THE TRUTH ABOUT EDEN
Reality show hopefuls were riven by sexual jealousy, guzzled smuggled booze, escaped for barbecues with the locals and staged a mutiny that ended in the pub...
IT began a year ago with the question: ‘What if we could start again?’
Eden, the ground-breaking Channel 4 project, saw 23 strangers cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves in a wild corner of the West Highlands.
Intended as a combination of reality TV and sociology experiment, the participants were challenged to create a new model of society. But just as in the Biblical Eden, temptation proved too strong on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula.
As the year-long project draws to a close this month, with viewers mystified as to why only four episodes have been screened, we can reveal extraordinary behind the scenes details.
With the group torn apart by sexual jealousy, hunger and feuds, more than half the cast have quit.
Struggling to live off the land, they resorted to smuggling in junk food and booze. Far from completely isolated, they used their boat – meant for fishing – to attend barbecues on the shoreline opposite their camp.
Some also visited locals, who let them watch TV and use the internet.
At one point they even staged a mass mutiny, with the cast breaking out of their compound and setting off for the nearest pub in protest.
Last July and August, four episodes were broadcast, starting with the cast walking through a gate in the 7ft fence that enclosed 600 acres, five miles from Acharacle.
Among those introduced to viewers were carpenter Rafael, Tara, a masseuse and life coach, and chef Stephen. Each wore a portable camera and 43 static cameras were dotted around the site.
The first rows came when one of the oldest campers, 41-year-old rowing instructor Anton, could not cope with the shared sleeping arrangements and built a hut in the woods.
Despite that, the rest of the group seemed optimistic at first. But trouble was not far away, as the group struggled to live on potato porridge, as they struggled to forage for food.
There were also rows over relationships and the distribution of work.
Canadian Tara Zieleman, 33, was first to leave. Last summer, in an interview with The Scottish Mail on Sunday after she left the show, she said the atmosphere had become ‘toxic and contagious’, adding: ‘There was too much of an alpha male mentality. It got primal and dog eat dog.’
Eden’s viewing figures peaked at 1.7 million but the last show was aired on August 8 last year, since when nothing more has been shown.
Fans have expressed frustration on social media pages set up to promote the show. Channel 4 has responded to them individually, with promises that the series will continue be shown. However, regular photo and video updates ceased six months ago.
Last week, a Channel 4 spokesman said Eden would be aired later this year, but admitted no date had been confirmed.
Not long after the last episode was screened, participants decided they had had enough and staged a fullscale walkout. One insider on the programme, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: ‘They had a mutiny last autumn and demanded sugar and animal feed.
‘They all left camp – some by boat,
‘There was too much of an alpha male mentality. It got primal’
some over the fences, and refused to come back until their demands had been met. Some went to the pub and others to nearby houses.
‘The production team were driving around trying to round them all up.’
It seems they were angry that gamekeeper Glenn, after leaving the compound in protest over conditions, had spent three days in a hotel before being allowed to return.
The insider said: ‘They were angry he was allowed to leave and come back in once he had a belly full of food and a good wash.’
With the experiment due to end later this month, plumes of smoke can still be seen rising from the forest where they made their home.
But only ten of the initial 23 remain. It is understood they include marine conservationist Katie, shopfitter Andrew, IT consultant/gamekeeper Glenn, Army officer Jack, shop assistant Josie, chef Stephen and student Robert.
The insider said: ‘No one has left since Christmas. The majority left in the autumn when they realised it was not working out.
“The producers tried to be strict at first but they soon realised, after people left, that if they were too strict everyone would leave. Lots of stuff was going in and out of the camp. The participants had arranged drop-offs before they went in – alcohol, chocolate and tobacco. They were never short. People they knew who lived nearby would drop off junk food supplies.
‘They would also shout over the fence to locals to bring food and to post letters home. They were taking the boat across the water to see the locals. They fed them and let them watch their TV and go online.’
An early press release said: ‘They will decide how they want to live as a community isolated from the rest of the modern world.’
But with neighbours just a few hundred yards across the bay, it was perhaps inevitable that contact with other people would be made.
Fisherman Hugh Macpherson, 50, said: ‘We did see them when their boat got abandoned. My children were quite excited – they’d seen them on the television.’
Local tradesman Gordon Cameron said: ‘I saw their boat pulled up outside a holiday cottage on a couple of evenings in October or November.’
Despite furious rows, some of which could be heard by their neighbours across the water, many of those who left revisited the camp.
The source said: ‘Almost everyone who has left has gone back up and sneaked in. Two of the girls went up at the end of last year with treats and hung out without getting caught by the producers.’
Locals in Ardnamurchan are still holding out hope that Eden will one day provide a boost to tourism.
But many have been bemused that the bad weather, midges and remoteness which for them are simply facts of life have been treated by the programme as an exotic experience.
The cast were given rations of food, including half a ton of potatoes, as well as animals, tools, materials to build shelter, cooking utensils and whatever they could carry in a backpack.
Mr Macpherson said: ‘They were given a better start than most crofters ever were. They have been given everything.’ Another local, who asked not to be named, said: ‘I witnessed one of the crew who worked on the show having a complete meltdown in the village one day because they wanted a soya latte and couldn’t get one.’
Highland Council has granted planning permission to Keo Films, which was making the series for Channel 4, that will allow it to keep the area enclosed and continue filming for another year.
But a spokesman for Channel 4 repeatedly insisted that any talk of another series being filmed was ‘pure speculation’.
With only two weeks until the current cast members are due to leave, it seems unlikely, at least in the short term.
The spokesman said: ‘While we understand that people are curious, we do not want to ruin the story for viewers of the programme who will get to see how events unfold later this year.’
‘The appeal of Eden is that it is a real experiment. When we started filming we had no idea what the results would be and how those taking part would react to being isolated for months in a remote part of the British Isles.
‘That’s why we did it and the results of this social experiment, including the highs and the lows, will be shown later this year.’
They were given a better start than most crofters ever were