Channel 4 - The Island

andyf

Well-Known Member
Anyone watch this? Started on Monday and will track 13 average blokes dropped on a small Pacific island for 4 weeks with not much more than the clothes they're wearing; a couple of knives and machetes; no food or shelter materials; and only enough water for 24 hours. Think they've had 1 day of survival training and that's it. 2 of the participants are also the cameramen so you can't accuse them of having a full production crew on hand complete with luxury trailers and a beer fridge a la 'I'm a Celebrity'!

A half hour after being dropped in the mangroves they reached their first camp site and found a boa constrictor. I'm yelling at the TV to kill it and Mrs F thinks I'm just being blood thirsty. Needless to say they don't and by end of day two they are all starving and one bloke has resorted to eating a small scorpion!

It took them about 14 hours on day two to succeed in lighting a fire using a bow drill and only then could they boil the standing water they had found or else the whole thing was going to come to a very quick end!

Looks like it could be quite entertaining. Bet they wish they'd killed the snake though ;)
 
I thought that about the snake :D
Looks very well produced for just two camera guys though. I'm amazed that channel four have shown something where they kill and eat a crocodile for nothing other than our light entertainment.
Its so easy to sit watching it getting angry at how incompetent they are but hard to imagine in reality how you'd get better results as it's definitely a team effort.
I'd have made an attempt at takin charge, got shouted down and then gone off on my own in a huff I reckon :D

No 'Ghillie girls' but definitely better than most tv around at the mo that's for sure.
 
I also thought that the snake would of become a meal but I'm not sure if they quite understand the extremem lengths that they are going to have to go to in order to survive. Will be watching next week to see how things develop.
 
Was it just me. But why did they not realise that two members of the group had glasses on! They could have had that fire going (obviously once the sun came up) in a couple of minutes.....
Lots of shouting at the TV.. worth a giggle

Win Mod 70
 
I'd have made an attempt at takin charge, got shouted down and then gone off on my own in a huff I reckon :D

I think the retired Yorkshire polis has already tried that!

I also thought that the snake would of become a meal but I'm not sure if they quite understand the extremem lengths that they are going to have to go to in order to survive. Will be watching next week to see how things develop.

That's exactly it! Admittedly we had the benefit of Bear Gryll's commentary reminding us how quickly it can all go 'breasts ascending' in a genuine hostile survival situation but I think the reality of having to focus all your energy and thought to securing the basics of water, food and shelter will soon hit home. As it looks 100% genuine I reckon it will be bloody hard going which should make for some good TV!
 
Was it just me. But why did they not realise that two members of the group had glasses on! They could have had that fire going (obviously once the sun came up) in a couple of minutes.....
Lots of shouting at the TV.. worth a giggle

Win Mod 70

That reminds me of a survival programme I watched years ago, where one of the contestants spent ages and a lot of breath inflating a plastic bag to use as a flotation device.... when all he had to do is open the end up and waft it over his head to instantly fill it with air.
 
I thought that about the snake :D
Looks very well produced for just two camera guys though. I'm amazed that channel four have shown something where they kill and eat a crocodile for nothing other than our light entertainment.
Its so easy to sit watching it getting angry at how incompetent they are but hard to imagine in reality how you'd get better results as it's definitely a team effort.
I'd have made an attempt at takin charge, got shouted down and then gone off on my own in a huff I reckon :D

No 'Ghillie girls' but definitely better than most tv around at the mo that's for sure.


+1 on everything you said... lol
 
Was it just me. But why did they not realise that two members of the group had glasses on! They could have had that fire going (obviously once the sun came up) in a couple of minutes.....
Lots of shouting at the TV.. worth a giggle

Win Mod 70

good shout indeed... missed that one and i see myself as a bit of a bushcraftsman! my mind was more on all the plastic bottles and other rubbish available, an abundance of water and very hot sun... a still would have had a potentially faster on-time allbeit a slower option in the longrun.. definately the safest! but then, I don't think any of them were expecting to take so long to get a fire going
 
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I too took up shouting at the telly about using specs to light the fire. From the trailer it looks like they do a bit of gator wrestling next week. Talking of the policemen did you see the programme after...never seen a truncheon used that way before!!
 
a couple of us applied for it when it was first advertised and got down to screen tests but deliberately they selected people that had to adapt or die!!

to be fair, if it was some of us on there. We'd have split into 3 groups, one getting food for dinner, one on shelter and setting out the deck chairs and the other group on scavenging and finding water. All those coconut palms and they were getting dehydrated and hungry after day 1 lol!!
 
Was it just me. But why did they not realise that two members of the group had glasses on! They could have had that fire going (obviously once the sun came up) in a couple of minutes.....
Lots of shouting at the TV.. worth a giggle

Win Mod 70
you must have enjoyed burning ants as a young boy as well
 
a couple of us applied for it when it was first advertised and got down to screen tests but deliberately they selected people that had to adapt or die!!

to be fair, if it was some of us on there. We'd have split into 3 groups, one getting food for dinner, one on shelter and setting out the deck chairs and the other group on scavenging and finding water. All those coconut palms and they were getting dehydrated and hungry after day 1 lol!!
I enjoyed watching it as well ,if they put people on there that new a thing or two, it would be borring to watch, as it would just be a tv program about people on a island
,looking forward to the next episode
 
Sorry, hadn't noticed this thread was first.

I think one or two of the castaways thought the island was going to be more like the one in the old Bounty bar commercial.
"Bounty, the taste of paradise".
:)

Re starting a fire using glasses as a lens...may only work with reading glasses.
 
One of my best friends is Mike 'Fletch' that is on the show. He's spent a good few years in the military and knows how to look after himself.
From speaking to him after the event he did say just how tough the whole ordeal was.
I spoke to him the other morning and mentioned the snake, apparently the guys were briefed about 3 species that were protected on the island that they could not kill. This being part of the conditions to film there from the controlling government. That Boa, a turtle and a certain fish were the 3 he reckons!

Great footage and all very genuine!

ive been promised that it only gets better too!

keep an eye out for Fletch! He's a top lad!

Best quote from him in the first episode, upon finding fresh water!

"Great stuff, I'll wash my balls of in that!"
 
+1 on the above.

The prog may not work too well if they just had a couple of guys who had no real experience of how to use camera and sound gear.
Grylls has come on a lot in my opinion, I liked the prog he did a while back with Stephen Fry.

There seems to some quite practical folk on the prog, one an ex soldier, but the fire still took 8 hours to come to life. I wonder if the practical lads have been asked to hold back a bit.
 
I thought they did well catching the cayman with a bit of baler twine! The fella who grabbed it from behind had to commit totally to what he was about to do. Presumably they didn't have a knife to finish it off where it was caught
 
I thought they did well catching the cayman with a bit of baler twine! The fella who grabbed it from behind had to commit totally to what he was about to do. Presumably they didn't have a knife to finish it off where it was caught
Thought that as well about killing it when they caught it, but thinking about it again maybe they kept it alive so the meat didn't spoil? (Not very humane but it's the only excuse I can think of).
 
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