Former Spice Girl Mel B heads to Costa Rican jungle on Netflix’s Celebrity Bear Hunt with Bear Grylls
If enjoying taking the dog for a walk, ending up at a pub and having a Sunday roast makes you an outdoorsy and adventurous person, then TV presenter Holly Willoughby fits the bill. The 43-year-old, who is set to host Netflix’s Celebrity Bear Hunt, does actually enjoy the great outdoors, but doesn’t get out enough as she would like.
“I like being outdoors a lot, but I don’t do it enough... Being in Costa Rica really does throw you in at the deep end. It’s a beautiful country and the wildfire is truly wild,” says Willoughby, who is primarily known for presenting ITV’s This Morning and Dancing On Ice.
The eight-part action-packed competition show will see a group of unlikely celebrities dropped into the Central American jungle as prey for one of the world’s most fearsome predators – 50-year-old British adventurer and writer Bear Grylls, becoming widely known for embarking on several notable adventures, and presenting the television series Man vs. Wild.
For Grylls, there is an action hero inside all of us – even celebrities – but it depends on how strong their will is to survive. As Bear puts them through their paces, those who fail to impress will face the dreaded ‘Bear Hunt’ – a brutal game of cat and mouse where they’ll be hunted down by Grylls himself and, if captured, face elimination from the show.
The 12 celebrities taking part include Leeds-born singer-songwriter and former Spice Girl Mel B, journalist and TV show host Steph McGovern, dancer Shirley Ballas and former German tennis player Boris Becker. Joining them is former English rugby union player Danny Cipriani, chef and rapper Big Zuu, furniture designer and TV personality Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Irish singer Una Healy, actor and comedian Joe Thomas, actor Kola Bokinni, fashion model Lottie Moss and model and TV host Leomie Anderson.
Looking at the lineup ahead of the game, Willoughby felt many of the female contestants would be strong contenders. “The girls are super tough. I think Lottie will be great, she’s a beautiful girl who is made of tough stuff and I think she’s often underestimated. Mel B is an actual Spice Girl so she’s obviously going to be incredible, and Shirley is a super strong woman, who got to the top of her industry, and also has experience and life lessons on her side.”
Meanwhile, Grylls believes it’s important to look for those who lead with their brain and not their physicality. “You’ve got to play a long game, you can’t go off at a million miles an hour. You’ve got to pace yourself, you’ve got to be sharp and strong.”
If you combine the heat and the animals in Costa Rica, the environment can be quite unforgiving, Willoughby says. “Costa Rica is incredibly wild, and everything is supersized. The trees are huge, the bugs are the size of birds, and the birds are the size of pterodactyls. I’ve also never known heat like it, but the backdrop is the star of the show, and we were in amongst all of its breathtaking natural beauty.”
Celebrity Bear Hunt comes to Netflix on February 5.