Castaway

MG are reporting that Fincham is keen to bring "Castaway 2000" back to BBC One.

This was the reality TV show based moving a community to Taransay that lasted a year (well kind of after the late start) and predated Big Brother. It included families (and children).

I always thought it was rather a good idea...several months of filming true survival and colonisation techniques made for just a few hours broadcasting, so it was of a far higher quality (and more interesting) than Big Brother with its nightly updates.

I think it could work quite well again, as long as they sorted out starting issues that they kind of messed up 5 years ago.

Yes - it pre-dated Big Brother, and was quite a bit more high-brow. It bred a TV presenter - Ben Fogle - as well...

I really enjoyed it - including the fall out between the islanders and the production company, and the near mutiny at one point.

It is interesting to see how Big Brother has changed. Both Castaway and Big Brother initially majored on the psychology - but BB has kind of turned more into a gameshow these days. The original series, like Castaway, had far more of an experimental feel.

Was there not a second series (under a different name IIRC) that completely bombed in the ratings? or am I imaging it?

I'd rather see 'Survivor' return tbh. It's a shame that never caught on.

I think it was called "The Heat is On" according to MediaGuardian - don't remember it at all!

I agree 100% about Survivor - a great show. The first series was only ruined by ITV trying to schedule it similarly to Big Brother when it works best as a once a week hour-long show.


The return of Shipwrecked earlier this year was really welcome though, with a new and original reworking of the format.

Survivor was a great series, in many ways better than Big Brother.

The problem with Castaway was how it changed format many times throughout the series. From hour long occasional serious documentaries months after the event to the awful light 10 minute long shows at the end