Born in 1973, the son of actress Julia Foster and broadcast vet Bruce Fogle. After completing his A-levels at Bryanston School in Dorset, Ben went on to spend a gap year in Quito Ecuador where he helped in an orphanage and taught English. Ben went on to spend a second year on the Mosquito Coast of Honduras and Nicaragua where he worked alongside the American Peace Corps on a Turtle conservation project.
Ben eventually settled down to a degree in Latin American Studies at the University of Portsmouth where he also enrolled as a midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve. Ben was deployed to Norway, Spain, Gibraltar and France and as Officer of the Watch aboard HMS Blazer, Fogle was responsible for escorting HMY Brittania into Portsmouth Harbour for the last time.
After a year at the University of Costa Rica, Ben found himself as the picture editor for society glossy magazine, Tatler, for whom he worked for just over a year before volunteering to be marooned on an uninhabited Scottish Island for a year as part of BBC 1's Castaway 2000. He spent a year on the remote island of Taransay, where he and thirty five other men, women and children became totally independent and self sufficient.
Ben returned to reality as the roving correspondent for a glossy magazine whose assignments took him to Japan, the Falklands, Nepal, Zambia, Bali, East Timor, the Arctic Circle and Barbados, and as a regular presenter alongside John Craven and Michaela Strachen on BBC 1's Countryfile.
He went on to co-present BBC 1's Animal Park with Kate Humble, which has returned for a 7th series.
Ben has presented numerous other programmes including Wild in Africa, Wild on the West Coast, Big Screen Britain, One Man and His Dog, Inside Out, What Are We Like, Abyss Interactive, Heaven and Earth, Holiday and three series of the hit BBC adventure show, Extreme Dreams which saw Ben lead ordinary people across some of the most hostile environments on earth. He has also made numerous TV appearances including Panorama, Richard and Judy, So Graham Norton, Celebrity Ready Steady Cook, This Week, The Wright Stuff, The Big Read - Battle of the Books, Restoration, The Kumars at No 42 and Rise.
Ben's travel writing & photography passions culminated in the publication of his first book, The Teatime Islands, Journey’s to Britain’s Faraway Outposts published by Penguin, and Offshore in Search of an Island of my Own, and the bestseller The Crossing, Conquering the Atlantic in the World’s Toughest Rowing Race co written with James Cracknell and published by Atlantic Books. Ben’s fourth book, Race to the South Pole was published by Macmillan in June 2009. Ben has also become a regular writer for numerous magazines and newspapers including The Times, The Guardian, The Sun, The Express and Glamour magazine.
Ben has won a Royal Television Society (RTS) award for the highly acclaimed Through Hell and High Water and has been nominated as GQ personality of the year and as best new talent at the RTS Midland awards. His first book, The Teatime Islands, was short listed for the WH Smith’s people’s award for Best Travel book. Ben has also been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Portsmouth.
Ben is a regular skier and a keen horseman. Ben also has his NAUI/PADI SCUBA diving certificate, his Ocean Yauctmaster and Coastal Skipper sailing certificate, is a qualified dingy sailor and is fluent in Spanish. Ben’s sporting achievements have included beating actor Sid Owen in a three round charity boxing match for BBC Sport Relief. He has completed the Marathon Des Sables, a one hundred and sixty mile, six day, self sufficient race across the Sahara Desert which he ran for WWF. He has completed the Safaricom Marathon in Kenya for the TUSK Trust, the Bupa Great north Run, the London Marathon, Tough Guy, Man versus Horse and the Royal Parks Half marathon. In 2005 he rowed across the Atlantic Ocean with Double gold Olympic medalist, oarsman James Cracknell, in 49 days, setting the British pairs record. His most recent achievement is the inaugural Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole Race, a 500 mile footrace across the Antarctic to the South Pole, the first since Captain Scott’s ill fated journey. Ben followed up this trip by going back to Antarctica in 2010 to record a documentary on Scott’s journey, 100 years on.
Ben is a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, an Ambassador for WWF and Tusk. He is also a keen supporter of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and President of the Campaign for National Parks.
Ben eventually settled down to a degree in Latin American Studies at the University of Portsmouth where he also enrolled as a midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve. Ben was deployed to Norway, Spain, Gibraltar and France and as Officer of the Watch aboard HMS Blazer, Fogle was responsible for escorting HMY Brittania into Portsmouth Harbour for the last time.
After a year at the University of Costa Rica, Ben found himself as the picture editor for society glossy magazine, Tatler, for whom he worked for just over a year before volunteering to be marooned on an uninhabited Scottish Island for a year as part of BBC 1's Castaway 2000. He spent a year on the remote island of Taransay, where he and thirty five other men, women and children became totally independent and self sufficient.
Ben returned to reality as the roving correspondent for a glossy magazine whose assignments took him to Japan, the Falklands, Nepal, Zambia, Bali, East Timor, the Arctic Circle and Barbados, and as a regular presenter alongside John Craven and Michaela Strachen on BBC 1's Countryfile.
He went on to co-present BBC 1's Animal Park with Kate Humble, which has returned for a 7th series.
Ben has presented numerous other programmes including Wild in Africa, Wild on the West Coast, Big Screen Britain, One Man and His Dog, Inside Out, What Are We Like, Abyss Interactive, Heaven and Earth, Holiday and three series of the hit BBC adventure show, Extreme Dreams which saw Ben lead ordinary people across some of the most hostile environments on earth. He has also made numerous TV appearances including Panorama, Richard and Judy, So Graham Norton, Celebrity Ready Steady Cook, This Week, The Wright Stuff, The Big Read - Battle of the Books, Restoration, The Kumars at No 42 and Rise.
Ben's travel writing & photography passions culminated in the publication of his first book, The Teatime Islands, Journey’s to Britain’s Faraway Outposts published by Penguin, and Offshore in Search of an Island of my Own, and the bestseller The Crossing, Conquering the Atlantic in the World’s Toughest Rowing Race co written with James Cracknell and published by Atlantic Books. Ben’s fourth book, Race to the South Pole was published by Macmillan in June 2009. Ben has also become a regular writer for numerous magazines and newspapers including The Times, The Guardian, The Sun, The Express and Glamour magazine.
Ben has won a Royal Television Society (RTS) award for the highly acclaimed Through Hell and High Water and has been nominated as GQ personality of the year and as best new talent at the RTS Midland awards. His first book, The Teatime Islands, was short listed for the WH Smith’s people’s award for Best Travel book. Ben has also been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Portsmouth.
Ben is a regular skier and a keen horseman. Ben also has his NAUI/PADI SCUBA diving certificate, his Ocean Yauctmaster and Coastal Skipper sailing certificate, is a qualified dingy sailor and is fluent in Spanish. Ben’s sporting achievements have included beating actor Sid Owen in a three round charity boxing match for BBC Sport Relief. He has completed the Marathon Des Sables, a one hundred and sixty mile, six day, self sufficient race across the Sahara Desert which he ran for WWF. He has completed the Safaricom Marathon in Kenya for the TUSK Trust, the Bupa Great north Run, the London Marathon, Tough Guy, Man versus Horse and the Royal Parks Half marathon. In 2005 he rowed across the Atlantic Ocean with Double gold Olympic medalist, oarsman James Cracknell, in 49 days, setting the British pairs record. His most recent achievement is the inaugural Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole Race, a 500 mile footrace across the Antarctic to the South Pole, the first since Captain Scott’s ill fated journey. Ben followed up this trip by going back to Antarctica in 2010 to record a documentary on Scott’s journey, 100 years on.
Ben is a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, an Ambassador for WWF and Tusk. He is also a keen supporter of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and President of the Campaign for National Parks.
A volunteer on the Outer Hebridean Island of Taransay, as part of the great millennium experiment Castaway 2000, Ben returned to city life in London but has been indulging his countryside passions on-screen, presenting Countryfile and Animal Park for the BBC and for going on a series of adventures with James Cracknell.
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