We celebrate 10 years of Bear Grylls

Best known for his career as an explorer and the television shows documenting his adventures, Bear Grylls has become a household name. This year, he celebrates ten years as Chief Scout.

Bear was originally appointed for a five-year tenure in one of the most senior Scouting roles in the UK. However, in 2015, The Scout Association announced that Bear would continue as the public face for Scouting, thanks to his commitment to the The Scout Association.

Join us as we take a look back at the adventurer’s best bits from the last ten years!

Television

Following the success of Born Survivor (broadcast as Man vs Wild internationally) which saw Bear carry out the ultimate survival tests in hostile environments and spanned seven seasons, ‘Bears Wild Weekend’ aired on Channel 4 in 2011.

The specials featured Bear taking Miranda Hart and Jonathan Ross on individual two-day excursions; Hart to the Swiss Alps, Ross to a rainforest in the Canary Islands. A third episode was aired at the end of 2013 with Stephen Fry. The series of episodes proved popular and became a foundation for more of his adventure shows.

In the years after, he presented ‘The Island with Bear Grylls’ which saw a group of individuals placed on a remote island with basic tools, training and only the clothes they arrive in to survive. A spinoff of this series named Celebrity Island had a similar premise with a group of well-known celebrities aim to survive on the island.

Carrying on with his celebrity specials, ‘Running Wild with Bear Grylls’ saw Bear taking various famous faces on a two-day trip in the wilderness. He had huge names join him across the series such as Channing Tatum, Ben Stiller, Kate Winslet, and President Barack Obama.

Similarly in 2018, ITV started airing a new series in the UK called ‘Bear’s Mission with…’ similar to the USA series ‘Running Wild with Bear Grylls’. This series featured one celebrity per episode partaking in an overnight excursion with Bear.

Books

The explorer has also delved into the world of literature with books detailing his expeditions, accompaniments to his television shows and more recently, non-fiction.

Around the time of his appointment as Chief Scouts, Bear released Living Wild: The Ultimate Guide to Scouting and Fieldcraft, and a few years later, Mud, Sweat and Tears: The Autobiography’ revealing the secrets and adventures that had defined his life so far.

The release of ‘A Survival Guide for Life’ was released later in 2012 which aimed to give readers a look at the invaluable lessons survival situations can teach you. He also soon released True Grit, a book with a similar premise to his two previous releases.

He has also written a series of children’s adventure books along with two thriller novels.

Personal achievements

Bear prides himself on his involvement with charity and social issues.

An ambassador for numerous charities around the world, the dare-devil sailed through 2,500 miles on the Northwest Passage expedition in a rigid-inflatable boat, accompanied by a team of five in 2010, to raise money for the charity Global Angels whilst also raising awareness for global warming.

Due to his previous experience in the forces, the former instructor was presented with an honorary rank of lieutenant colonel in the Royal Marines Reserve in 2013.

Sustaining his high achiever status, a huge congratulations goes out to the Chief Scout for receiving his OBE for services to young people, charity and the media in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, just this year.

From all of us here at Scout Websites, we’d just like to thank Bear for all of his hard work and support for The Scouts and hope to see him maintain his role for many more years to come.