Copyright 2000 The Scotsman Publications Ltd.

Scotland on Sunday

December 31, 2000, Sunday

SECTION: Pg. 3

LENGTH: 583 words

HEADLINE: QUICKIE CASTAWAY BUYS INTO THE FAD FOR 'CRUELTY TELEVISION'

BYLINE: Karen Mcveigh Arts Correspondent

BODY:

A NEW version of the BBC's Castaway series is to abandon all pretence of being a 'social experiment' and instead model itself more closely on its main 'reality TV' rival Big Brother.

The BBC's latest plans are being criticised as "cruelty television" and further "dumbing down" under the ratings-led, populist approach promoted by new director general Greg Dyke.

Unlike the original programme, which put 36 people of different ages on to the uninhabited Hebridean island of Taransay for a year and examined the development of their community, Castaway II will film a group of eight strangers, four of either sex, living together for one month under arduous conditions. Participants are expected to be aged 35 or under. The BBC says they will be "fit and healthy" and able to withstand the rigours of an "extreme adventure" in a secret location.

The format of the new show, to be broadcast in the spring, is being interpreted as a clear attempt to mimic the popularity of Big Brother, the runaway ratings success of the past year.

Dr David Miller, of the Stirling University Media Research Institute, accused the BBC of deliberately following a downmarket trend.

"Castaway was supposed to be a social experiment," he said. "But there is a ratings battle going on and this means even more pressure on people. This show is feeding into that downmarket trend. The problem is, the more pressure there is on people, the less precautions there are on a psychological level. It is all about the thirst and desire for celebrity. Without proper controls, it is cruelty television."

The BBC denied that Castaway had dumbed down in response to the competition. Jeremy Mills, executive producer of Castaway 2000, said: "It will be nothing like Big Brother. It is not a game show. There will be no prizes and no silly tasks that people will have to perform. It will be very similar to Castaway. We will take people out of their normal lives and put them in a new situation. They will be filmed all the time but they are unlikely to have absolute security camera coverage - they will not be in an enclosed situation."

Mills, whose company Lion Television pioneered the docu-soap genre, recently labelled Big Brother "Blind Date on heat" and proclaimed: "There is simply no way you can put Castaway in with Big Brother. Ours is a serious social experiment. It is a documentary, albeit a novel one."

Yesterday, however, he admitted that Castaway II could not be described in the same way.

"It is not an experiment in the same way that the year-long programme was. It will not look at community and self-sufficiency. But it will look at different aspects of contemporary life. It will be more extreme, in terms of self -sufficiency and survival."

Some former Castaway participants have complained about their portrayal on the programme. Earlier this year, one former Castaway, Ron Copsey, said: "From the outset, the BBC and Lion TV said Castaway 2000 would be an intelligent series. They insisted it would be different from anything that's gone before because we were creating a brave new world.

"The project was billed as a social experiment for the new millennium, but that's a joke. I'd have been far better off applying for Big Brother. It might be brash and tacky, but at least it doesn't pretend to be anything else."

The last television broadcast from Taransay, showing the Castaways wave goodbye to their home, will be shown tomorrow at 1pm.

LOAD-DATE: January 3, 2001