Bear Grylls says he wants to be remembered less for summiting Everest or surviving remote wilderness than for telling the story of Jesus Christ. The British survivalist and TV personality told ITV’s This Morning that his new book, The Greatest Story Ever Told: An Eyewitness Account, is the hardest project he has ever undertaken—and the legacy he hopes will outlast his fame.
Speaking with presenters Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond on Friday (Sept. 26), Grylls said the retelling of the life of Christ, drawn from the eyewitness accounts of the gospels, has touched people around the world and is the work he is most proud of. The book, released earlier this summer, 2025, is already a Sunday Times bestseller.
An introduction for the program said “He’s climbed Everest, crossed the Arctic, even survived on a deserted island but survivalist superstar Bear Grylls says none of it compares to his latest adventure!”
The “adventure” mentioned is his “retelling of the story of Jesus which he says he’d give up every summit, every Emmy and every show to have written.”
Grylls told O’Leary and Hammond that writing the story of Jesus Christ, based on the eyewitness accounts of the gospels, had definitely been his “hardest achievement” and certainly the one he felt most proud of completing.
“It’s touching people’s lives all over the world,” Grylls said on the program. “And I mean we have all done lots of things in our lives and put things out there but I think out of everything this is what I get the most letters, texts, messages… from people of all cultures, all faiths, and from all countries generally saying [they] had no idea of actually the real story.”
O’Leary called Grylls a “man of faith” and lauded that the adventurer evoked no sense of judgementalism but his Christianity proved to be a “compass to who you are. It’s your North Star.” The presenter then probed Grylls about where his idea for the book originated.
“I think so few people, myself included, grew up knowing the real story,” explained Grylls, on the program. “The unsanitised, unchristmassy story of it all. And the real story is so shocking and beautiful and exciting and challenging.”
Grylls elaborated that many people grew up as children with a sense of familiarity with Bible stories, such as the parable of the Good Samaritan or the Nativity play.
“But actually the whole story is so life enhancing and life empowering and challenging and beautiful,” Grylls went on. “And people don’t read the Bible. It is hard to read. I think if you have faith then it’s obviously milk and honey, it’s amazing. But I think just to read it straight is hard for people and I think [this book] is a really brilliant bridge into faith.
“I think people are really hungry for purpose and meaning and finding light and love and home in their lives.”
Grylls, adding that “no one had ever done this,” said a church pastor in the U.S. had written to him saying that the adventurer’s approach was akin to thriller writer John Grisham writing the gospels.
Hammond compared Grylls’ need to write the book to the calling of Noah in the Bible. Noah knew he had to build the ark, she said, despite people laughing at him. Similarly, she said that Grylls had sensed a calling to write the story of Jesus.
Grylls agreed that he felt a sense of purpose in writing the story, despite jeering by some people. However, he stressed the importance of “following your heart” as an overriding philosophy in his personal life.
“I did feel a real sense of ‘clear the decks’ and write this. I worked with a brilliant team of theologians to get this really right and accurate, and in many ways they are the real heroes in this whole journey. My feeling now is that it is almost no longer my book. It’s out there and it’s all of our stories wrapped up, and it [the gospel] draws people and enhances and empowers their lives.”
Grylls also spoke of the importance of telling the story of Jesus for his own legacy as a celebrity. He said that if in a hundred years’ time, if people remembered that ”band-legged white English man who ran around the jungle” the one thing he would like to be remembered for, is writing the book about Jesus.
O’Leary, confessing himself to be a Catholic, commended the high level of research in the book. He pointed out that reading the Bible is “not easy” and alleged there are contradictions in the scriptures.
Grylls, in response, said that asking questions about life should be encouraged and confided his own doubts. “My faith goes up and down, and it’s a journey,” he said.
