UK Van Life Featured On Ben Fogle’s ‘New Lives In The Wild’

Posted byJacqueline Lambert @WorldWideWalkiesPosted inAD (After Dog), Guest Post, The BeastTags:, , , , , , , , , ,

The wind whipped my hair across my face as I alighted from the truck and shook hands with the celebrity.

CUT!

“Can you do that again, and keep it spontaneous?” said the director.

Andy Warhol predicted that one day, everyone would have their 15 minutes of fame.

Ours was a bit less than that. Our sand ladders possibly got more air time than us, but that made it somewhat less nerve wracking to watch!

Back in March, we spent a couple of days up in the UK’s Peak District for SECRET FILMING! Our friend, Paul Jackman, was being filmed for Ben Fogle’s series New Lives In The Wild for the UK’s Channel 5. The series follows those who have given up the rat race to live a simpler life.

We’d arrived the night before and parked on the ‘lower road’ – a vanlife Mecca. After a windswept night, we’d awoken to a bright blue morning, with sunshine drizzling a golden glow on the dun moorland grass of Mam Tor.

The Beast parked under Mam Tor

I had a bit of a cold and was feeling under the weather. We took the pups out for a morning pee poo and both had the same thought.

“Shall we?” Mark said, looking at the peak of the Tor.

“It would be rude not to!” I replied!

We went up the steep face, so it didn’t take too long to get to the top. The views were stupendous.

The Fab Four on the way up the steep side of Mam Tor

We were trying to keep the dogs clean, since we were sort of ‘on show’ later in the day. When we were almost back, Mark said,

“It’s good we’ve avoided the worst of the mud.”

“There’s still time…” I replied.

And there was. There was a muddy puddle at the bottom of the Truck steps and Kai’s last step of the walk landed right in it!

Kai after he had prepared himself for his TV appearance

We were called up to the farm for filming – and to act as a windbreak!

The campsite was on the top of a soggy hill. I was relieved The Beast managed to climb it. The claims about her ability to scale 60 degree slopes go out of the window on slippery mud that fouls her knobbly tyres!

On paper, The Beast can climb a 60-degree slope, but can she climb one on slippery mud?

We had been sworn to secrecy (and signed a non disclosure agreement!) until the programme aired, although as you might expect we were rather nervous about appearing on the small screen. We kept quiet about it, but many of our friends spotted us (and The Beast!) on TV.

We made it! Milly & The Beast act as windbreaks at the park up near Castleton in the UK’s Peak District

This morning, two different strangers approached us at our park up and asked it it was the same truck that was on telly last night!

I’m not quite sure why Ben renamed Mark, John, but hey ho! Perhaps it was because another Mark was featured and he thought it might be confusing.

It was an excellent programme about van life starring Paul, the lovely OffGrid Nomad and a few of our other wonderful vanlife friends.

The film crew with Milly

Paul has been living off grid since 2015, and is currently at large in a converted army truck called Milly. He runs the Facebook Group LorryLife Campers UK and a YouTube channel, The OffGrid Nomad. @Liveration also made a film about Paul and his truck Milly, which you can see here.

Ben Fogle is one of my heroes.

Often, they say it’s best not to meet your heroes, but he was a lovely chap. He lived with Paul in his truck for four full days, and stayed to chat around the campfire long after the cameras had stopped rolling. He is genuinely interested in people and fascinating to chat to.

One of the crew had worked on the Dangerous Roads episode in Turkey with comedians Zoe Lyons and Joe Wilkinson, which we had just watched. Zoe is another of my heroes – they said she is lovely!

Chatting with Ben around the campfire

Howling wind shook The Beast all night, and relentless rain pelted us. The following morning, all the vans (but not the trucks) were bogged down. Ben was the first to get properly stuck in pushing everyone off the field. This is how our sand ladders possibly got more air time than us!

By the end, I was soaked to the skin and slick with mud.

All of which goes to showcase the glamour of van life and TV celebrity!

You can watch the episode on catchup, on the My 5 app. Unfortunately, it’s not available outside the UK unless you have a VPN.

It’s season 18, episode 5, screened on 30th January 2024.

Here’s a link to the programme online which may or may not work! You will have to register on the app to watch it. https://www.channel5.com/show/ben-fogle-new-lives-in-the-wild/season-18/lincolnshire

If you want to know more about The Beast, check out my Truckin’ About page. Alternatively, for a full tour of The Beast, see @Liveration’s film about us.

Come Truckin’ With Us – Get Outdoors Through Your Inbox!

The Fab Four on the summit of Mam Tor in the UK’s Peak District

Published by Jacqueline Lambert @WorldWideWalkies

AD (After Dogs) - We retired early to tour Europe in a caravan with four dogs. "To boldly go where no van has gone before". Since 2021, we've been at large in a 24.5-tonne self-converted ex-army truck called The Beast. BC (Before Canines) - we had adventures on every continent other than Antarctica!

29 thoughts on “UK Van Life Featured On Ben Fogle’s ‘New Lives In The Wild’”

  3. Jackie

    It was you I saw then 😊😊 I was 99.9% sure when I was watching it.  

    You gave a really good interview, I particularly liked seeing your dogs taking part.  

    Take care

    Janet 

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  5. Kai was very helpful to find a puddle to trot through – just the right edgy look for a truckin’ dog!! He might need a leather jacket and some aviator sunglasses 🕶 now he’s famous 😊

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  6. The show may turn up on YouTube for those outside the UK as Season 18 episode 4 and earlier are up there atm – I’ll keep an eye out and let you know. I don’t think it will be possible to watch the YouTube versions in the UK though.

