[Closed] The island with bear grylls

I watched it on catch up last night, I couldn't help but get wound up at the fact they neglected to sort fire and drinking water straight away. Like you say, it has potential to be either a really good watch, or absolute dross. Either way, it's on series link 🙂

It's big brother on an island really. Quite disappointing but will be good to see how the characters change.

Might skip episodes 2/3 and catch up with them later in the series.

I thought it was ok. there was a lot of repetition - must start fire, must get water, must start fire, must get water, must start fire, etc.
hopefully there's enough content for a series so they don't have to draw things out to banal levels.

All very contrived so gave up on it.

I gave it a watch when I was waiting for some stuff to download. Boring and staged/scripted like every other "reality" show, I won't bother again!

Wasn't sure how faked it was. Putting Bear as the front man didn't help as he has form. There was a U.S. series where they took people with reasonable survival skills and they still really struggled. Can't see this bunch managing without a lot if help.

Well, to be fair, I don't think this one is scripted (but I'm only going on what we're being told) and it is the guys themselves doing the filming, whereas I'd previously assumed there'd be a camera crew following them. I found the first episode a bit hard going, trying not to take an immediate dislike to everyone on it. 😀 As brakes said, they laboured over a few key things for an hour of TV. Which was a bit boring. I'll give it a few more watches - factions will happen won't they? It'll be interesting to see how hunger and thirst affect their behaviour individually and in a group. I fear any high hopes I have will be dashed, but hey, if they all immediately arrived and got on it sorting food, water and broadband within a few days it wouldn't make much for a TV show would it?

I want to see how much weight they loose 😆

I want to see how much weight they [u]loose[/u]

Diarrhoea?

I can't be arsed, it's got Bear Bloody Grylls in it. 🙄
Everything with him is fighting against nature, instead of living with it.
Personally I'd want to kill him, and cut him up for bait.

Personally I'd want to kill him, and cut him up for bait.

Bear grills?

Having just been told Scrapheap Challenge is staged (the contraptions are built to H&S standards by expert mechanics off camera) I'm not going to waste my time watching any more of these reality challenges.

Having just been told Scrapheap Challenge is staged

They should have had Ross Kemp involved 😀

I'll tune in when theres only one bloke left in a mad rage with phsycotic eyes brandashing a lion cloth and bunny ears..

Tosh.

Anybody see the video of those Boko Haram guys boasting about the 200 schoolgirls? Those nutters are already on the island...

Scrapheap challenge is rigged, there's a firm in Hereford (HMS Engineering) who consulted on it, and essentially used to build most of the stuff from what I can tell, they were also behind most of the contraptions on anther similar series on C5.

I thought the first episode was a bit lame but will probably stick with it, if only to see who cracks first. 😈

I quite enjoyed it but was suspicious at the flotsam that was washed up seemingly being perfect to help them survive (water containers, tins to cook in, string to make nets with etc).

Surely if that was real flotsam, there would be a bottle amongst it and it could have been used as a makeshift magnifying glass to start a fire - I was making fires like that in 5 minutes in my back garden as a kid.

suspicious at the flotsam that was washed up seemingly being perfect to help them survive

yeah, i thought that, 4 or 5 identical tins, for boiling water in?

there would be a bottle amongst it and it could have been used as a makeshift magnifying glass to start a fire - I was making fires like that in 5 minutes in my back garden as a kid.

there were at least 3 lads wearing glasses 😀

Hah yes, good point.

I thought the same, glasses were ideal!

I watched it and I enjoyed it. "Single File" Tony got on my tit-end a bit and then got his arse out!

The cynic inside me suspects that 50 metres from basecamp is a lodge full of camera batteries, antivenin, fresh water, food and medical supplies etc.

I'll stick with it though.

I certainly couldn't hack it. I'd be a shivering mess in a day.

Anybody who wears glasses will know that they are not a convex lens that focuses sunlight. Jeeze.

Nice one globalti.

