Reality show hit by midges ...and the odd mortar bomb
THEY are supposed to be creating a brave new world, building a society from scratch in a remote area of Scotland.
But contestants in the reality TV show Eden have been hit with two unexpected hazards… relentless swarms of midges and unexploded bombs.
Filming on the Channel 4 show started in the spring, with 23 male and female recruits left to fend for themselves in a forest on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula. From the outset they have faced the constant battle to feed themselves, build shelters and protect themselves from the West Highland weather.
But as they struggle to create a Utopia for the benefit of the TV audiences, they have also unearthed dangerous explosives left over from Army training exercises. On three separate occasions, Royal Navy bomb
‘Talk of the camp being split in two’
disposal experts have been called into the 600-acre site near Acharacle, Inverness-shire.
Show participants, including former Household Cavalry officer Jack Campbell, 31, have also been plagued by the worst midges in the area for 20 years and in the past month alone have used up a summer’s supply of midge repellent.
Meanwhile the locals, more used to the challenges thrown up by Highland life, say as many as four of the cast have quit already.
Eden is being filmed near the Singing Sands, which was used for D-Day training. So far three wartime mortar bombs have been found by cast and crew.
The two-inch diameter shells, 21 inches long, usually held 2.25lb of high explosive.
The Royal Navy last week confirmed its bomb disposal squad based at Faslane, Dunbartonshire, carried out controlled explosions on April 8, April 30 and May 26.
The Eden participants have been left in a giant, fenced-off area for a year to build a new life and create a new society. The show’s creators say there are no set tasks, no winner and it is down to the contributors to shape what success looks like.
Together they must decide on their own rules and laws, build their own shelter, grow their own food and raise their own livestock – but the Highland midges are doing their best to disrupt the show.
Midge expert Dr Alison Blackwell said her company was contacted last week by the film crew in urgent need of extra supplies of Smidge repellent. She added: ‘We sent 200 bottles of Smidge and two dozen head nets for the participants plus more for the crew. That was supposed to last them for the season but only last week they phoned us asking for more as they were running out.
‘They are in a wooded area and midge counts are the worst for years in Ardnamurchan.
‘There are millions and millions of midges there and it is going to get worse because the warm damp summer is perfect for the midges. July looks really bad.’
Neighbour Margaret Green of Dal-Ghorm House, 200 yards across the bay from the filming site, said: ‘I’ve spotted some of the volunteers on the beach opposite and on one occasion there was quite a row going on when one man tried to row a boat across. He eventually turned back half-way.
‘There is talk that there has been discord in the camp with it split into two. And as for the midges, they are the worst I’ve know in 20 years.’
Last night Channel 4 refused to confirm or deny rumours that up to four of the cast had already left ‘as it would ruin the programme for the viewers’.