The ongoing season of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild continues with its penultimate episode tonight, as the presenter finds himself in rural Oxfordshire – closer to home than he’s ever been before.
The episode sees him spend a week with the Radwans – a family who have built their own house with help from a rather unexpected resource, as revealed in a first-look clip exclusive to RadioTimes.com.
In the clip, Fogle asks his hosts Lutfi and Ruby Radwan if they built their dwelling themselves, to which Lutfi replies: “Everyone got involved, all the family have memories of slave labour on that!”
When asked how long it took them, Ruby initially answers five years, before Lutfi adds: “We actually did the building in two years! The interior probably Ruby will comment that it’s not finished yet, but we’re working on it.”
The couple then give some more details on how they built the house, before Fogle asks how they managed to learn all the skills they needed to complete the task.
“We had a manual which we built the house from,” Lutfi answers. “Which was called Harry the Hippo Builds a House!”
And when Fogle comments that it sounds like a children’s book, he responds: “It’s a wonderful children’s book – but very detailed, showing you where to put in your pipes and how to do the sewage.”
You can check out the clip below.
The official synopsis for the episode reads: “This week, Ben is closer to home than he’s ever been, in rural Oxfordshire, spending the week with a multi-generational family, who surrendered their conventional life and transformed a 40-acre empty plot of land.
“Ben learns about the obstacles the family overcome, how they’ve spent two decades honing their skills and living off the land, which is now home to 11 members of the family. He uncovers how their Muslim faith has played a role in how they farm.
“Ben gets stuck into rural life, herds sheep and trims hooves, drives his own tractor, tends to thousands of chickens and chicks, all the while realising that life in the home-counties can be as wild as anywhere else he’s visited, and that now, a question mark hangs over the future of this rural haven.”
Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild continues on Tuesday night (22nd February) at 9pm on Channel 5. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now – subscribe now to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
