Ben Fogle's Extreme Dreams

Ben Fogle was bitten by a flesh-eating parasite while filming the latest series of Extreme Dreams, which gives you can idea of just how treacherous the show is. Here's our guide to the thrills and spills of series one.

Forget lazing on the beach with a jug of sangria; the plucky peeps on Extreme Dreams are after a very different sort of holiday. Specially selected by a panel of seasonal adventurers, the participants are ordinary members of the public who want to change their lives for the better. Some want a confidence boost, some want to sweep away bad memories, and a few even want to improve their love lives. They hope that expeditions into the unknown will give them the radical boosts they need.

And who better to lead them than Ben Fogle, he of the big chin and iron will. The one-time Castaway star has always hungered for new experiences, working in a South American orphanage in his year off before Uni, rowing across the Atlantic, and completing a gruelling six day marathon across the Sahara Desert.

Each episode of Extreme Dreams will see the fearless Ben take five people through some of the most challenging terrain on Earth - testing their psychological will and physical endurance to the very limit. Things get off to an Indiana Jones-like start with episode one, when the first team of five must locate the Lost City of the Incas in Peru. Craggy, towering mountains must be overcome, and things get worse when one of the team goes missing.

Episode two takes us - along with a new team of five - to Guyana. Here, the intrepid bunch must enter the hot and sinister rainforest to reach Kaieteur Falls. Snakes and piranha fish are everywhere, and there's also a six kilometre mountain climb to contend with. Speaking of mountains, the contestants in episode three must beat one of the most famous peaks in the world: Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro. Hot jungle gives way to glaciers, and the gang must adapt quickly or face evacuation.

Things are even nippier in the final episode, when Ben heads to the cold, hostile landscape of Spitsbergen near the Arctic Circle. The team have to cross 70 miles of tundra, and pretty soon one of them falls dangerously ill - leading to a race against time to save her life.

They weren't kidding when they called this series extreme, but will it make dreams come true for the brave participants, or will it prove too much to bear? This is a series no armchair thrill-seeker should miss.