen of it so far, it doesn't quite live up to that, but it has all the ingredients to do so.

Ian MacEwan: 00:07:40

I have three more things to say about this a given previous scandals and rumors. Where is Bear Grylls staying during the filming of this show? That's number one. Number two, was it Shirley Ballas who lost her temper?

That's Just a guess. It's quite interesting. No, she bonds with Big Zoo because they're both from council estates, which was quite nice. Unlikely pairing there. And three.

Always on these shows, people have to make up a reason why they're doing it. You know, like, I want to find out who I really am or blah, blah, blah.

But what I loved it was when I interviewed Gregor Fisher about his last series, I said, why did you sign up for this? He said, my accountant told me I needed the money, which I think is much more honest.

Anyway, we're going to move over to BBC One and BBC iPlayer for a new period drama. It actually arrived last weekend, but it is available as a box set if you want to binge your way through. It's called Ms. Austen and here's a clip.

Hannah Fernando: 00:08:45

I am not ready to let my beloved sister Cassie go. Janie Nost, you are saddled with me forever. Your sister understood affairs of the heart better than anyone.

Ian MacEwan: 00:08:56

She warrants a substantial biography where we.

Hannah Fernando: 00:08:59

Might discover the real Jane Austen. Did you find any letters from Jane? Not a single one. There is no greater comfort in this world than Sister. Yes.

So of course you know Jane Austen, you know, her novels are just everyone, I say everyone, most people, they're brilliant and I don't think that any of us can probably get enough of them trying to create them for television, for the big screen. But this is slightly different. So this is a. This is a Take a kind of an idea of what her private life might have been like.

Now, I have binged a bit of this, I'm not gonna lie, because I did find it really quite fascinating. But of course, you know, what if it's real? What if it's not? We're not too sure. It's kind of.

the whole series opens, it's: 1830

And she has this very spirited, verging on rude, I would say, in modern day terms, Sister, who's called Cassandra. Now, she might be like this for a reason. She's a spinster.

She's, you know, she's got reason to be a bit crotchety, I suppose, but she, she loved and adored her sister. And when she finds out from her friend Isabella Fowle that her father is dying, he's a reverend of a. They live in a very large vicarage. It's kind of.

They don't really exist anymore, do they? The old vicarages have Kind of been sold on, and they're much smaller now, but this lovely, amazing manor house. When she hears that he's.

He's dying, she wants to go. She wants to go. She goes straight away. In fact, she's told not to go.

The weather's bad, off she goes in a horse and cart and she turns up at the house very, very late. And she gets to see Isabella's father just. Just before he dies.

But the reason she wants to go there is because her sister Jane wrote a load of letters to Isabella's mother, Eliza. And so she wants to go and get those letters before anyone else can.

Now, in all probability, because somebody's going to find them and potentially try and use them or make them public or whatever, and she feels there's some very private stuff in there. You get to know a little bit about Cassandra, a little bit about her love life, which is.

Which is sad, which is kind of, in a way, perhaps why Cassandra is the person that we see here. It's. It's a beautiful set. I turned the.

The light up on my screen because, of course, the beginning, certainly it's very dark because it's just the candles. There's no electricity, so just candles lighting away. And I'm thinking, can't see anything here. So I kept turning the brightness of my screen up.

But there's. It's. It's such a beautiful setting. It's really. It's a nice story. Of what, of what is true, who knows? But it feels. Feels incredibly authentic.

And the music is not. As I say, I kind of. I've binged quite a few of the episodes already, just because it hooked me straight away. It's very much up my street.

And also the kind of that old language that it's so polite, yet so testy at the same time. If we. If we do it with a smile on our face, it's all okay, isn't it?

Even if I do tell you to foxtrot Oscar, that's absolutely fine because I've done it with a. With a smile on my face. It's very much kind of, you know, that stiff upper lip, but actually very chippy. It's. It's. It's. For me, it's one to watch.

I think it's probably a little bit more female skewed, I would say. Would you agree?

Ian MacEwan: 00:12:48

I would agree. Although I didn't need any persuasion when it came to watching this, mainly because it stars the brilliant Keeley Hawes in. Yeah.

And she's always just very understated in her performances and she's great in this.

And yes, it sort of, it flits between timelines because in, in reading these letters which genuinely were destroyed, she's reminded of, you know, previous events from way back when, including, as you say, the fact that she was, she was engaged to be married. So, yeah, we see, we see her and Jane back in the day.

Some people have complained that they think the depiction of Jane is too boring, but I'm not sure I agree with that.

And unsurprisingly, the concerns that crop up in Jane Austen's novels for women, such as, well, getting married, having some kind of income, having a place to live, having, and as an added bonus, if possible, actually being in love, they're all reflected in the real lives of the sisters. So you've got a good cast. Kevin McNally as the dad, Phyllis Logan as the mum, and my favorite, Jessica Hynes playing a bit of a baddie in this.

Unusual for her.

