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Benjamin Myer Fogle (born 3 November 1973) is an English broadcaster, writer and adventurer, best known for his presenting roles on programmes shown on British television channels Channel 5, BBC and ITV.
Fogle went to Ecuador for a gap year, working in an orphanage teaching English. He then took a second year working on a turtle conservation project on the Mosquito Coast of Honduras and Nicaragua.
Fogle studied for a degree in Latin American studies at the University of Portsmouth, before studying for a year at the University of Costa Rica.
During this time, Fogle was a member of the University Royal Naval Unit (URNU). He became a Midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve, serving as an officer on and delivering aid to war-torn Bosnia and Croatia.
Fogle is a television presenter who has worked for the BBC, ITV Network, Channel 5, BSkyB, Discovery and the National Geographic channels in the UK. He has hosted Crufts, One Man and His Dog, Countryfile, Country Tracks, Extreme Dreams with Ben Fogle, Animal Park, Wild on the West Coast, Wild in Africa, "Ben Fogle – African Migration" and Ben Fogle's Escape in Time.
In 2010, Fogle made a film about the facial deforming disease noma for a BBC Two documentary Make Me A New Face which followed the work of the charity Facing Africa and Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Fogle has produced films about naval history and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) for the History Channel and followed Princes William and Harry on their first joint Royal Tour in Botswana and made an exclusive documentary called Prince William's Africa. He marked the centenary of Captain Scott's expedition to the South Pole with The Secrets of Scott's Hut. Fogle is popular on the motivational and corporate speaking circuit. His two-part documentary, Swimming with Crocodiles aired on BBC Two in 2012. Production commenced in 2011 for Storm City in 3D on Sky One and National Geographic. Fogle was hired for two years as a special correspondent for NBC News in the United States, in 2011. Their purpose was to cover the April royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton and the 2012, London Olympics.
Fogle appeared on the programme Countryfile with John Craven from 2001 to 2008, during which he reported on a number of UK rural pastimes. He rejoined the programme in 2014.
Since 2013, Fogle has presented two series of Harbour Lives, a documentary series on ITV. In 2014, Fogle joined the presenting team on ITV series Countrywise with Liz Bonnin and Paul Heiney, which covers aspects of the British coast and country.
Since 2013, Fogle has presented his show for Channel 5 called , that sees him follow the stories of people living "off grid" in the wild and isolated from society. In 2024, he interviewed musician Vanessa Forero in her Colombian cabin about the kidnapping of her mother Marina Chapman, and has expressed his hope to make a film about Chapman's life story.
Fogle took over as the host of recommissioned and re-titled Ben Fogle's Animal Clinic on Channel 5, replacing disgraced presenter Rolf Harris.
In October 2009, Fogle and Cracknell cycled a rickshaw 423 miles from Edinburgh to London non-stop. They took 60 hours to reach the capital, raising money for SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association). The event was filmed as part of The Pride of Britain Awards. Fogle and Cracknell planned to take part in the Tour Divide race in 2010, a 3,000-mile mountain-bike race across the Rocky Mountains, from Banff in Canada to the border of Mexico. The world record is held by American Matthew Lee and stands at 17 days. The race was put on hold after Cracknell received life-threatening injuries after being knocked from his bicycle in America while training. In 2013, Fogle and Cracknell teamed up again for their third and final expedition across the Empty-quarter of Oman for a new BBC Two series.
He has also written Offshore (2006), published by Penguin Books, in which he travelled around Britain in search of an island of his own. He visited the Principality of Sealand and attempted to land on Rockall in the North Atlantic. In 2006 he published The Crossing, published by Atlantic books and co-written with Cracknell followed their Transatlantic rowing bid. In 2009, The Race to the Pole was published by Macmillan and spent ten weeks in the best-seller list. His seventh book Labrador was released in 2015. In it, he explores the origin, characteristics and exploits of the breed.
In 2016, Land Rover: The Story of the Car that Conquered the World was published.Land Rover: The Story of the Car that Conquered the World; Fogle, Ben; William Collins; 2016; 336 pages; English: A Story of Marmite, Queuing and Weather, which was published in 2017, examines the English national character. He published his tenth book, Up, in October 2018. Co-written with his wife, Marina, Up documents his planning, training and eventual summit of Mount Everest. (2025). 9780008319182, William Collins. ISBN 9780008319182
In 2019 Fogle launched a children's book series, co-written by best-selling children's author Steve Cole (author) and illustrated by Nikolas Ilic. Inspired by Fogle's real-life encounters with animals, the series follows the character of Mr Dog and his many sidekicks and friends. Between March 2019 and January 2020, four Mr Dog books were published, with two more billed for late 2020.
Fogle writes a weekly Country Diary for the Sunday Telegraph and is a regular columnist for The Daily Telegraph and travel writer for The Independent and has contributed to the Evening Standard, The New York Times, the Sunday Times and Glamour magazine. He has interviewed Gordon Brown and Prince William for the Mail on Sundays LIVE magazine. He is guest director of Cheltenham Literary Festival and a regular at the Hay-on-Wye festival.