In summer, spectacles wearers would be filling A&E with corneal burns 😯

If you are out in the woods without a working match, lighter, or flint and steel, you may still be able to start a fire quickly and easily. If you are lucky, you or someone with you wears glasses. If it’s sunny out, you can use eyeglasses just like a magnifying glass to focus the energy of the sun and create flame.

To make a fire using a pair of glasses, take your glasses off and hold them up so that they catch the sunlight. You should see a beam of sunlight shining through the glasses. Move the glasses around, aiming the beam so that it lands on your pile of tinder. The smaller the beam of light, the more focused the energy from the sun is and the hotter the tinder will get. Experiment by moving your glasses around until you’ve found the best possible angle, and then wait until the tinder starts to smolder. Gently blow on the burning tinder to create flame.

http://www.cascadegear.com/7-different-ways-to-start-a-fire/

And also, back onto flotsam, how many lighters get washed up on beaches (even ones that are empty will have the flint still in them).

RobwithaB says.

yes i wondered about the glasses thing as i noticed quite a few had glasses on i would of given it a go rather than go down route of bow etc iam hoping for a they go mad in a "lord of the flies" style

Okay, [b]reading[/b] glasses might work as they are for magnification.

How many people in their fifties are there on that island?

One is 70.

Just watched it there the now(my skiving, knows no bounds! 😆 ), I think it's alright actually, will watch the next one anyhow.

But does it answer the question?
you know, the question.

How many bears could bear grylls grill if bear grylls could grill bears?

Missed the first one, will catch up. But why only blokes?

[Having just been told Scrapheap Challenge is staged (the contraptions are built to H&S standards by expert mechanics off camera) I'm not going to waste my time watching any more of these reality challenges.

Not when I worked on it many moons ago.

But do remember, telly is all smoke and mirrors.

Like all the stuff he does it'll be contrived, scripted nonsense. The best I've seen was an episode in frozen Russia where he "came across a dead dear", still steaming and obviously just shot from the helicopter that was filming.

If lost in the wilderness with Ray Mears I'd stick with him and expect to survive thanks to his skills. With Bear I'd kill him and eat him before he got hungry and killed me.

Ray Mears is the man!

And he contains a lot more calories if it came to it.

Okay, reading glasses might work as they are for magnification.

I think it's long-sighted vs short-sighted that makes the difference. I'm long-sighted and my glasses were often used for incerating things in my younger days. Piggy in Lord of the Flies was supposedly short-sighted - so his glasses wouldn't have started fires - a plot error than anoyed me greatly when doing my GCSEs.

It's not great is it? 😐

The camera work is brilliant for amateurs...

The camera men are professionals. That was about as far through the program as I listened.

my mistake, I thought they were filming it all themselves....

I reckon they should cook Ryan. 😀

The cameramen are professionals but they're also stuck on the island I think?

Tony is exhibiting classic projection behaviour, he's bothered about himself but projecting his fears as agression to Ryan

They are a sorry bunch. To be there that long and not have even built some kind of shelter yet is poor.

I think the whole thing is very odd indeed - I can see why you wouldn't need to build shelter if it's hot all the time but the sleeping on the sand when there are palm leaves everywhere is really strange

it's a completely fake construct tho; it's a telly programme, the timeline of events are switched around to make good telly, they've picked the personalities to generate just the right amount of tension etc

Or ya there should not be camen on that island in the middle of some ocean.

I like it.
I can't wait til it gets all Lord of the Flies and Ryan/ Piggy gets flogged to death with a stone fish and a half-dead cormorant.

How the West was won, with Ray Mears, BBC4, Thursday, for some proper telly.

It appears to have taken them over a week to figure out how to use that net effectively in a sea full of fish, so they deserve to be starving!

Slow going innit, do you reckon there's a lack of material?

Did they get some of the cast from auditions on STW ?

😛

Slow going innit, do you reckon there's a lack of material?