So, I mean, Jane Austen adaptations are always, I mean they're always very classy, but they're kind of, there's a bit of almost comfort viewing about them, I think. And yeah, this is really well done and thoroughly enjoyed it. Also on BBC iPlayer, it arrived on Wednesday the 5th of Feb.

As a box set, we have the comedy Amanda Land. And here's a clip.

Hannah Fernando: 00:14:42

Must be the end of days.

Ian MacEwan: 00:14:43

You leaving Chiswick.

Hannah Fernando: 00:14:44

Oh, I'm done with W4. Let me in before I get mugged. Let it go, move on. Fully embracing my simpleton lifestyle.

I am the face and brains and body and hair of a rapidly growing Instagram starter. It's like watching a car crash in slow motion. Let's get this party started.

Ian MacEwan: 00:15:00

Well, we've both talked about how much we'd love anything Sharon Horgan is involved with and this is no exception. So Sharon was involved in the sitcom Motherland, which was a very funny look at parenting, sort of middle class parenting.

And this is a spin off which centers around one of the characters from Motherland, Amanda, who's a kind of snooty alpha mum and she's played by Lucy Punch here and she is absolutely priceless in the role. She's just fantastic. And there's a lot of toe curling embarrassments, the way she behaves.

So, yeah, she's moved from Chiswick and now she's in South Harleston, which she calls Sohar.

And then Joanna Lumley, I think it's in the clip actually that we played Joanna Lumley arrives for a visit playing her awful mum and says Let me in, dear, before I get mugged. So she's kind of gone down in the world a little bit.

Her two kids are starting at a new school and episode one, I mean, there's just so many laughs in it. The script is superb. I think it's. It's not just Horgan writing, it's Holly Walsh, I think is involved and a couple of other people.

So, yeah, in episode one, you have got Siobhan McSweeney from Derry Girls and Pottery Throwdown, might I add. So she plays one of the school mums who is also a chef, and. And Rashenda Sandel from Line of Duty plays her character's wife.

And their kids are kind of having a party and Amanda goes there and I'm not going to reveal what happens, but it's just, it's absolutely hilarious. Joanna Lumley in great form. It's a superb role for her as the mum Felicity. And Peter Serafinovich is going to join later on in the run.

I can't wait for this as Amanda's South African boyfriend, Johannes. Yeah. Could that be a strictly reference? I don't know. Anyway, if you like Sharon Horgan's work and I mean, why wouldn't you? It's absolutely superb.

And you enjoyed Motherland, which was a one. You will absolutely love this. It's just top, top notch comedy, beautifully played with a very strong, largely female cast. Hannah, one for you.

Did this, did this strike a chord?

Hannah Fernando: 00:17:43

I absolutely love this. In fact, don't ask me what it's called because I can't remember. I started reading the other day, but I'm reading a book that is kind of.

It falls into this category of school mums and perhaps it kind of, you know, resonates with me as I readily put my children in after school care so I don't have to do that bumping at gates business, which I absolutely detest, but stop and chat. I can't be doing it. I can't be doing it. It's my. It's my least favorite thing. That and coffee mornings. Anyway, that's enough about me.

But this just really resonates because it kind of.

It's taken somebody to look at real characters and of course, you know, the caricatures of these people, but they sort of exist, believe me, who are at those gates.

And as you say, Amanda now takes center stage in this and she's clearly had some kind of breakdown along the way, but now she's taken on this, this role of. She's downsizing.

Divorce is happening and she's, you know, it's welcome to her world and her life and the drama that goes with it and it's really clever. So many laughs, so funny and unlike many spin offs, not a disappointment.

Ian MacEwan: 00:18:51

We're going to finish back on Netflix with another new drama series which arrived on Thursday 6th February. It's called Apple Cider Vinegar and here is a clip I'd like to welcome.

Hannah Fernando: 00:19:03

On the stage Belle Gibson. It must have affected her that my book was reviewed as better than hers. I'm sorry, who's hurt? Miller.

She was diagnosed with cancer, so she's consistently maintained. I have no reason to doubt her because in her case it's true.

This is season one, obviously, and there are six episodes and prepare to binge because this really is quite gripping and albeit with bright colors and sugar coated and candy canes and all things sweet, this is anything really. But it's absolutely terrifying because of course it is based on a true story of a young girl, a teenager.

She was pregnant and she announced that she had terminal cancer. And this was in this online forum.

And I think this is what scares me so much because obviously we have no way of really verifying anything online, do we? And yet we're sort of there believing it all the time.

And young Australian women were absolutely, you know, overwhelmed and she got huge support from the local people and a few years later she basically convinced all these people that she had defied her diagnosis by eating healthily. Exercise, alternative medicine.

Well, I don't need to tell you that that's pretty disturbing because of course there are lots of people and we know in the world of influencers, you are influenced by people and you might choose to think going to shun, you know, sort of hospital care, modern medicine in favour of this. And of course, you know, it's probably impossible to tell how many people may have harmed themselves in that process.

