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Shipwrecked Lucy is a real TV survivor

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BRAVERY: When Lucy arrived back in Edinburgh she faced torrents of abuse from strangers on the streets but refused to hide away at home. Now, she says, reaction is mixed.

Scotsman

Shipwrecked Cleared

Channel 4 has been cleared by Ofcom over racist remarks made by a contestant on the reality show Shipwrecked.

Lucy Buchanan, 18, outraged viewers when she described black people as "really bad" and said: "I'm for slavery."

Her comments were broadcast in the opening episode of the series in January.

The episode, screened in the same week as the Celebrity Big Brother race row, prompted 1,453 complaints from viewers.

Media regulator Ofcom said: "There is no requirement that all people who take part in a reality television programme must be shown to only express views which meet generally accepted standards. This would not be a justifiable or proportionate limitation on freedom of expression.

"One of the consequences of reality television is that it can present to viewers attitudes which are not often aired on television but which are held by an unpredictable range of people.

"The fact that the contestants and many viewers found Lucy Buchanan's views offensive did not mean that Channel 4 was not entitled to broadcast them in context."

The watchdog concluded: "Channel 4 took appropriate care in creating adequate context for Lucy Buchanan's views, which justified their inclusion in this programme. The context ensured that her behaviour and views were not encouraged or condoned by the broadcaster, but were instead robustly challenged."

Gap year student Lucy said on the show: "I don't really like fat people, I don't really like really ugly people. I don't like it when foreigners come into our country and they don't take on the British culture and the British values. I'm quite for the British Empire and things. I'm for slavery but that's never going to come back."

A fellow contestant challenged: "What I don't understand is how you can generalise, like how you don't like black people as well?" Lucy replied: "I don't know them... from what I've seen they're really bad."
waveguide.co.uk

‘I’m a hated Welsh reality TV star,’ says Ryan Lewis



TWENTY-YEAR-OLD Ryan Lewis appeared on last year’s Shipwrecked on Channel 4. The credit card company employee lives in Splott, Cardiff. The keen rapper and wrestler ate lizard eggs during his first week on the island and rapped for the island’s chickens.

Any negative feedback since the show?

When I’m walking round Cardiff, some people like me and others shout abuse and I just answer, “What did you do today that was exciting? I travelled 38 hours to live on a desert island for a month.”

The experience was good but I’ve since been added to a Facebook group with hated Welsh reality TV stars like Rhydian from the X Factor, and Glyn and Shanessa from Big Brother. I don’t get it because Glyn was and is a really good guy! Rhydian is a bit weird but doesn’t deserve to be on a hate website.

Have you always wanted to be on TV then?

I auditioned in 2005 for Big Brother and was put in the “dry run” house for a week with Eugene, who was runner-up in 2005, and Chantelle Houghton, who won the Celebrity version without being a celebrity. I’m still in touch with Eugene, who is a great guy, and we’re trying to arrange to get a couple of beers in. I saw Chantelle at T4 on the Beach and we had a massive argument.

I haven’t always wanted to be on telly but was bored and unemployed for a bit and saw Shipwrecked advertised on the internet.

Why did you stand out in the audition then?

Because I’m chavvy, I guess! I’m quite outspoken and was MC-ing in the audition. I told them if anyone treads on my feet, I tell them where to go. They told me afterwards I had owned that room.

Do you love the outdoors life?

I’m not outdoorsy at all and they showed me climbing four steps up a tree, saying, ‘Me and Mother Nature don’t get on.’ But I actually got much further up and the crew were filmed saying, ‘I didn’t think you’d make it up there.’

Unlike Big Brother, where they’re tracked 24-7, with Shipwrecked, they cram a week’s filming into an hour’s programme. I was punching trees with anger and I’m not like that – that’s how much pressure the show put on me.

Do you enjoy confrontation?

The programme was 100 per cent rigged for me to look like that. It was also rigged that most people ended up choosing to stay in the group they were originally put in – the Tigers or the Sharks. Everyone was like that though the laws of logic mean it wouldn’t have been that way unless something was going on. I was with the Tigers and at one point was thinking about switching to Shark Island. Though, watching the programme back, the Sharks were slandering me, so it’s probably good I didn’t; but at the time, the producer and camera man said I suited Tigers better.

Any other drama?

Jon from the Sharks and I nearly had a fight off camera. It was quite an intense little moment, but wasn’t shown on telly. He was having a go at me and I just thought, ‘What is your damage, man?’ I’ve sent e-mails and text messages to the other islanders, but haven’t heard anything back from anyone apart from Crawford, who was the most real guy there.

How did you cope with the rationing?

Not well! The food was good, but one Mars bar between 10 people was ridiculous!

Shipwrecked is currently being repeated on E4

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