TV
Grylls apologises for 'misleading' show
Published Wednesday, Mar 19 2008, 15:51 GMT | By Simon Reynolds
Explorer Bear Grylls has apologised for faking elements of his Channel 4 programme Born Survivor.
In the show, screened as Man vs Wild on the Discovery Channel, Grylls parachutes into dangerous terrain and is left to survive by himself.
Channel 4 re-evaluated the show last year over claims that Grylls and the production crew slept in motels instead of out in the wild.
Responding to the accusations on BBC Radio 2's The Weekender, Grylls said: "If people felt misled on how the first series was represented, I'm really sorry for that."
He added: "I'm the person that takes the rap for these things, even though I'm not always involved in the editing side of it.
"The truth is much less exciting - we film these things over six days and, after filming the night stuff, we're back with a crew in a base camp lodge - whether it's a tented camp in the Sahara or in Sumatra poncho'd up in the jungle.
"The hotel [can be] four walls but not a roof, or a roof with no walls.
"Yes, we had a lot of those but when we're filming the live night stuff, we're out."
The Discovery Channel admitted parts of the show were not "natural to the environment", while producers stated that the next series, to be broadcast on Channel 4 in April, "will be 100% transparent".
In the show, screened as Man vs Wild on the Discovery Channel, Grylls parachutes into dangerous terrain and is left to survive by himself.
Channel 4 re-evaluated the show last year over claims that Grylls and the production crew slept in motels instead of out in the wild.
Responding to the accusations on BBC Radio 2's The Weekender, Grylls said: "If people felt misled on how the first series was represented, I'm really sorry for that."
He added: "I'm the person that takes the rap for these things, even though I'm not always involved in the editing side of it.
"The truth is much less exciting - we film these things over six days and, after filming the night stuff, we're back with a crew in a base camp lodge - whether it's a tented camp in the Sahara or in Sumatra poncho'd up in the jungle.
"The hotel [can be] four walls but not a roof, or a roof with no walls.
"Yes, we had a lot of those but when we're filming the live night stuff, we're out."
The Discovery Channel admitted parts of the show were not "natural to the environment", while producers stated that the next series, to be broadcast on Channel 4 in April, "will be 100% transparent".
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