Chris Ryan

[Jamie]

Just in case you hadnt seen and might be interested, the SAS bloke Chris Ryan has a new program starting tonight on BBC1 'Hunting Chris Ryan' at 9pm.

(the BBC's blurb on the proggie 'SAS veteran Chris Ryan is pushed to the limit in this new real-life adventure series. Using only his survival skills, can he cope with the heat and humidity of the Honduran jungle and avoid being captured by former special forces soldiers?'

All the best

Jamie

[Viking]

Looks like a very intersting program too bad I don´t have BBC :cry:

Is it coming on DVD?

[Jamie]

I would imagine so...eventually!
Can record it on VHS for you if you would like? dont know if our system works over in Sweden though.....

Jamie

[johnboy]

I think it's on over the course of the next few weeks.

Mr Ryan gets persued through different climates.

This week its Jungle, so that leaves Arctic (snow), Temperate and Desert, over the course of the next few weeks.

Go chris go!!

john

[Viking]

I would imagine so...eventually!
Can record it on VHS for you if you would like? dont know if our system works over in Sweden though.....

Jamie

We use the PAL system here and I think you use the same. It would just be super great i f you could record it for me. Of course i will pay for all your costs.

[Jamie]

Hi Viking

No problem! As johnboy said, its a series of programmes so will record them for you and will contact you once they are done.....hows that?

Jamie

[Viking]

Hi Viking

No problem! As johnboy said, its a series of programmes so will record them for you and will contact you once they are done.....hows that?

Jamie

It couldn´t get any better, a big thank you :-D

[bigjackbrass]

First thoughts on the new show:

Very disappointing from a bushcraft point of view, but then it's not really about that. The speed with which Mr Ryan has to travel and the nature of the scenario means that all we got were brief comments about trench foot, using a rucksack as a floatation device and a few interesting tips on tracking.

After ten minutes I couldn't see how they were planning to stretch the show for an hour, much less do the same thing next week. If the only changes are environment and scenario then I can't see this sustaining interest. Ray Mears interacts with different environments, whereas in "Hunting..." they are essentially the enemy, an obstacle to be overcome and endured until the game is over.

Did anyone else find the sight of four men wandering through villages in the jungle whilst carrying assault rifles to a soundtrack of "The Doors" a little disturbing? And really, I could have lived without the MTV/videogame camera and editing effects.

Now, all of that might sound rather damning, but overall I didn't think it was bad, as a one-off. Certainly one has to admire Mr Ryan's skills and endurance, but I think we have to file this series on the entertainment shelf only, as we're not really going to learn anything from it. Except perhaps to avoid the Mosquito Coast.

[Tony]

Good points BJB :biggthump for entertainment and example of physical endurance that I found impressive and :rolmao: for bushcraft educational value. I will have a look at the book tomorrow although if it is based on the TV Prog, it will be male entertainment value that makes it interesting!

Ard men though
:super:

[Martyn]

I found it very entertaining and enjoyable. True, there was little of bushcraft value there, also little advice on needlepoint, but as niether had anything to do with the programme, I surely cant be a fair criticism?

The main entertainment value was watching some of the ardest men around, scrambling through the harshest environment trying to evade/capture one another. Jolly good romp I thought.

[Tony]

Your right as usual :sword:

[Martyn]

It was obviously a bit staged though, didn't ya think? I mean I know it had to be, for TV's sake, but the controler guy kept tipping off the hunters. It was a bit hard on the guy, he takes a 5 mile detour to scramble his tracks, the hunters loose him as a result, so the controler intervenes and relocates them via helicopter a 100yds away from his location. Chris Ryan must've been uttering B*****d, under his breath a few times. :-D :-D

[johnboy]

Next week it's Siberia!!!

Did you notice how one of the guys 'Hunting Chris Ryan' had a pair of swim fins in his rucksack.