This, I think. There just seems to be not enough happening to generate an interesting programme. They hardly stray from the beach. "Supposedly", there's enough food and water there for them to survive but they just seem to be sleeping around the beach mostly, apart from foraging, going to the shitty water hole and rubbing sun cream on one another.

Next week's looks to be interesting as a split threatens. 🙂 We live in hope.

...for some proper telly.

He might get a knife out. Bet you can't wait.

Did they get some of the cast from auditions on STW ?

Of course not. Have you not read this thread they'd have started a fire the second they landed, had a fleet of flishing trawlers and built a small mansion.

I didn't watch past the first episode.

I like that Ed Stafford bloke's program that is on discovery at the moment though.

Saw about 3.45mins last night via Gogglebox, decided wasn't missing anything. More fame junkies willing to go hungry and get a tan.

They do seem to be flitting around with the timeline - one minute they have been there almost two weeks, then a week, then almost a week then two weeks again.

But I agree with the above - they should have sourced water and made fire then foraged along the beach for useful building tools/ survival equipment before building a shelter. Once that was done they should have split into teams and done proper scouting missions across the island to see what else could help them survive.

Instead they are sat around a fire talking about boners and being hungry.

Ohh, and Ryan 'catching' a cormorant seems a bit suspicious - was it injured? If so how? I reckon someone on the production team winged it so it couldn't escape and give the useless bunch of ****wits half a chance of not starving.

Yep I get the feeling that they are not totally isolated. None of them really seem that bothered about when their next drink or meal is going to come from.

eg keeping the fishing nets out too long so the fish start to decompose and cannot be eaten? Really!

If that was me I'd be constantly be doing something to improve the situation, not sitting around having a chat.

keeping the fishing nets out too long so the fish start to decompose and cannot be eaten

And 13 of them - they could make a lobster pot each and catch more stuff using the spoiled fish too.

yep exactly, they could be a lot more resourceful with the limited resources they have. Which makes me think its not really fight for survival.

The production team have probably chosen people specially for their lack of enthusiasm on purpose. I guess a bunch of STWers doing fine and dandy on a island probably doesn't quite make as good TV as bunch of semi lazy people on the verge of starving?

I have nothing against Bear Grylls, friend was at school with him and totally decent chap apparently, has lived quite a life too. He's a god botherer and that usually raises an eyebrow from me but I'd put him in the "spiritual" as opposed to "annoying" bracket (apologies to any happy clappers on here).As someone mentions above he does tend to grab nature by the scruff rather than rolling with it as per Ray Mears. Ray is quiet, unassuming and works in harmony with what is around him rather than biting it's head off and drinking blood from its still beating heart. He's also nowhere near as full of a figure as the TV suggests although the unibrow is real 🙂

I do think a lot of this show is staged as it will need to be so the show isn't cut short after one episode and they're all treated for dehydration. That said it's more of a Lord of the Flies than a survival programme but there's no doubting they are very tired, very hungry, being bitten to buggery and will have to work hard to keep their water consumption where it needs to be. Do not underestimate how hard it is to purify enough water for 13 men everyday, it's a constant job to do it. If you watch the extras for the show online you'll see they found the island to use right at the end of the rainy season and knew it would have dried up by the time they put the lads on the island so have "topped it up" and also I've heard put a polythene liner in so it's not exactly natural. It has been suggested the 4 camera guys are bushcraft experts but I'm not convinced of that (time will tell) although all but one of the camera guys seem to be very calm under stress which suggests they know half the battle is attitude. The crocs were also apparently planted as grub but I'm still surprised it took days for them to manage to get the fish out of the nets before they spoiled. As to the driftline rubbish I think some of it is fair enough but I was wondering if metal containers float? There is an island nearby with a host of medics and ancillary staff nearby and they have a daily dropbox for the days film and camera batteries so they're not exactly days from support should something dangerous happen, as you might expect.

Worth watching the Ed Stafford programme on discovery as that is a pretty close representation of how very difficult it can be to thrive in a host of environments and that's a man that knows his stuff.

