PRETTY WOMAN IN A HEAP OF DUST, HAY AND CHICKENS

The scouting for our episode with Julia Roberts, shot in rural Kenya, was not exactly straightforward. The crew at one point had to deal with coming under small-arms fire between two warring tribes. That always spices up anyone’s day, to find yourself in a desert gully with gunfire going off all around.

We had firmly decided not to mention firefights to any of Julia’s team. But we didn’t provide her with any luxuries. I collected her in a bush plane that looked like it had been mothballed in a farmyard for the last decade. Our crew had ripped all the passenger seats out, and filled the back with crates of chickens and bales of hay, to make it appear as rickety and rustic as possible. As we took off, the dust was blasting everywhere, the plane was shaking, the chickens were going crazy inside and hay was blowing all over the place.

Julia had one hand on her hat and was screaming with a dizzy mix of horror, fear and delight. I bundled her through the hatch, gave the pilot the thumbs up, and as the plane hurtled down the runway the G-force threw us back into a heap of hay, chickens and boxes.

From the plane we transferred to an old Land Rover, to get us closer to our final destination – the village where we’d be delivering vaccines. En route we got a flat tyre that Julia helped repair, with her rolling around in the dirt and dung of the bush. Then, when the track ended, we carried on by foot, trekking through the 40°C heat.

Despite the grime and fatigue, Julia was awesome, and was always laughing. It was Running Wild as it always should be: the

team were in their zone and the star was terrified, exhausted and excited all at the same time.

An old hemp bridge crossing over a crocodile-filled river took Julia to her edge, but again, every good episode should have those moments. The dance is knowing how to get the stars into it without too much thought, and then to help guide them through it with kindness and encouragement.

Invariably, the guests are so proud of themselves when they conquer their fears, and rightly so. Massive cliff faces and deadly animals are always a little scary. Julia did so well, and by the time we had made camp, built a fire and eaten the remnants of some old goat head that we sourced en route from a local Masai Mara tribeswoman, Julia was dead tired. The guests usually are.

The exceptions to that rule are occasional characters like actor Scott Eastwood or supermodel Cara Delevingne, who were only too happy to break into our crew’s ‘emergency’ flask of rum, and sit and watch the moon and stars dance across the horizon.

SHE HAD ONE HAND ON HER HAT AND WAS SCREAMING WITH A DIZZY MIX OF HORROR, FEAR AND DELIGHT