Sitting cross-legged with a crucifix on his tanned chest, Russell Brand’s latest reinvention is a transformation for the ages.
Gone was the mustachioed, alternative-looking old man in a not-so-neat knitted hat, spouting conspiracy theories to his devoted online subscribers.
This new Mark is clean and seems to almost shine with some kind of reflected holiness.
It’s a far cry from the peak of his first wave of success as a comedian 20 years ago, when Brand was the high priest of toxic masculinity, whose nadir came with the Andrew Sachs scandal, where he and co-host Jonathan Ross brutally humiliated to the comedian, leaving him explicit voicemails about his granddaughter live on Brand’s Radio 2 show.
And today, let us not forget, Brand remains under investigation by the Metropolitan Police for a series of serious sexual assault allegations dating back years.
Russell Brand revealed this week that he was baptized in the River Thames. He said Bear Grylls, who along with another friend held him while he was submerged in the waters.
Yet somehow he has metamorphosed into a man who wants to talk about God indwelling him and who quotes verses from the Book of Galatians in the New Testament.
Cynics may think it’s all a publicity stunt, but to be fair, Brand has been reflecting more and more on spirituality for a few years.
Now it seems the same man who performed a comedy routine titled Messiah Complex in 2013 has found his own John the Baptist.
Step forward, survival expert, Old Etonian, scoutmaster and committed Christian Bear Grylls. With his help, Brand literally took the plunge and revealed this week that he was baptized in the Thames, with Grylls, one of two friends who held him while he was submerged in its waters.
“I want to thank Bear Grylls and my partner Joe, the two men who stood on either side of me and flanked me during the baptism,” Brand confirmed on social media. ‘The first week as a Christian has been incredible. The ceremony itself was incredible.” Always verbose, he added that he felt “changed, in transition… nourished and sustained.”
Brand has a riverside house in fashionable Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and it is believed that the baptism took place there.
Grylls’ friends tell me that they were absolutely thrilled that he was acting as Brand’s spiritual mentor.
A schoolmate let out a series of shocked expletives at the news, before explaining: ‘It makes a lot of sense when you see this as a matter of faith. Anyone who repents is saved, and if you have a strong faith like Bear, then that is the only consideration. Only God judges! But I’m a little surprised.”
Brand posted this photo of himself with Grylls and another friend during his baptism in the River Thames.
Grylls himself, a lifelong Christian, explained: “The spiritual and faith moments in our lives are truly personal, but it is a privilege to be at someone’s side when they express a humble need for forgiveness and strength from above. Friendships when we go through difficult times are worth a lot.’
The bromance between the two men is quite surprising.
It seems they met last year when Brand participated in the National Geographic program Running Wild with Bear Grylls, broadcast on AppleTV+, where Brand reflected on life, addiction and spirituality in the Hebrides while Grylls, a year older than him, He nodded with a gesture of encouragement.
Despite all that on-screen support, Grylls’ friends tell me they were amazed the relationship had continued after filming.
But if you leave God out of it, then what Brand has also done is find a powerful mentor in Grylls. Over the past two decades, Grylls has created his own entity that sits somewhere between a cult of personality and a media brand.
Bear Grylls Inc encompasses multiple television shows, animated films, books, two festivals, adventure camps, theme parks, a mental fitness app and a training company, Becoming X, which sells resilience lessons to schools.
They all sell themselves on their name and that makes Brand’s narcissistic neighing seem like small potatoes. Not even Grylls’s involvement in two tax evasion schemes and a couple of embarrassing television deepfake scandals has stopped her rise.
He is now in Costa Rica, where he has begun filming Bear Hunt, a new Netflix adventure format in which he will chase celebrities, including Boris Becker and Mel B, through the rainforest. Holly Willoughby will be the presenter.
It’s a big budget (security reportedly costs £1m alone), but Grylls has what Brand doesn’t: global reach, courtesy of his Running Wild programme, and respect. Awarded an OBE, he went to the Coronation and the Platinum Jubilee.
This new Mark is clean and seems to almost glow with some kind of reflected holiness, writes Alison Boshoff.
As Chief Scout, just last month he was doing the ‘Investitures of the Scout King’ at Windsor Castle.
So what, besides God, has brought Brand and Grylls together? While both men are married with three children, that’s where the similarities end.
Edward Michael Grylls was born, unlike his new friend, in the mansion. His father is Sir Michael Grylls, a former Conservative MP and former member of the Royal Marine Commando, and his mother is Sally. His older sister, Lara, started calling him Bear when he was a baby and the name stuck.
While Brand was brought up in Grays, Essex, Bear was sent to Ludgrove School where, he says, he bit another boy, drawing blood, before being beaten by his father in front of the rest of the school as punishment.
When he was young, his father had introduced Brand to sex with two prostitutes in Hong Kong. Later, his then-employer, MTV, fired him for impersonating Osama bin Laden. Bear, however, had moved on to a military career, in the reserves with 21 SAS from 1994 to 1997, before being posted to North Africa. He was seriously injured in a free-fall skydiving accident in Kenya after his parachute failed to open and he broke his back.
Only 18 months later he climbed Mount Everest, at the age of 23. His first TV documentary was in 2005, but his big break came a year later, when Discovery commissioned Man Vs Wild, which showed him surviving in different challenging parts of the world.
His macho style, SAS credentials and elegant demeanor made him a success. The seemingly real danger was also a selling point.
Then in 2014, she began hosting Running Wild, in which she dated a celebrity. Among those notable figures were US President Barack Obama and actor Will Ferrell, famous for eating reindeer eyeballs.
However, there are suggestions that life-and-death challenges are not as dramatic as they seem.
There was a scandal in 2005 when it emerged that footage showing Grylls crossing what he described as a dangerous ravine in Man Vs Wild was carefully filmed hiding the fact that there was a small drop. A disclaimer was later added.
In 2007, it emerged that Grylls had been staying in hotels while filming Born Survivor. But Bear insists everything is as it seems, saying: “We’ve had a number of incidents and I’ve been very close.”
Parallel to his career in the media, Grylls is a director of a dozen companies. All of his wealth (said to be worth £20m) comes with tax obligations.
In an interview, Grylls complained: “I find it demoralizing to pay 40 per cent income tax when I work very hard and spend a lot of time away from my family.”
In 2012, it was revealed that he was one of several investors in shipwreck schemes which allowed sponsors to claim tax relief. The Times reported that he had invested £749,000.
And in 2015, it emerged that he was an investor in a green energy scheme that was investigated by the taxman. The Future Fuels scheme, managed by Future Capital Partners, was a tax-efficient investment opportunity that was closed after FCP lost several tax cases.
Grylls and his wife Shara live a multinational life with three children Jesse, Marmaduke and Huckleberry. The couple own a farm in Wiltshire and a £3million apartment at Battersea Power Station.
He also spends four months a year in Switzerland, while also owning a 20-acre island off the coast of Wales, where there are no telephones and a seven-mile boat ride to the nearest mainland town.
You can see why the Scouts jumped at the opportunity to have a star of Grylls’ stature as their Chief Scout. This year his last five-year term expires and it seems that the announcement of his departure is in the air.
A spokesperson says they are “extremely proud” of their partnership with Grylls and that it has inspired the move “through a period of unprecedented growth”, before adding: “More information will be available later this year on the next steps for Bear”, which makes it ring. , very much, as if he were about to leave.
Perhaps his new friend Russell Brand can advise him on the art of reinvention…