Yes I had read the stuff suggesting the caimans and the water were both planted. And I bet they aren't the last of the stories that come to light.

I gave up on the first one, of course the water was planted there was spade marks around where the natural waterhole was. Utter tripe, typical Bear Grylls fake TV.

In fairness, in his voice overs, BG (and hey, I'm not his biggest fan either) says numerous times "I've ensured there is enough food and water for them to survive" so whether that means "I've checked the island over and yes, there's plenty" or "we've dug a water hole for them to find and released some Caymans to get them going"...well, one draws one's own conclusions. I took it to be the latter and still do. While it's not a game show, neither would I expect twelve guys to be dumped onto an island where survival is going to be so difficult as to be just a cruel experiment to see how quickly humans will want to kill one another. However, it does seem that they're making it difficult for themselves...just a bit. 😆

If they're were honest and said what was planted for them to find it wouldn't be so bad but to try and make out it's not then I'm not interested.

I'm tired. I'm weak. I'm hungry. I'm thirsty. I've been hunting in the mangroves and found nothing more than a few figs so what do I fancy? I know, I'll do a bit of coasteering on some really sharp rocks during a rising tide. Jesus wept. 😆

Camen hunting ... 😆

Turtle laying eggs ffs watch it on youtube later on.

I still can't believe they didn't chop the head of the snake they ran into within 5 min of getting there!?? Were they expecting a maccyD's?

Why didn't they eat the turtle. In a real survival situation they surely would have.

They teased us with a Lord Of The Flies type split last week. Immanotgonnabehappy unless there are serious ructions by the end of this recording. Instead they're hunting fricking Caymans again. 👿

There's an American show that drops a bloke and bird in the middle of nowhere, nekked and they have to last a few days with a knife and a fire lighter. There's also a prog called lone target that sends an ex Navy seal out and has the world's best (in big inverted commas) army trackers to hunt him down.

I know everyone hates bear but I don't my d sitting down with a glass of wine and watching stuff like that. Doomsday prepping at its lowest level.

Quite enjoying this actually although I'd have thought that by now they'd at least have:

Explored most of the island to see exactly what's there.
Built raised beds to keep the sand flies at bay.
Started distilling freshwater from seawater (seems enough bottles/tins etc to be able to do this).
Worked out how to fish effectively - or built a small tidal fish trap.
Have found some ways to catch sea birds, e.g bait, traps, nets etc.
Made some crab or lobster traps or similar using the 'poo fish' as bait.

There are some lazy ass mofo's on that island that's for sure, but then if they can leave if it gets too much then I guess it's not a real survival situation is it?

Whatever you think of Bear Grylls, he has my 8 year old nephew inspired enough to get outdoors and join the scouts - that can only be a good thing.

With 007 100%

Two caymen were dropped on the island but there are more, they are not allowed to eat the turtle as it's an endangered species( although you would in a real life situation) the water was also topped up due to it drying out , also the yucca plants were also provided as extra to what was already there ( indigenous) it's all on the website for c4 under terms so in my eyes they are at least being transparent
I would love to do this in series two as they are really a lazy bunch

Ed Stafford much better

I'm still wondering why the haven't made a long bow and arrow and shot some of those burds out of the sky. Bit of string attached, sorted. Thousands of them, not like you'd need to be a great marksman, shoot and arrow in the middle of a crowd and you'd get something surely.

I'd have been building traps and snares of some sort too.

The tidal net mentioned above, seems blatantly obvious now you mentioned, but mind you not sure if I'd have came up with that.

I'd be definitely distilling water I reckon.

I'd also have split the group yonks ago, and let the lazy ones starve. and I'd probably have secretly killed and buried that Ryan chancer by now, I'd atleast have been campaigning to let him stay lost! 😀

Am I the only one the get disappointed by misreading "the island with bare girls"?

BigButSlimmerBloke - Member
Am I the only one the get disappointed by misreading "the island with bare girls"?