Well, this drama series takes that on, it takes it on as a story and it does chart the rise and the downfall of this very shameless scammer. And that's, that's all she can be called is a scammer who made loads of money out of people by pretending something that wasn't true.

And not only that, but she'd overcome it through a natural diet, which as I say previously, is a pretty awful thing. Huge Instagram followers. I think it's never been such an important story to tell because I just think we believe so much.

I know that I've fallen for it, you know, buying something on Facebook or something that's I promise you, the lines out of your forehead are going to go, honestly, use this for 10 minutes a day. You don't have to have surgery or anything. I'm not saying I bought that, but you can see how it works.

And this is sort of a similar principle and why it will resonate with, with so many people, because she was actually a complete con artist and she starts by emulating another Instagrammer and, and they all believe her. And you can see from it, I think it's really quite well done.

She feels very, very credible, very believable, but actually she's just a sociopath, I suppose. And then you see the, you know, you see people beginning, beginning to realize, you know, you.

I haven't got, I haven't got to the end of this yet, so I can't. I mean, Ian, you may have got to the, to the exactly what happens and when it happens.

Because, of course, this isn't the only story in the press of something like this.

There are, there are many stories, but it's, it's pretty captivating, pretty scary and so easy to see, particularly when you're ill, how you'll, you know, grab onto anything and hope if someone gives you hope, you'll grab onto it.

And it's probably very difficult to quantify how many people were damaged in the, in the process of this, but it's, yeah, very, very captivating, I think very well done so far of what I've seen, and I can't wait to watch the rest. What do you think, Ian?

Ian MacEwan: 00:23:03

I enjoyed it and it's very much built around an incredibly strong performance by Caitlin de Vere, or Diva, who I didn't recognize, but she was in the excellent film Booksmart. She's one of the leads in that, which is about two kind of nerdy American high school friends, and she is great as Belle Gibson.

So it does flit around quite a lot, the story backwards and forwards. And also interestingly, and I think quite effectively, they haven't just made it like the linear story of Belle Gibson and what she did.

They've included these other characters, such as, as you mentioned, Instagrammer Miller, played by Alicia Debnan Carey, who Belle is kind of inspired by. Also Miller's friend Chanel, played by Aisha Dee. Yeah, so there are kind of other cancer victims who, whose stories are told.

So, yeah, you need to pay attention because it does move around.

But I think it's quite stylishly done and it's got a sort of, although it's a truly shocking, awful story, it's, it's got almost this kind of a dark humor about it, especially about the main character. And she is a complex character because, you know, she's not, she's not played as an out and out villain.

She, she's quite a sort of layered personality. She's obviously got, you know, quite serious psychological problems.

So, yeah, I mean, it's a hell of a story and I, and I do think they've done a good job bringing it to the screen in an imaginative way. And Caitlin in the lead is outstanding. Well, there are lots more new arrivals on streaming platforms to round up this week on Skybox sets.

And now tv we have a drama, Mussolini Son of the Century, which tells the story of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini.

Back on Channel 4 streaming, we have the reality show alone USA in which 10 survivalists try to live on their own in the Canadian wilderness on Apple tv. Plus, Love you to Death or Amuerte is a Spanish romantic comedy on Iplayer. The return of Daisy May Cooper in the comedy Am I being Unreasonable?

And another returning comedy on itvx. Good about the lovable teenage Scouses on Paramount. Plus we have Accused, which is a crime drama based on Jimmy McGovern's BBC series.

This time it starts with Felicity Huffman in Lorraine's story. And finally, you'll be pleased to hear we have a sports documentary on Netflix about cricket. It's called the Greatest Rivalry, India versus Pakistan.

Well, we've got to that time. Hannah, will we find out what the hell you've been binge watching on this week?

Hannah Fernando: 00:26:28

Well, I have been binging on the new Boyzone documentary which has made headlines, actually. Really interest interesting because I was a massive Take that fan and of course Boyzone was you either Boyzone or Take that.

And then when Take that split up, Boyzone did definitely sort of scoop up some of their, their fan base, I think.

But really interesting because also I was writing their book when Stephen Gately passed away, so I kind of feel like I know the band relatively well or certainly some members of it. So really interesting watch actually.

Ian MacEwan: 00:27:03

And where might we find that, Hannah?

Hannah Fernando: 00:27:05

Well, I was flicking through and I found on sky documentaries, but it's making headlines absolutely everywhere.

Ian MacEwan: 00:27:10

You know, there's a new O.J. simpson trial documentary series on Netflix, so I mean, that's pretty much been done to death already, hasn't it?

But I had a look at that and it is quite interesting. Now we've just got time to look ahead to next week's offerings. So what is on the binge watch menu?

Hannah Fernando: 00:27:30

Hannah well, the real story of the calamitous US Forces Mogadishu rescue mission is told in Netflix documentary Surviving Black Hawk Down.

Ian MacEwan: 00:27:41

And in the Apple TV horror the Gorge, highly trained snipers take on mysterious monsters in a terrifying chasm. Yes, so we look forward to those and much, much more. But in the meantime, listener.