Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen came "face-to-face with mortality" on Celebrity Bear Hunt
The TV personality spoke to Radio Times about his Costa Rican adventure for the Netflix series.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
You get put through the wringer in this series – why subject yourself to it all?
I live a life of unendurable luxury, of insufferable comfort. So there was something at the back of my head saying, 'What would it be like? Is it survivable?' There is that sort of really bolshie, irritating instinct that makes me feel I should do something like this, because I've never done it before. And if I don't do it soon, the chances of ever being able to get away with it will be incredibly compromised.
From the glimpse we get in the trailer it doesn’t look like you did get away with it?
I'm not going to blow too much of the surprise but it was literally, I think, one of the few times I have come face to face with mortality.
What did you learn about yourself?
I thought I was a floppy so-and-so who wouldn’t want to get involved in this stuff – that Bear would detail all these challenges and I’d go, 'That’s not for me. I’ll be in my tent with a gin and tonic'. But I discovered I'm actually rather irritatingly gung-ho. I got overexcited at the idea of pushing myself, intoxicated by the surges of testosterone compelling me to want to do well.
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How were the older celebs supposed to compete against athletes like Danny Cipriani?
Well, this is meant to be the point. We were supposed to be divvying up challenges based on our skill sets. I was flying a flag for the elderly contingent alongside Shirley and Boris. The idea was that, particularly Shirley and I, would be strategic about thinking how best to deploy the resources we had.
Do you think you might have overdone the camouflage?
I admit I might have gone a bit too far. We were supposed to be in camouflage. But I think I looked more like a showgirl: there's something very Folies Bergère about my camo. But as I pointed out to Holly when she said I might have gone a bit over the top, 'Darling, the jungle is over the top'.
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Celebrity Bear Hunt comes to Netflix on Wednesday 5th February 2025. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.
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