The Fox cousins take on Bear Grylls' challenge on ITV's Mission Survive

(Image credit: Doug Peters/EMPICS Entertainment)

A Bear has taught two Foxes to survive in the wilderness - as actor cousins Emilia Fox and Laurence Fox join Bear Grylls on new ITV series Mission Survive.

The upcoming ITV show sees famous adventurer Bear take eight celebrities deep into an unforgiving Central American rainforest for a 12-day survival odyssey.

The line-up includes former England and Gloucester rugby centre Mike Tindall, currently starring in Channel 4 winter sports show The Jump, and double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes .

Viewers will also see singer and actor Max George, TV presenter and singer Jamelia, comedy actor Tom Rosenthal and DJ, model and presenter Vogue Williams pushed to the limit.

Bear, 40, will eliminate one contestant at the end of every episode before the crowning of the 'Mission Survivor'.

The contestants have been taught to search for shelter, water, fire and food, abseil down ferocious waterfalls, cross perilous rapids, trudge through swamps, negotiate razor-sharp vines - and contend with scorpions, snakes and sand flies.

Laurence Fox, best know for playing Detective Sergeant James Hathaway in drama series Lewis, said he missed his wife Billie Piper, sons Winston and Eugene and cigarettes the most while filming the series.

Asked why he had signed up, the 36-year-old said his cousin Emilia had given him 'almost no option'.

"As a relatively private person, it's not something that I would ordinarily do," he said. "Whilst having lunch with my cousin Emilia last year, I asked her what she was up to next.

"She mentioned Mission Survive. I won't say she forced, but let's say she gave me almost no option but to accompany her on the trip as she was having butterflies.

"A phone call was made, and here we are."

 

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.