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'We don't all get on, but that's life'

The stars of Castaway 2000 are settling into their remote existence - and have recently welcomed friends and family to the island of Taransay

The "Last Chance Saloon" does not look like the average local and the home brewed rice and raisin wines on offer would probably not be a hit with the usual Saturday night crowd.

But for the castaways marooned on a remote Scottish island for the BBC's Castaway 2000 documentary, the saloon - effectively a shack - brings just a tiny bit of the normal routine from the lives they have left behind.

Until recently, that is, when the stars of the programme welcomed their nearest and dearest to the community they have created on Taransay, a short hop from Harris in the Western Isles, off the north-west coast of Scotland.

There were emotional scenes under overcast skies as the castaways were reunited with friends and relatives for the first time since they arrived on the island at the start of the year to begin their adventure.

Julie Lowe, 36, summed up the feelings of many as she hugged her retired headteacher mother, Joy. "It's wonderful seeing my mum - it's like Christmas and a birthday all at once."

Some 4,000 people applied to get one of the 36 places on the island. The applicants were whittled down to 200 who were interviewed, given psychometric tests and a series of physical challenges to test their suitability.

Two - builder Ray Bowyer and trainee psychotherapist Ron Copsey - have since left after well publicised rows but the rest seem to have at last settled into a routine.

From the mainland their settlement does not appear to add up to much and even on the island it takes a while to see what they have achieved.

But a tour of their community reveals the hard work they have put in to survive on this remote and inhospitable part of Britain.

With the help of poly-tunnels - in effect greenhouses made out of plastic sheeting - they grow herbs and vegetables along with probably the biggest sunflowers in the Western Isles. Coriander has been a particular success, leading to a lot of curries being cooked.

Pigs provide them with meat, slaughtered with the help of castaway and butcher Colin Corrigan, and their milk comes from the two cows which graze oblivious to the film-crews capturing the day friends and relatives came to the islands for the first time.

Sheep and chickens are also kept on the island, supplied from Harris every two weeks and budgeted for at group meetings.

Meals are taken in the communal dining hall, with the castaways taking it in turns to cook, though they are guarded when it comes to assessing each other's culinary skills.

Lowe, from Surrey, signed up for the programme on the spur of the moment after being made redundant from her City job in London.

"I was surprised how much I missed my support network. The most difficult thing is living on top of each other - you can't just go into the kitchen and make yourself something to eat or go into the garden and not bump into someone," she says.

Driving instructor Trevor Kearon, 36, from Wirral, Merseyside, however is extremely relaxed about the situation.

"There is pressure that comes from living on top of each other but it's a lot easier than living in the outside world. Everybody's cool and relaxed - the next five months will be easy."

The departures of two of the castaways were inevitable he believes, given the friction that had built up between them and the others.

"If they were unhappy and didn't get along they must have been annoying part of the community. If they are annoying part of the community and they leave, naturally everything is going to settle down.

"It's like society outside. One person will laugh at something, another cry while another wouldn't get the joke. I don't think that we all do get on - but that's life."

Boredom has never been a factor for the castaways, who have been busy writing, reading or taking part in classes including art and languages which many would not have dreamed about taking before they came to the island.

"Every month there has been a new challenge, which has made things interesting," says Kearon.

The remote island has not fanned the flames of romance between castaways. "If it is then I don't know anything about it. I'm usually on the look-out for action but there's nothing going on."

That may be good news for fans of the show's resident heart-throb Ben Fogle, 26, who was picture editor for society magazine Tatler. He has found killing animals has been the most difficult part of the experience.

"I helped Colin slaughter one of the animals. That was the hardest thing personally, for me to do."

After the harsh winter months, when gale force winds made even walking difficult, and the gruelling work needed to build the settlement, the castaways have been bringing little homely touches to their community.

Bits of drift wood and horns from an unidentified animal - basically, whatever they have been able to get their hands on - have been used to provide decoration.

The scenery surrounding Taransay is breathtaking, with golden beaches that would not be out of place in the Mediterranean biting into the rugged landscape and many of the castaways have become attached to the island where they will be staying until the end of the year.

Patricia Prater, 37, whose home is on the Isle of Man, is on the island with her children, Jodene, 11, and Michael, nine, though her other daughter Joanna, 14, chose to stay with her grandmother to concentrate on her school work.

"I don't want to go home," she says in a determined tone. There is a pause before she adds: "I am looking forward to going to a good disco, though."

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