BY DAVID LAWRENCE
"It's been a completely disastrous start to the project," said Julie (city trader coordinator, 36) last week. You had to agree: the BBC's grand social experiment and most expensive documentary series ($7.7 million) was in tatters.
The 36-member cross-section of British society, plus support team and TV crew, had arrived on January 1 for a year on the remote island of Taransay, west of Scotland, and begun to create a "new society for a new millennium" - with hangovers.
They found their "pod homes" were incomplete and crates of essential supplies had been damaged. There was a flu epidemic and a force 11 gale. Then, real disaster - the tabloid press turned up.
The BBC had chosen not to announce that half the castaways insisted on moving to four-star accommodation on the neighbouring island of Harris until living conditions were sorted, while the other half opted to rough it in Taransay's schoolhouse.
The Castaways-in-Luxury story broke, there were reporters on pod doorsteps and in Harris pubs, and the Beeb's credibility was severely dented.
On Harris, Roger (doctor, 44) was refusing to budge until the programme-makers bought him some waterproof trousers.
Ron (psychotherapist, 43) wailed tearfully: "Why am I here?"
It was unclear whether he was racked with guilt at being cosy, disillusioned with the whole cursed business, or asking the big one.
On Taransay, Philiy (photographer, 24) confessed she had been wearing the same socks for two weeks.
Ben (picture editor, 26) was "absolutely loving it."
Toby (client service administrator in pensions analysis, 24) just said: "Thank God I'm not doing that any more."
There was bickering in and between the factions. Peter (university lecturer, 52) upset one of the sound crew by suggesting she wasn't doing her share of the dishes.
Ray (builder, 59) upset almost everyone on Taransay, and by the end of last week's programme was so drunkenly belligerent that there was talk of banishing him to the mainland.
The series survived its rocky start and is coming to an end over Christmas and the New Year on British screens, but I suspect it never quite got over the knocks it took in January.
Although the tabloids no doubt boosted ratings, they also exposed the phoniness of castaways who can take a helicopter out any time they choose.
The BBC seems to have scaled back its bold anthropological aims. Early publicity was about how the project could "take stock of where we are as a society." But the show's introductory voiceover is more modest, and soapier, billing Castaway as "the story of what they learn about each other and themselves."
If its worth as a documentary is limited, then so is its appeal as a soap.
There are more rows, a little romance and several departures (all of which can be checked out in detail at the BBC's website, which has a rundown on notable events of the year).
But even if the castaways are artificial, their island life is real enough to be mundane.
So why watch? For tips on peat-cutting? One good reason might be the beauty of the island itself - except that the people keep getting in the way.
Castaway
TV One, Tuesday, 8.35 pm
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