[Nod]

I was going to watch it, but then someone showed me the Chris Ryan SAS Diet in the Sun newspaper yesterday. Even had the winged dagger with "Who Dares Slims" on it, along side pictures of Chris with some water filled pop bottles as dumb bells wearing a pair of combat trousers and a vest.........but then I suppose he has a mortgage to pay like everyone else does.

[bigjackbrass]

True, there was little of bushcraft value there, also little advice on needlepoint, but as niether had anything to do with the programme, I surely cant be a fair criticism?

Hardly the same thing, Martyn. A programme showing someone using survival and evasion techniques in adverse environments is bound, even incidentally, to touch on elements of bushcraft, but I was not criticising the programme for not being another "Extreme Survival," and I did say "...it's not really about that." This is a very different show, and "show" is indeed a good description of it. In my opinion there could have been just a touch more information about methods and skills than was included, and that is why I wonder about the longer term interest of the programme. Watching Chris Ryan beat the crap out of himself in evading his pursuers is entertaining, and it's a damned impressive display however much of a game it is, but to my mind the how and why of what he was doing is where the real fascination lies. Some of the comments by the pursuing force were especially interesting because they explained what was going on and what they were looking for. Viewers could see precisely sod all, but those guys were looking at bruised plants and disturbed soil and making judgements based on their observations. In fact, I think that Mr Ryan did a respectable job of providing a commentary as he was forced to move rapidly and quietly.

Basically, I felt that the balance of the show was a little off, leaning too much towards flashy graphics and running through the jungle, and for me that reduced the interest level. Still, it's clear that many other people enjoyed it, which is fine. I mean, after all, if everyone liked the same thing then television would probably be dominated by soaps and hospital dramas...

[clcuckow]

Had a quick flick through the book at ASDA (£9.98) and it looks to me like a reprint of Loffties SAS Survival Handbook with a few photos of Ryan butchering a deer etc. Also some of the pics look like they have been lifted straight off the Internet as they are pixelated to hell.

Re: the swim fins, the guy was ex Navy SEAL maybe he could not stand to be without them or he expected to do more river crossing rather than flagging down a boat at every opportunity.

Christopher

[Martyn]

True, there was little of bushcraft value there, also little advice on needlepoint, but as niether had anything to do with the programme, I surely cant be a fair criticism?

Hardly the same thing, Martyn. A programme showing someone using survival and evasion techniques in adverse environments is bound, even incidentally, to touch on elements of bushcraft, but I was not criticising the programme for not being another "Extreme Survival," and I did say "...it's not really about that." This is a very different show, and "show" is indeed a good description of it.

Sorry Jack, I didn't mean to sound critical of your criticisms, I just re-read my post and It does come accross a little like that.

It's just that I think the remit for the programme was more mainstream general entertainment, rather than and kind of education. As far as general entertainment, I thought it was pretty good. I do share your frustrations though, as the men involved were clearly very competant and there was much potential for education which was set aside in favour of appealing to the mass audience.

[bigjackbrass]

Thanks for the response, Martyn. No offence taken, and anyway I can take criticism as well as the next man (assuming that the next man is an ill-tempered psychopath with a history of violence. And a toothache).

You're entirely right, the show is about entertainment pure and simple and I am not attempting to suggest that it should have been inherently educational, but for me it was a bit too lightweight even by its own remit. Nonetheless, I expect I'll try to, uh, catch it next week, and it's perfectly possible that future shows may have a bit more to them.

As for the flippers, my theory is that each week one of the pursuit team is forced to carry an item chosen by the cameraman. Just a theory, of course.

[johnboy]

Yep Next week is siberia,

Chris is sent in to rescue a downed satelite........

