Ray Mears without a shadow of doubt.
Grylls is just a 'charlatan' - turns out he is less than truthful. He apparently often stays in hotels while shooting his "survival" series. Guess you can survive anything with a hot shower, mini bar and room service...
Also situations are 'set up' by the crew to demonstrate some techniques for "survival".
In one of his programmes he stated ""Eat anything in the mangroves and you risk dancing with the Devil - anything from dysentery to liver failure..."
So, why the hell did he eat that raw crab? Mears doesn't need to use such 'tricks' - he doesn't kill something just to prove a point...
Funnily enough Ray Mears was asked in an interview (Radio Times) about the Bear fiction (as opposed to the bare facts...)
Do you watch Bear Grylls for tips?
Ha ha ha ha ha [laughs for about a minute]. Do I look for tips from Bear Grylls? Yes - on how not to make television programmes! As far as I am concerned, these people are just showmen. I think the viewer knows that if you want to really know how to take care of yourself in the wild, I'm the person to talk to.
Did you laugh out loud when you heard that Bear Grylls had been caught "surviving" in a motel?
Yeah. You can take short cuts if you want, but we never have. I've had many arguments with the directors, telling them, "We do it the right way or not at all". That caused a problem in the old days, but now directors see what happens if you cheat. It's a sad indictment of the world we live in that television wants that kind of hype. And it's crap television. When people break those rules and think it's Ok to dress the stage a little bit, that spoils the whole thing. I think that's an abuse of a powerful medium.
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