He is the President of the Campaign for National Parks. Fogle is also: an ambassador for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Tusk; a supporter of the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, and Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He is also a patron for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, the Prince's Trust, the Royal Parks Foundation, Child Bereavement UK and ShelterBox.
Alongside the historian Philippa Gregory, Fogle is a patron of the UK Chagos Supporters Association, fighting for the islanders' rights to return to the British Indian Ocean Territory. He has described "the story of the Chagos islanders' treatment at the hands of the UK government" as "one for which I am ashamed to be British ... a story of deceit ... shaken my very principles on conservation and democracy".
In August 2014, Fogle was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.
On 11 May 2020 Fogle announced that his Twitter account would henceforth be donated to a different charity on a rolling, weekly basis.[3]. Ben Fogle (via Twitter). The first charity selected was WECare, a UK and Sri Lankan registered veterinary charity. The repurposing of Fogle's Twitter account followed an incident of widespread trolling of Fogle following his suggestion of a nationwide sing-along to mark the 94th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday 21 April 2020.
| 2000–2001 | Castaway 2000 | Participant | BBC One |
| 2001–2009, 2014–2015, 2017–2018 | Countryfile | Co-presenter | |
| 2001–2009, 2016–present | Animal Park | Co-presenter | BBC One/BBC Two |
| 2002–2007 | One Man and His Dog | Presenter | BBC Two |
| 2003 | Big Screen Britain | Presenter | |
| 2003 | Death by Pets | Presenter | |
| 2004 | The Sand Marathon | Presenter | BBC Two |
| 2005–2006 | Co-presenter | ||
| 2006 | Through Hell and High Water | Co-presenter | BBC One |
| 2006, 2007–2008 | Crufts | Co-presenter | BBC Two |
| Cash in the Attic | Co-presenter | BBC One | |
| 2007 | Co-presenter | BBC Two | |
| 2007–2009 | Extreme Dreams with Ben Fogle | Presenter | |
| 2009 | On Thin Ice | Co-presenter | |
| 2009–2010 | Country Tracks | Co-presenter | BBC One |
| 2010 | Ben Fogle's Escape in Time | Presenter | BBC Two |
| 2010 | Make Me A New Face: Hope For Africa's Hidden Children | Presenter | |
| 2010 | Prince William's Africa | Presenter | Sky1 |
| 2011 | The Secrets of Scott's Hut | Presenter | BBC Two |
| 2011 | The World's Most Dangerous Roads | Co-presenter | |
| 2012 | Swimming with Crocodiles | Presenter | |
| 2012 | Lonely Planet's Year of Adventures | Presenter | Travel Channel |
| 2013— | Presenter | Channel 5 | |
| 2013–2016 | Countrywise | Co-presenter | ITV |
| 2013 | Ben Fogle's Animal Clinic | Presenter | Channel 5 |
| 2013–2014 | Harbour Lives | Presenter | ITV |
| 2014 | Trawlermen's Lives | Presenter | |
| 2015 | Ben Fogle: The Great African Migration | Presenter | Channel 5 |
| 2016 | Coastal Walks with My Dog | Co-presenter | Channel 4 |
| 2016 | Taskmaster | Cameo | Dave |
| 2017, 2018 | Walks with My Dog | Co-presenter | More4 |
| 2018 | Britain's Favourite Dogs: Top 100 | Co-presenter | ITV |
| 2018 | Our Everest Challenge | Presenter | ITV |
| 2020, 2022 | New Lives in the Country (previously known as Ben Fogle: Make A New Life In The Country) | Presenter | Channel 5 |
| 2020–2021 | For The Love Of Britain | Co-presenter | ITV |
| 2021 | Inside Chernobyl with Ben Fogle | Presenter | Channel 5 |
| 2021, 2023 | Scotland’s Sacred Islands With Ben Fogle | Presenter | BBC One |
| 2022 | Falklands War: The Forgotten Battle | Presenter | ITV |
| Ben Fogle & the Lost City | Presenter | Channel 5 | |
| Lost Worlds with Ben Fogle | Presenter | ||
| 2023 | Ben Fogle and the Buried City | Presenter | |
| Endurance: Race to the Pole | Himself | ||
| 2024 | Into the Congo with Ben Fogle | Himself | |
| 2025 | Expedition: Search For The Nile | Himself |
While filming a series of Extreme Dreams in Peru in 2008, Fogle contracted leishmaniasis, which left him bedridden for three weeks on his return home. He was treated at London's Hospital for Tropical Diseases.Staff (30 October 2008). "Fogle Catches a Flesh-Eating Bug". BBC News. Retrieved 9 July 2012. Fogle went on to make a documentary, Make Me a New Face, about children in Ethiopia suffering from flesh-eating bacteria called noma. The documentary was broadcast on BBC Two in 2010.
Fogle has had an acting cameo on the television programme Hotel Babylon.
On 20 February 2013, BBC Newsbeat published an article stating that he had claimed that his drink had been spiked at a pub in Gloucestershire. He described the effects as making him try to jump out of a window, and he subsequently spent a night in hospital.
Fogle was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) degree by the University of Portsmouth in 2007. Communicator – The newsletter of the University of Portsmouth – Issue 19 – Autumn 2007 (PDF format).
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