One of the pursuing team has to carry a complete set of Chris's novels in his Bergen in an attempt to get into chris's 'head space' and thereby bring about his capture. :wink:

[giancarlo]

just a reminder incase anyone wants to know,
Next part is on tonight

Time: 21:00 to 22:00 (1 hour long).
When: Thursday 30th October on BBC 1

Survival challenge series. SAS hero Chris Ryan takes on a mission to locate a spy satellite that has crashed inside the Arctic Circle and finds himself seriously challenged by the extreme weather conditions in Siberia.
(Widescreen, Second of three programmes, Subtitles)

[mac]

I agree that the CR prog is entertainment value alone.
It won't be often that many of us would end up in an environment where escape and evation will be the key to survival or that we would be pursued relentlessly by a horde of enemy!
Survival in these circumstances would of course rely on many skills:food/water procurement, coping with the ominous environmental and climatatic conditions combined with the physical and mental exhertion.
it would seem unlikely that anyone would have time to search for food, so water is the priority.
We know that CR during desert storm successfully E&E'd for over 120 miles, surviving hypothermia in the desert nights,but on the siberia programme he came down very quickly with hypothermia.Fortunate that he had good comms and a medic on standby otherwise had it been for real I doubt he'd have made it.
leads me to thinking that no matter how good your skills are, whether as a survival instructor, great knowledge of bushcraft, or even how fit you are, in the end your survival in these circumstances comes down to water, willpower, cunning, instinct to survive and above all mother nature throwing you a lucky dice!
Anyone ever remember the 80's programme 'Survive' and the blind girl who managed to fight her way through the jungle for weeks, swimming through crocodile infested rivers ?
Still though, the learning of natural and ancient skills is a great and fulfilling knowledge and could at some point increase survivability.
As for Hunting Chris Ryan:
Entertainment value? (my wife actually likes to watch it!) so its gotta be a 10/10
Survival awareness value? (based on the magnified hypothermia scenario)7/10
All round Skills content value? 4/10
Any comments?

[Gary]

Guys,

As someone who has worked in movies and tv I can only say one thing :-

IT IS ENTERTAINMENT - just like SAS SURVIVAL and HERO'S OF TELEMARK - it is meant to entertain not necessarily teach.

It is very staged - AFTER ALL how does the camera crew find him and not the hunters? When filming him there will be about 8 techies doing sound, camera, light etc (if not more) and the amount of sign they would leave a blind man could follow.

At the end of the day remember one thing - IF ITS ON THE BOX TAKE IT WITH A PINCH OF SALT - the camera often lies!

[RAPPLEBY2000]

a great program if you..are actually expecting to have to escape and evade capture!

i saw a recent progremme that even showed how to make booby traps, and they are showing this to the general public!

i remember when i was a boy in scouts we were well into making traps and me and a friend use to make quite complicated traps in an area behind some old garages, we had about 20- 30 trip wires set up and several moving traps including an old bird cage.

my point is this if kids get ideas they try them out, we may see in the papers something about a kid trying to make a "trap" with a firework and someone getting hurt or worse.

do we really need to know how to set up traps that will kill someone?

or should we?

i think not.

by all means he should demonstrate techniques usefull to everyone but unless we are all budding mercinaries i fail to see the point! :!:

[Roving Rich]

I may just sinical or paranoid... (not me surely)
But everytime i have been near a telly lately it seems to be warfare on it.
Whether its roman battle tactics in the UK, trench warfare at the somme or escape and evasion with Chris Ryan. Are the media tryimg to tell us something?
Rich

[Raz]

Maybe the media is clasping hold of what’s important?

People should be looking up to any one of the brave soles, who puts themselves in harms way for our well being.
I can't imagine anything that demands more strength of character, and our attention.

Without real people on the box, the nation has started to idolise almost any tom, dick or DICK who is on television.
The aspirations of our kids to be among them, is certainly a short journey. (Usually a lobotomy)
I appreciate exposure was once a sign of talent and success. But it certainly isn't that way anymore!

Rant mode off ops:

[Mikey P]

I reckon that what 'Hunting Chris Ryan' goes to show is:

Survival is as much mental as physical

Even a p**s-poor booby trap can work when you're not looking where you are going

Chris Ryan is a very business savvy bloke - good luck to him

Cheers,

Mike