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LONDON - A location team has arrived in Darwin to scour the Australian outback for a place to film a new UK television series in which obese teenagers will have to hunt for food if they want to eat.
Makers of Fat Teens Can't Hunt are holding talks
with local Aboriginal groups interested in cooperating with the BBC Three show by teaching the teens how to trap, kill, gather and cook bush tucker.
Sara Ramsden -- creative director of Cheetah Television, the factual arm of Big Brother production company Endemol -- said the show was specifically targeting Arnhem land.
"We're in extensive conversations and negotiations with different groups in Australia," Ms Ramsden told AAP.
"It's important that we're respectful of the local traditions and we find a good group of people to work with and they're interested in celebrating the food hunting and gathering skills."
A location is expected to be decided by the end of May.
Casting should be complete in June for the series featuring five boys and five girls aged 16-19 in six one-hour episodes.
It is based on an earlier series, Fat Men Can't Hunt, which sent a group of eight obese adults to live with the bushmen of Namibia's Kalahari Desert.
Ms Ramsden said the four men and four women collectively lost about 76kg.
"One of the biggest problems in Britain is teen obesity so we thought why not try it with teens," Ms Ramsden said.
"The biggest revelation of the last series was that people are addicted to tastes and they don't eat for survival anymore.
"For them to realise where the meat actually comes from and to actually trap a small game bird and eat it is really, really special.
"It helps them reconnect with where food came from."
Ms Ramsden said the show's teen participants would have the full consent of parents and guardians and a nutritionist would be on hand.
"We take our duty of care with the kids very, very seriously," she said.
"It's going to be hard for them.
"Some are going to be away from home for the first time, they're going to be hungry."
And she rejected critics' suggestions the show was voyeuristic.
"It's absolutely valid to make an entertaining programme like this that will get watched that will genuinely help these teenagers," she said.
"We're going to be really open about what they're going to be letting themselves in for."
Filming will take place in August.
- AAP
