Netflix has pulled the curtain back on a slate of UK unscripted originals, including reality competition series Bear Hunt, starring Bear Grylls and Holly Willoughby.
Announced at the Next on Netflix showcase in London, Bear Hunt (working title) will feature survival expert Grylls preying on an unlikely group of British celebrities in the Central American jungle.
Here’s the logline: “Bear believes there’s an action hero inside us all – even the celebs – but how strong is their will 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 Bear himself and, if captured, eliminated from the show.”
The series will premiere next year and will be co-produced by Grylls’ The Natural Studios; Workerbee, the Banijay-backed outfit behind Discovery’s Idris Elba: Fighter; and Fremantle’s Talkback, which makes Too Hot To Handle for Netflix.
Grylls has collaborated with Netflix in the past on choose-your-adventure-style show You vs. Wild. Willoughby is best known for co-hosting This Morning, the ITV show she left last year following the scandal over her co-presenter Phillip Schofield’s relationship with a younger crew member.
Executive producers are Grylls, Delbert Shoopman for Natural Studios; Ben Mitchell, Olly Nash, Saul Fearnley for Workerbee; Charlie Bennett for Talkback.
Other unscripted shows on Netflix’s slate include Millennium Diamond Heist, which will be produced by Lightbox and executive produced by Guy Ritchie. The 2026 series will chart the audacious raid on London’s Millennium Dome by a group of criminals hunting a £200M diamond.
The heist has been a fascination for TV producers in the past. Previous documentaries on the crime include ITV’s The Millennium Dome Heist with Ross Kemp and Real Crime: Diamond Geezers.
Millennium Diamond Heist is executive produced by Ritchie, Simon Chinn, Jonathan Chinn, Suzanne Lavery, and Ivan Atkinson. Jesse Vile is the series director.
A Selling Sunset-style series is also coming to the UK in the shape of 2024’s Buying London, which will follow realtor Daniel Daggers as he opens up the British capital’s luxury property market. Fremantle-owned Naked is producing, with Cam De La Heurta serving as showrunner and Paul Broadbent as executive producer.
Netflix has also confirmed Rogan Productions’ documentary on the Euro 2020 Final, which featured a dramatic England penalty defeat to Italy and chaos as thousands of un-ticketed fans attempted to storm Wembley Stadium. Deadline first revealed the project, which is titled The Final: Attack on Wembley. Aloke Devichand, James Rogan, and Soleta Rogan executive produce. Rob Miller and Kwabena Oppong direct.