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  7. How exciting! It must be cool to meet a hero. 🙂 Well done keeping the filming a secret. I have a question: You mentioned vanlife a lot. Do you see yourselves as part of the “vanlife movement”while not living in a van? I never see ourselves as “vanlifers” anymore, because our home on wheels (after living and traveling in Zesty, the Westy for four years) is now and has been a truck camper for a couple of years.

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    1. Hi Liesbet, I do see myself as part of the vanlife movement, as well as the overland community. I don’t always feel like a ‘proper’ overlander, since what we’ve done with The Beast is not quite as adventurous as the trip we purchased her for. That was Mongolia, which is off the cards for the time being due to the geopolitical situation in that part of the world.
      In the UK, we meet people living in all kinds of vehicles; trucks, converted buses, horse boxes, vans of every type, and even quite small cars. I view vanlife interchangeably with ‘living in a vehicle’ and think of it more as a lifestyle rather than associated with the vehicle type, but I understand where you’re coming from!

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  12. I have actually been up Mam Tor, the first month I was back in England on my working holiday that I’m still on, January 1974. I was catching up with an infant school friend!

    The filming sounded fun apart from the mud, good to know that celebrities don’t secretly decamp to a hotel!

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    1. I love your working holiday! Congratulations on reaching a half century. That must be some kind of a record! Mam Tor is a rather lovely introduction to the many and varied delights Britain has to offer.

      I think some of the celebrities aren’t quite as rugged as Fogle.

      The farmer where we’re camped says Susan Calman came here to film. Not only did she not stay in her camper, she didn’t even drive it. One of the crew drove it into the field for her!

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      1. I hadn’t realised half century! Before we went to Australia we hadn’t even been as far north as Watford so Mam Tor was a great introduction.

        That is so funny about Susan Calman, what goes on behind filming must be as entertaining as the actual programmes, of which there seem to be an endless amount!

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  14. I’ve only just watched this Ben Fogle programme and I’m afraid to say that I found it rather lacking on how vanlifers deal with the certain practicalities that they don’t pay for like settled people do.

    How do you obtain clean water? You don’t pay water rates so do you buy bottled water to drink? If not, why should you get clean drinking water for free from other sources.

    And what do you do re your toilet waste? You don’t pay for disposal like settled people do so what do you do? There are very few public disposal points available so I hope you don’t just dump your waste in rain water drains or at the side of the road. There are numerous places where wild camping was tolerated until people abused the privilege by, for example, emptying toilet cassettes over the sea wall in Scarborough.

    Or general waste? Which most of us pay for via our council tax? Do you just dump it in litter bins which the rest of us pay to empty?
    I’m sorry but you can’t expect to live your life on the cheap without contributing to the costs of providing the services listed above.

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    1. Hi Cathy,

      I can see this is something you feel strongly about.

      As with every aspect of society, there are those who abuse the system. It’s hard to generalise, but since the explosion in people buying camper vans for staycations during lockdown, the littering and dumping of toilet waste has increased. Perhaps this is a coincidence, but I suspect not. It is disgraceful behaviour, and needs to be dealt with. However, the full time van lifers I know act responsibly.

      I do not dump waste in drains. Some van lifers do, and it disgusts me. I don’t condone or excuse it, however if dumping of waste is a concern close to your heart, I urge you to lobby the water companies who dump millions of gallons of raw, untreated sewage into our rivers and seas daily, because it’s cheaper to pay fines than to act properly. They do so to safeguard shareholders dividends and directors’ six-figure bonuses. I don’t condone van lifers doing it, but the problem they cause is a p*** in the ocean in comparison, if you forgive the pun. https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/raw-sewage-discharge-water-pollution

      To get clean water and empty our toilets, we pay to go on campsites, fill up when we purchase fuel, or fill up from natural sources because we have an antibacterial filtration system. However, like most van lifers, our water usage is minimal. In 2020, Water UK estimated average daily water consumption per person is 142 litres, or nearly 500 litres for a family of four. We carry 1200 litres of water which lasts us 6 weeks. That’s 14.25 litres per person per day, or 90% less than average.

      We minimise our waste, but we do use litter bins – both for our own waste and for the litter picks we do around our park ups, and every time we walk our dogs. In one park up, we collected 18 bin bags of other people’s litter.

      I have paid higher rate taxes for more than 30 years, and pay taxes on my income from renting out my house. I feel I have paid my way, since I have taken very little out of the system in the past, and continue to take very little out now. You might not agree that this is fair, but I also spend most of my time out of the UK while still making contributions in the UK. Again, I urge you to consider the likes of Google and other multinationals who avoid tax, or the Conservative politicians who were so anxious to Get Brexit Done – so they could avoid the EU legislation that came into force in 2021 which would require them to declare the money they stash offshore for tax. THAT’S not fair!

      I would ask you to consider with some sympathy those who really can’t afford to live as settled people. That applies to me and my husband Mark. The truth is, we are unable to work because of burnout from high pressure jobs, and can’t afford to live in a house without working. We live on our savings and the rent we get from our house. We can’t draw our pensions until we’re 67. We have met many van lifers with mental health problems, particularly ex-service people, who are unable to work. We have also met many, like Paul who was featured on Ben Fogle’s programme, who are unable to afford rent/mortgage and bills, even though they do work.

      If the programme had not just sensationalised Vicki for using cat litter, viewers might understand a bit more about the amazing work she does in running a support network for van lifers who are suffering from all kinds of complex issues with poverty and mental health.

      It’s a shame the programme didn’t elicit more sympathy for those who are forced to give up their homes because of the cost of living crisis, or engender more understanding for those who have chosen an alternative lifestyle as an antidote to the pressures of modern life.

      Thank you for reading and commenting, and I hope I’ve given you food for thought.

      Kind regards,

      Jackie

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