Icy Wim’s wigwam bam
WEEK three of FREEZE THE FEAR WITH WIM HOF (BBC1, 9pm) – the show that features “extreme challenges that were overseen by a professional safety and medical team” (yes, those amateur safety and medical teams still aren’t getting a look-in; they must feel so disheartened) – and, remarkably, all eight celebrities survive.
Admittedly, this is a series where none of the participants actually gets sent home, but even so, the fact that the full line-up remains intact feels mildly miraculous, given what this kaftan-clad crazyman has been putting them through.You’d have expected at least a couple of withdrawals owing to frostbite or the odd fractured fibula.
Tonight’s show starts withWim striding into their Celebrity Big Brother wigwam, not long after they’ve woken, and crying: “Are you guys ready for a… surrrrr-prrr-ICE?!!!” He doesn’t explain precisely what he means by this, but once he’s left them to get dressed (“Get your swimming trousers on!”), the speculation begins. Might there have been the subtlest of clues, perhaps, in the way he just pronounced the word “surprise”? Or indeed in the title of the series?
“It’s something to do with ice,” suggests TV weatherman Owain Wyn Evans.
Once suitably attired, the eight step outside to be greeted not just byWim but by his daughter Laura, who’s joined them for the day. Laura, it soon becomes evident, is a passionate believer in the practices and methods for which her father has become famous. Like her father, she also seems to be a passionate believer in YELLING ALL THE BLINKING TIME FOR NO OBVIOUS REASON.
Laura, the celebrities notice, is sitting in a barrel, drinking a mug of coffee.Wim is sitting beside her in a barrel of his own. He, too, is drinking coffee. But this isn’t a coffee-related challenge. In fact, ignore the coffee. Forget I even mentioned it.
What’s significant is that each of their barrels is filled with ice cubes – as are eight further barrels, each currently unoccupied. It looks as if
Owain may have been right. How on earth did he guess?
“TODAY! WE’RE GONNA DO! THE ICE BATH!!” yells Laura, by way of confirmation.
“THE ICE BATH!!! yellsWim, presumably in case they didn’t quite catch that.
Noting the celebrities’ unease, Laura tells them that once they’ve trained their minds to cope with the stress of an ice bath, they’ll be able to deal with stress of any kind.
“It’s the perfect mental exercise,” is how she puts it.
Which, fair enough, it’s hard to dispute.
As exercises go, I doubt they come more mental than this one.