The Daily Telegraph - Features
The unlikely relationship between Bear Grylls, Russell Brand and God
Marianka Swain looks at why the royally approved adventurer took part in the ‘cancelled’ comedian’s baptism in the Thames
We’ve seen him cross the North Atlantic in an inflatable boat, set a world record for the longest continuous indoor freefall, discuss fornicating bears with President Obama and drink his own urine – but is this the craziest thing that Bear Grylls has ever done? We learnt this week that the popular adventurer had played a key part in a private baptism ceremony for the disgraced comedian Russell Brand that took place in the Thames.
Why would Grylls, a man with a flourishing international career on wholesome streamers like Disney+, and so virtuous that he’s literally a boy scout (actually Chief Scout since 2009), team up with the “cancelled” Brand – and risk harming his own squeakyclean brand?
The comedian has been accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse by four women, following a joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches. Brand has vehemently denied the allegations, and no arrests have been made.
It seems like a bizarre choice for Grylls. Unless it’s really a case of two men, both with a raging Messiah complex, recognising a kindred spirit.
Brand, a former Buddhist, first shared the news of his baptism in a typically verbose Instagram video on April 29. Sitting crosslegged on a rug, with a crucifix hanging prominently around his neck, he announced: “Yesterday I got baptised, and it was an incredible, profound experience.” He went on to describe it as “very intimate and personal”, but was happy to spill the details to his four million followers.
He compared baptism favourably with his wellestablished history of drug abuse. “As a person that has in the past taken many, many substances and always been disappointed with their inability to deliver the kind of tranquillity and peace and even transcendence I’ve been looking for, something occurred in the process of baptism that was incredible, overwhelming. So I felt changed, transitioned.”
Brand also made a cryptic reference to the “amazing individuals involved” in his baptism, but didn’t, at the time, name names.
That changed on Tuesday. “Week One as a Christian has been amazing,” chirped Brand in another lengthy Instagram video. “I want to thank Bear Grylls and my mate Joe, the two men that stood either side of me and flanked me for the baptism itself.” Brand added that he’d been baptised in the Thames, at his home in Henley, Oxfordshire.
The two men seem to have struck up a friendship last year, when Brand appeared on Grylls’s show Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge, journeying across the Hebrides. The series is streamed on Disney+, which declined to comment.
Grylls subsequently said of Brand: “He’s had such a life journey in terms of his addictions and getting sober, getting off drugs. He’s found a faith, he’s got an incredible family. He has turned his life 180 degrees from dysfunction to incredible community.” The adventurer also characterised his new pal as “the humblest, nicest, gentlest person you’ll ever meet”.
On Wednesday, Grylls confirmed his attendance at Brand’s baptism, saying: “Faith and spiritual moments in our lives are really personal, but it is a privilege to stand beside anyone when they express a humble need for forgiveness and strength from above. Friendships when we go through tough times are worth so much.”
That evangelical wording is significant. Grylls has always been fervent about his Christian faith, proclaiming in his 2004 book, Facing the Frozen Ocean: “You can’t keep God out. He’s all around us, if we’re just still enough to listen.”
But there’s another fascinating element here. Grylls is involved with the powerful Alpha course, an organisation that claims to have recruited 29 million people.
Alpha began at the Holy Trinity Brompton church in affluent Knightsbridge, sandwiched between the V&A and Harrods. In the 1970s, Anglican curate Charles Marnham started a course for his
Is it a case of two men with raging Messiah complexes recognising a kindred spirit?
church members teaching the basics of faith. That was then developed into a 10-week evangelical study programme, and in the 1990s barrister-turned-priest Nicky Gumbel (who, like Grylls, is an Old Etonian) took it over and expanded it.
Alpha grew from four courses to thousands. The website claims that it operates in more than 100 countries and 100 languages. It also runs courses in more than 50 per cent of prisons in the UK.
Famous faces who have embraced or visited Alpha include ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, comic actress Miranda Hart, folk band Mumford & Sons, fashion designer Lady Natasha Isaacs (founder of Beulah London, a favourite of the Princess of Wales), and former cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken.
Grylls appears in plenty of their marketing materials, such as the Alpha Film Series. In a video interview, he says that his faith “means the world to me”, adding that it was his backbone during his difficult Everest climb – “I prayed every day on that mountain”. He concluded that his faith “runs straight through who I am”.
But the Alpha version of faith is somewhat unusual. One wry observer described its trendy, prosperous and celebrity-strewn congregation as “dewy-eyed converts” who talk about Jesus like “a particularly glamorous guest on the party circuit”.
Perhaps that was what tempted his new bestie Brand, who has become an Alpha man too. He’s laid the groundwork for this baptism over the past few months by speaking about his interest in Christianity to his social media followers, and in a video in March, he mentions going to “a church where they do Alpha courses”.
But is this actually just a cynical deflection from the barrage of historical sexual abuse allegations? It’s telling that Brand described baptism as an “opportunity to leave the past behind”.
Writer and clergyman Michael Coren expressed his doubts about the sincerity of Brand’s baptism in the i newspaper, noting that it should be accompanied with humility and contrition – neither in evidence thus far. “The teachings of Jesus aren’t just another form of self-help or the latest wellness technique,” Coren pointed out. Christianity, he added, “teaches less that we should ‘feel’ better about ourselves than that we should ‘be’ better because of belief ”.
But Brand is treading a wellworn road: numerous celebrities have had a convenient come-to-Jesus moment to aid their image rehab at the peak of a scandal. Aitken began attending Alpha courses in 1997, just two years before he was jailed for perjury.
Besides, can Brand really believe in a higher power than himself? He called his 2013 tour Messiah Complex, and has 33 tattoos – because Jesus died at the age of 33. In his current social media profile picture, he wears what looks like a crown of thorns.
His latest public positioning is as a misunderstood martyr who has been unjustly framed by the powers-that-be, simply for speaking the unwelcome truth. Others might characterise this as dangerously spreading conspiracy theories and encouraging his followers not to believe his reported victims.
It’s worlds away from the royally approved establishment figure Grylls, who attended the King’s coronation and Elizabeth II’s funeral, and who has collaborated with the Prince of Wales on environmental projects.
Does he see it as the ultimate triumph to have brought an infamous sinner like Brand into the fold? That does seem to fit with Grylls’s healthy self-regard.
But how does his seeming acceptance or dismissal of the allegations made against Brand fit with his other causes – for example, his role as Chief Scout? Shouldn’t he be warier of endorsing what is, at the very least, rampant toxic masculinity, when he’s a role model to impressionable young boys? The organisation sounds nonplussed, saying in a statement: “Like all of our 144,000 volunteers, Bear Grylls has private interests and friendships separate to his role with Scouts. This is a personal matter to him.”
Perhaps Grylls will emerge unscathed from this. But with his star on the rise in America – in 2025 he’s due to front a new Netflix survival reality competition, Bear Hunt, with Holly Willoughby – Brand’s unpredictable antics may not be good for business.
If the virtuous glow of that baptism begins to fade, Grylls may well decide to wash his hands of him.