Where The Wild Men Are With Ben Fogle

In four-part survival reality show Where The Wild Men Are With Ben Fogle (2013 -current), 42-year-old British adventurer and author Ben Fogle waves goodbye to comfy living and says hello to roughing it in the wild. We got the lowdown on the show from the host about Western families who’ve turned their backs on civilised society and are starting new lives in the wildest of wild locations…

Describe Where The Wild Men Are in one sentence? It’s about people who have left the city for the wildest corners of the world and live off the grid. What inspired you to create the show? I’ve been on a number of expeditions over the years – each of them inspired me. I actually did something similar, where I went to live on an island for a BBC experiment called Castaway 2000 (20002001) and I loved living on the island. I wanted to see how other people did something similar. What have you learnt from the people on the show? Everybody lives in unity. They are quite happy because they’ve fulfilled their dream – many of us dream of a simpler life. Although simpler, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t harder, so while they don’t have to worry about mortgages, they do have to worry about a supply of food and water, for example. Where would you like to go explore again? There’s this island that’s actually only accessible from Cape Town called Tristan da Cunha. You can take a ferry or boat. There are only 300 people living there and it’s one of the most extraordinary places that I’ve ever been to. I’d love to go back.