CASTAWAY 2000-4 STAR COMFORT!!

WHAT ELSE IS AT GARDENCROFT??

BY STEWART FOWLER
On the Isle of Harris

CASTAWAYS from the hit BBC survival series have been secretly flown off their gale-lashed Scottish island- to live in comfy four-star holiday homes.

Millions of TV viewers have watched the TV Robinson Crusoes learning to light fires, kill chickens and build makeshift homes in the belief that they are to be stranded for a year.

But when the cameras stop rolling on Castaway 2000, the hardship certainly ends.

For we can reveal that "marooned" volunteers are being regularly airlifted to a neighbouring island where they snuggle up in warm beds far from their windswept wooden "eco pads".

And where the only chickens they encounter are definitely already dead-served up with potatoes and vegetables in local bars.

Last night BBC bosses amazingly admitted that the revelations we make today are correct. "We cannot deny your allegations," said a spokesman.

This comes only days after the Beeb trumpeted the Ł2.4 million fly-on-the-wall docu-soap-it's most expensive ever-as a "unique social experiment".

"The idea is to strip away all the things people take for granted," boasted producer Chris Kelly when the programmes began last week. Today we strip away the sham offered to viewers who watched in awe as hopefuls vying for a place on the island were put through a gruelling "survival course" by a former SAS officer.

The selection episodes were shot last year. The BBC intends to film the castaways every week for a series revealing what happened which will be shown at the end of 2000.

All 36 chosen castaways-selected from 4,000 applicants-were told they would have to grow vegetables, raise and slaughter their own livestock, drink water from the loch and use dry compost toilets.

But a month into the actual marooning, things are not going as planned.

"Oh yes, we've had some of the castaways drinking in here," a barmaid at a pub in Tarbert on the neighbouring island of Harris told us.

"From what I've been told they haven't got it hard out there-they've even had carpets laid in their huts. The locals think it's a joke."

SECRET REFUGE: Warm beds for castaway Gordon and island pal

When our reporter knocked on the door of 3 Maciver Road, Tarbert-a luxury four-star self-catering home - castaway Gordon answered in a snug green dressing-gown. It was 11.15am and he was far from his crops and livestock in the windy fields of Taransay. Upstairs this Robinson Crusoe's wife was enjoying a hot shower while their children played in the warmth of a spacious front room.

"I can't say anything, I'm sorry," he blustered when our man revealed who he was. "I can't talk about it, no, no. You've got to go-we're not allowed to talk."

A knock on the door of the neighbouring home produced another castaway well off her island-a blonde in her twenties.

"I'm sorry, I can't talk to you. Sorry," she said, quickly shutting the door.

Down at Harris island's helicopter landing site the Castaway 2000 rule that no-one should be allowed off Taransay unless in an emergency was under pressure.

Time and time again a black helicopter made trips to the island 20 minutes away, bringing back five passengers at a time.

After one landing our reporter watched as a group of laughing castaway children and their parents stepped off the chopper and onto a plush tourist coach.

They were driven to Tarbert and dropped off at various points. At one of these, two families entered a row of houses each bearing the logo "Scottish Tourist Board, Self Catering and Four Stars" on the front door. Meanwhile the helicopter was flying out again, airlifting stores and rations for those still "marooned", as the BBC puts it, on the storm-lashed island.

Rule Three, viewers have been told, is that the castaways must grow and kill their own food.

Local teacher Margaret Prudoe shook her head in disbelief. "One castaway family hitched a lift in the helicopter to come over and then went for a meal at the hotel," she said.

"These people didn't even have to build their own shelters on Taransay-they have a team of builders doing that for them."

Last night the BBC confirmed that cast members HAD been living in four-star accommodation and that helicopters HAD been making frequent trips out to the island with food supplies.

This will infuriate viewers looking forward to two more Castaways programmes this week on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Producer Jeremy Mills said people were moved off the island "because the roof blew off their accommodation".

He added: "The point has always been about mental rather than physical survival and seeing how people bond."

From our evidence, the castaways seem to bond rather well with warm beds in hotels.

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