To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. Up Next. The terrifying moment a British TV star almost drowned and feared having a heart attack while filming a new Netflix show has been revealed. Changing Rooms icon Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, 59, is among stars being put through their paces on Bear Grylls’ action-packed reality series, Celebrity Bear Hunt.

It sees the likes of Lottie Moss, Boris Becker, Mel B and Shirley Ballas take part in brutal tasks after being dropped into the Central American jungle where they become ‘prey for one of the world’s most fearsome predators’. Ahead of the tense programme, which is hosted by former This Morning presenter Holly Willoughby, dropping on Netflix, it had been claimed that Steph McGovern was rushed to medics after swinging face-first into a cliff, almost breaking her nose and sparking fears she had a slight concussion.

And now another worrying incident has been revealed, with Netflix sharing a clip showing Laurence struggling in the sea before Bear dives in to help him. The contestants were taking part in a challenge in open water, where they were trying to unclip supply bags from a raft. In the teaser video, Spice Girl Mel B is in one of the floating rafts, before Ted Lasso actor Kola Bokinni recalls seeing Laurence ‘struggling’ and admits their tactic was ‘a big mistake’.

Laurence can be heard groaning and struggling in the water, later saying: ‘I kept throwing myself at the raft, trying to get up. It just wasn’t that easy.’. ‘Suddenly, I am in some high of fight or flight,’ he says. While host Holly looks on from the shore with concern, Laurence is heard saying ‘I can’t breathe’ and calling out for help. The camera attached to him shows him bobbing under the water, before Bear dives in to help.

As Laurence continues to struggle and repeats ‘I can’t breathe’ in terrifying scenes, Bear and the production crew come to rescue him, pulling him onto a board and carrying him ashore. ‘In hindsight I should have been the one on the raft, because I’m the more abled,’ Kola later adds to the camera. Laurence is heard calling out ‘I’m sorry Kola’ as he is removed from the challenge by the safety team, with Holly explaining it could mean he’s ‘out of the game’.

‘I’m really tight, across my chest,’ Laurence continues to the medics, as they help him onto land and encourage him to take deep breaths. He adds: ‘I can’t get enough oxygen,’ asking the team to remove the equipment around his chest, as they put an oxygen mask on him and urge him to lie down in the shade. ‘I couldn’t breathe, it really was frightening,’ he later says. ‘I really did think that I was having a heart attack.’.

Laurence echoed his comments to Times Radio, recalling the incident in a new interview and saying: ‘In my head, I was some kind of Marvel superhero. Actually, by the time I got to the raft that I was supposed to swim to, it dawned on me quite quickly, I’m actually Granddaddy Pig and getting onto the raft was never going to happen. ‘I got stuck under the raft. I got tangled up in some equipment and stuff and that’s when the drowning thing kind of happened. But I managed to free myself.

‘I should have stopped at that point and just sort of gathered myself but actually, no, I was then throwing myself into the challenge and then I started blacking out and suddenly, I’ve got Bear on top of me .’. He went on: ‘I didn’t actually have to be resuscitated. Bear was puckering up, he was bearing down on me like a wet bag of spanners, more than happy to resuscitate me, but actually, I came to, at that point.’.

‘It wasn’t a pleasant experience at all. I mean, it really, really wasn’t. I was blacking out. I thought I was having a heart attack. And having then been pumped full of, I think it’s about three canisters of oxygen, which is wonderful stuff by the way…but it was a very solitary thing,’ Laurence continued. He added: ‘I always felt that I was quite physically resilient. I have regular medicals. I’m perceived as being reasonably fit for what I am but it did feel slightly like a moment of failure.’.

The synopsis for Celebrity Bear Hunt reads: ‘Holly Willoughby hosts this action-packed competition show that sees a group of unlikely celebrities dropped into the Central American jungle as prey for one of the world’s most fearsome predators – Bear Grylls. ‘Bear believes there’s an action hero inside us all – even the celebs – but how strong is their will to survive?. ‘As Bear puts them through their paces, those who fail to impress will face the dreaded “Bear Hunt” – a brutal game of cat and mouse where they’ll be hunted down by Bear himself and, if captured, face elimination from the show.’.