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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Lucy Mangan

Into the Jungle With Ed Stafford review – a show so stupidly insensitive you’ll wish pain on the makers

Ed Stafford talks to dads and their kids in Into the Jungle With Ed Stafford.
Ed Stafford (right) talks to dads and their kids in Into the Jungle With Ed Stafford. Photograph: Channel 4

I think they should start by making their kids’ tea, but then I would, wouldn’t I? Which is why I am not the commissioner of programmes such as Into the Jungle With Ed Stafford.

The premise is simple. It is up to you to decide how stupid it is. The explorer and survivalist Ed Stafford (who has walked the walk rather than just talked the talk, having become, in 2010, the first person to walk the length of the Amazon) takes six men and their children into the jungle of Belize to see if a few weeks of toughing it out amid the mosquitoes, botflies, snakes and jaguars will bring them closer together. All feel disconnected from their children and vice versa, with the exception of Jethro and his son Dexter, who acknowledge that Jethro is having trouble contemplating the separation that must take place if his 12-year-old son is to thrive as he gets older.

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