Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has made his feelings clear on the cancellation of Celebrity Bear Hunt, the Netflix survival series in which he was dramatically rescued by Bear Grylls.
Speaking to GB News during the launch of his latest interior design project, Eleven Bibury, the designer praised the series for offering something more meaningful than the typical celebrity challenge format.
“It was huge in the UK… I think everyone involved should be very proud of that,” he said.
“One of the reasons I liked doing it was it wasn’t like the other jungle challenge shows. It was about empowering people, giving them a chance to prove something to themselves.”
Laurence Llewelyn Bowen at Eleven BiburySUPPLIEDHe joked: “I loved every minute of it. Even dying on the show - I didn’t mind that!”
Llewelyn-Bowen’s remarks come just months after the now-shelved series aired footage of a harrowing incident in which he nearly drowned while filming.
During a water-based team challenge, he struggled to climb onto a raft and nearly lost consciousness. Bear Grylls jumped in to save him, and medics on set administered oxygen.
The 59-year-old later admitted: “I really did think that I was having a heart attack,” and told viewers, “I became a very panicky old man. I was just really silly.”
Despite the scare, Llewelyn-Bowen has stayed busy.
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Llewelyn-Bowen’s remarks come just months after the now-shelved series aired footage of a harrowing incident in which he nearly drowned while filming
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At the heart of his GB News interview was the debut of Eleven Bibury, a newly opened destination in the Cotswolds that includes a tearoom, design-led retail space, and curated interiors set within restored historic buildings.
Designed by Llewelyn-Bowen himself, Eleven Bibury is positioned opposite the iconic Arlington Row in Bibury, a location steeped in the legacy of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
The project, he says, is “a bit of a fight back” against the increasingly commercialised and stylised version of rural Britain portrayed in the media.
“We were extraordinarily influential and we created a new vision of architectural design that was fundamentally 100 per cent democratic,” he said of Britain’s design legacy.
Entrance to Eleven BiburyGB NEWSHe credited Eleven Bibury’s founder, Lady Anne Evans, as the driving force behind the project’s community ethos.
“Anne has this incredible centre of gravity that draws people from enthusiasm, from love, from generosity,” he said. “Her idea was to bring the heart back to the community”.
The interiors - designed with Llewelyn-Bowen’s signature flair - combine historical detail with 21st-century innovation.
He noted that while modern technologies, like subtle lighting and digital integration, were used in the design, they remained “subservient to the aesthetic”.
The launch of Eleven Bibury comes at a time when Llewelyn-Bowen is enjoying a creative resurgence.
Alongside this project, he recently wrapped filming on season two of Outrageous Homes for Channel 4 and is returning to BBC’s Interior Design Masters. More projects, he hinted, are on the way.
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