Return to Taransay

How interesting. The Guardian’s reporting the Beeb are speaking to Lion Television about producing another series of Castaway.

It’s a series that has zero profile today, despite the fact it’s only six years old (hence, The Guardian’s piece takes some pains to explain just what the thing was, and its relevance). In fact, most people have probably forgotten we’ve got Castaway to blame for Ben Fogle. That’s probably because the show – which boasted a fantastic central conceit – was appallingly mishandled by the BBC, who didn’t seem to know if they wanted to produce a Living in the Past or a Big Brother (which came along halfway through its run, panicking the Corporation into installing live webcams on the island).

In the end, through all this fudging they ended up with something so bland, Julia Bradbury’s arrival on Taransay became inevitable.

Looking back on it now, it feels like a rather naive show; in the main desperate to underplay conflict, big-up the community and portray its participants as jolly salt-of-the-Earth types, happy to record their own (bloody awful) version of Abba’s SOS for Children in Need‘s benefit. Despite all that, I’m still hugely fond of it, and hope that if Castaway 2007 does become a reality, this time the Corporation stick to their guns and only broadcast the results once the experiment is over.

Now, can someone let Jack Holden know?