Shipwrecked | TV Review

by Elissa Bradley

★✰✰✰✰

Unless you fancy a bit of Holby City, television is extremely sparse for entertainment, particularly on a Tuesday night.

E4 have taken advantage of the gap in the market (and the TV guide) by delivering the eighth series of Shipwrecked.

The programme sees 10 young castaways battle each other and live without luxuries in a bid to win a cash prize.

Previous series have been ever so slightly more interesting as the competition involved two islands (sometimes kept a secret from one another), making Shipwrecked: Battle of the Islands.

However, this year the Channel 4 production has returned to its original format of just one island.

A tribute to Daniel Defoe’s great piece of literature Robinson Crusoe this is not, as the 20-something-year-old contestants are clearly picked for the programme based on their levels of common sense and vanity.

Competitors include former Miss London, Anna Watts; self-proclaimed ladies man with his own surname tattooed on his ribs, Stephen ‘The Bear’ Bear; and Jamie Tyler, a hairdresser and call centre worker often referred to as Kitten. Yes, Kitten. Jamie or Kitten, whichever you prefer, arrived on the island donning a fur coat.

Somewhat disturbing

Remarkable, and somewhat disturbing, as the island is located somewhere in the Pacific Ocean and described by squealing Criminal Law graduate, Danni Mannix, as feeling “like million degree heat”.

Over the course of the competition, the castaways will strive to win the respect of their fellow competitors and hope to be voted the island’s leader.

The leader is automatically entitled to privileges such as getting to sleep in the leader’s hut as opposed to in a sleeping bag on the beach, and also have the chance to implement the island’s laws for that week.

No doubt this element to the competition will heat things up and cause a bit of drama among the contestants.

There is already friction on the island after debates about the rationing of food supplies and some castaways being accused of doing all the hard work in order to gain brownie points with the island leader, or perhaps for their personal election campaign at the end of the week.

As you can imagine, the intellectual content of Shipwrecked is at an all-time low and given the choice, watching paint dry would probably be more educational.

However, if you’re faced with the unfortunate problem of having watched the paint dry on every wall in your house while trying to avoid The Only Way Is Essex, Shipwrecked 2011 will provide you a LOT of laughs  - the majority of which are at the expense of others.