A former SAS soldier became embroiled in the television faking row yesterday after it was revealed that he stayed in hotels during a series about surviving unaided in the "hellholes of the world". Viewers saw Bear Grylls biting the head off a snake for breakfast and sucking the fluid from fish eyeballs as he lived "rough" in the Channel 4 series Born Survivor. But a crew member said yesterday that after the camera stopped Grylls would often stay in hotels - including one with internet access and blueberry pancakes for breakfast - and that many of his daring missions were stage-managed. Channel 4 is investigating whether Eton-educated Grylls, who broke his back in a parachute accident aged 21 but went on to become the youngest Briton to climb Everest two years later, misled the public. The accusations came as Stephen Lambert, the chief creative officer at RDF, the company involved in the furore over the Queen allegedly storming out of a photoshoot, took personal responsibility for the manipulated footage. Mr Lambert said a misjudgment in editing was the worst mistake of his life and had created a "perfect storm". He added that he had been trying to convey a "slightly ruffled encounter" between the Queen and photographer Annie Leibovitz but insisted the footage was never intended for use in a BBC trailer. The BBC has apologised for the error and is also facing a crisis of trust after admitting faking the results of phone-in competitions in shows such as Comic Relief and Children in Need. Yesterday Channel 4 faced its own trust controversy. Mark Weinert, a "survival consultant" on Born Survivor which attracted audiences of 1.4 million in March and April, said that at one location where Grylls claimed to be a "real-life Robinson Crusoe" he was on an outlying Hawaiian island and spent nights at a motel. On another occasion in California's Sierra Nevada mountains he slept some nights at the Pines Resort at Bass Lake, advertised as "a cosy getaway for families" with blueberry pancakes for breakfast. In one episode Grylls, a Daily Telegraph columnist, tried to coax an apparently wild mustang. He told viewers that the area was "one of the few places in the US where horses still roam wild". Weinert said the horses were driven in from a nearby trekking station for the "choreographed" feature. "If you really believe everything happens the way it is shown on TV, you are being a little bit naive," he added. Channel 4 confirmed that Grylls had used hotels during expeditions and had asked Diverse, the Bristol-based company behind the series, to look into the other claims. "We take any allegations of misleading our audiences seriously," said a spokesman for the channel. She added: "Born Survivor is not an observational documentary series but a 'how to' guide to basic survival techniques in extreme environments. The programme explicitly does not claim that presenter Bear Grylls's experience is one of unaided solo survival." Grylls was trekking in the Brecon Beacons with his four-year-old son and was unavailable for comment.
hey when the camera's are on and he is doing his job in showing you how to survive in the wild... i think he does his job. You can't expect this guy to live in the wild all the damn time
Bear a former SAS? Are you sure about this? He looks a little young. Most SAS members are pretty old.
when you claim to do it or lead viewers to think your doing it.... then you do it..... its still entertaining though.
he also does stuff... like in the tundra he really jumped into the freezing water to rescue his meat...
i know the feeling, i remmeber when i found out that wrestling was fake -cry2, but they really throw each other about and jump off ropes without wires :kekekegay:
