Bradley Walsh was set alight during a human torch fire burn stunt on the Gold Coast on May 15, as he and his son Barney continued filming the seventh series of Breaking Dad across Australia. The moment came after Barney told him: “You’re gonna be set on fire!”

The stunt was the latest stop on an Australian road trip that began in Sydney and has taken the pair along the East Coast. By the time they reached the Gold Coast, the trip had already included a beach race against a local outrigger canoe club, a visit to a wildlife hospital founded by Steve Irwin and his family, a try at synchronised swimming with aspiring Olympians, and time with a stunt performer.

The fire sequence was the kind of segment the show has made its name on: light-hearted on the surface, but with enough risk to make Bradley hesitate before the first spark. Former martial arts champion Colin, who taught Barney how to perform a stunt fall, told Bradley they had chosen “the most dangerous of all stunts” before the human torch fire burn. Bradley, dressed in multiple layers of specialist garments and fitted with a balaclava, was then doused in fuel and set alight.

He charged forwards, dropped to the ground and was covered with a damp blanket as crew members moved in with oxygen to help him afterward. Bradley later said his “a*** was burning” during the stunt and admitted, “To be honest with you, that was really quite frightening, do you know what I mean?” He also joked after the ordeal that, “Luckily it's not my arm, because then I'd of been in possession of a firearm.”

The episode lands as Breaking Dad continues to lean on the same formula that has kept it moving: a travelogue built around dares, family banter and tests that Bradley Walsh clearly does not always want to do, but does anyway. The Gold Coast segment pushes that idea further than most, because this was not a harmless challenge or a comic mishap. It was a controlled fire stunt, and the show made plain how close it came to turning serious before the blanket and oxygen arrived.

That is why the Gold Coast stop stands out even in a series built on bruises, nerves and near-disasters. Bradley Walsh can laugh about it now, but the stunt works as a reminder that the show’s danger is not pretend, and the next episode can always ask more of him than the last.