Castaway 2000
A BBC Scotland Production - Produced by Lion Television
"Wanted...Have you ever dreamed of living on an isolated island? Does the prospect of the millennium bug give you an itch to get away from it all? Would you like the power to take decisions about how your life runs and make up the rules to become part of an exciting experiment looking into the way we will live in the future?"
The Guardian Newspaper, 15th February 1999.
Location:
The Isle of Taransay. A deserted island which lies off the west coast of South Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Also the location for ‘The Rocket Post’ a feature length film. To find out more about the Island click here.
What was it all about?
Award winning documentary style series for BBC1. Audiences topped 9 million viewers and brought a 46% share of prime time audience for the BBC. Series was shown in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and beyond. Castaway 2000, a trail-blazing flagship programme of the new millennium, marked the beginning of a new style of entertainment - the docu soap or fly on the wall documentary, which had sky-high viewing figures and captured the nations imagination.
The Castaway 2000 project was a year-long experiment, which placed 36 members of the British public on the deserted island of Taransay, with the aim of building a self-sustaining and supporting community. It operated as a fly on the wall style documentary where the castaways were also allowed to voice their opinions in the video diary room. It was one of the most controversial and fascinating series ever to have been attempted by British Broadcasting and paved the way for similar series such as 'Survivor' and 'Big Brother'.
The Selection Process...
"Over 4000 people applied to be castaways. Those who made it through to the last 200 were interviewed, given psychometric tests and a series of physical exercises and skill challenges to assess their suitability for the project. Each was observed and evaluated by a team of experts: psychologist Cynthia McVey, former SAS survival expert Lofty Wiseman, economist Professor Brian Main, alternative technology expert Hugh Piggott, and Lucy Irvine who has practical experience of being a castaway. The experts explain their criteria for selection as the process unfolds. The final selection of 28 adults and 8 children represents a cross section of society. They include a teacher, a doctor, a bricklayer, a butcher, a university lecturer, a cafeteria worker and a mailman. They range in age from two to 58 and come from all over Britain".
(Source: BBC)
One Long Year!...
The castaways were placed on the island on New Years Eve of 1999 and saw in the Millennium together. They were to remain there for the year, sourcing water from the lochs and getting their power from the wind turbine. They set up vegetable gardens, reared livestock and ran their own school and democratic parliaments. It was the ultimate utopian dream of escaping the rat race and getting back to nature. The year however was fraught with challenges. With one of the windiest and wettest winters in the Hebrides, the castaways had a difficult start to island life and had to endure a testing first few months where there was still much construction to be done around the camp. Working together instilled a great sense of teamwork in many of the castaways while others had problems adapting to shared labour and outdoor work. Just as the summer months were arriving the community was evolving and the castaways were successfully seeing the fruits of their labour. Their crops ripened and they had all settled into their new way of life. Their next challenges were not ones induced by the weather or the terrain but of social dynamics, where some people simply couldn't get on with others. Of the 36 castaways who arrived on the islands, seven had left by the end of the year for various personal reasons.
The Time of their Lives...
Although the year brought many emotional dramas and personal revelations for the castaways, they were united in their love for the Island of Taransay which had given them freedom and the space to breath. On the island, lifelong friendships were made, romances blossomed… and withered and for some people: they had the time of their lives. On Taransay, their concerns were not of lack of time or deadlines or keeping your children away from a dangerous society but of the more basic and rudimentary, such as feeding the sheep or constructing a raft to go fishing. Without underestimating the difficulties and hardships that the past island crofting communities would have faced, there is much to be envied in casting off the confines of modern life and experiencing life's simple pleasures... if only for a little while.
To find out what the press thought, click here.
Or to learn more about the Isle of Taransay, click here.
The Castaways were:
| Ben Fogle | Julie Love | Michael Laird |
| Paidraig Nallen | Philly Page | Ray Bowyer |
| Ron Copsey | Sandra Colbek | Tanya Cheadle |
| Tammy Huff | Toby Waterman | Trevor Kearon |
| Hilary Freeman |
| The Carey Family: | Caslyn, Gordon, Yorick and Aaron |
| The Cooney-Latores: | Monica, Warren |
| The Corrigan Family: | Julia, Colin and Natasha |
| The Murphy Family: | Gwyneth and Patrick |
| The Monks: | Liz and Dez |
| The Jowers: | Peter and Sheila |
| The Prater Family: | Paricia, Jodene and Michael |
| The Stephensons: | Roger, Rosemary, Oliver and Felix |
|
