BB FANS

11 December 2005
Sunday Mirror

TV show's brainwashed our girl No word from her for a month
By Nic North

THE parents of a teenage star in TV's Space Cadets reality show say they are desperately worried their daughter is being callously brainwashed.

Ingrid and Selwyn Roberts, from Cardiff, are very anxious about their 19-year-old daughter Astrid - a school friend of Charlotte Church.

Astrid landed a slot on Channel 4's show after seeing an advert asking for volunteers to take part in a "thrill-seeking exercise".

The "Cadets" have been duped into believing they are training in Russia to be sent into space. Astrid's parents fear they are the subjects of a brainwashing exercise for the amusement of TV viewers while holed up on an old military base in Suffolk.

Astrid's dad Selwyn, 65, said last night: "We are very worried about the effects of playing with these impressionable young people's minds.

"Messing around with people's heads in this way is dangerous and I have grave concerns for my daughter."

The last time Selwyn and 55-year-old Ingrid saw Astrid was almost a month ago when they put her on a train to London from Cardiff. And the couple have not heard from her since.

Retired waste management boss Selwyn also revealed that Astrid is hiding private family anguish - he is fighting terminal lung cancer.

When Astrid smiles her way through "training" to go into space she will be hiding her worry about whether her father will beat the disease.

While watching the recordings off the sat feed it suddenly dawned on my why they don't have any live feeds from the camp. There isn't anything going on to show.
Remember Friday's main show ? There is a section where they show you all what the Cadets have done in their training including the exams at the end. Note is what they have done and not what they are doing.
So just how long have they been there ? I guess they have been training to give a good performance for the flight.
It could be that they were rumbled weeks ago but the contracts prevent anyone from talking about it .
It makes more sense why the presenter couldn't see why he had to do his bit live when everybody else has completed they first part and might not even be there.
Remember just like other shows things can be sequenced as the producers see fit to create the situations and the characters they want you to see.
All the captions use the word 'Sting' which I didn't take much notice of to start with but now I'm beginning to wonder.

I'm still going to watch the show as I want to see how far they think they can push things.

So the question really is:

Is it the contestants who are being conned, or is it the viewing public who are being duped?

Alan, Derby, UK.

Had a look at this the other day, and thought someone was going to twig when in the lecture, the lecturer was going on about the nut cluster galaxy, heard of the whirl pool galaxy but never a nut cluster one

I was rolling about

It's great viewing.
Some of the bits with Johnny are recorded. For instance the bit tonight where Val carried him out of shot ,they recorded it earlier .In fact they had four takes before Johnny was happy.
There are quite a few rehearsals for a lot of the stuff Johnny does where the script is changed but I've only seen one scene being recorded.
I'll have some pictures soon ,most are the crew preparing. When not on air Johnny nearly always has a cigi on the goes as you might see later. I've been through the first DVD and have just completed the second so that's about 8 hours.

Can't believe just of easily they have brainwashed them. The next stage should be interesting.

I just hope the simulator is not running on windows

Ker---ching!!!

Wonderd that too

Now that would be a give-away as it puts the error message up in English.

They'll prolly try to explain away "you have made an illegal operation" as some kind of technical fault with the spacecraft.

Until Freecell starts playing automatically

There is a buzz of excitement in the air for Channel 4's Space Cadets - the UK's first 'space tourists' have been revealed.

Johnny Vaughn presents the next show where we see mission controller James Campbell summon the astronaut wannabee's to a meeting where he reveals that Paul, Billy and Keri will be rocketing into the unknown.

Actor Charlie will be joining the three recruits, well aware that they will not at all be entering space, but that instead be in a set built by Hollywood designers.

The unsuspecting trio will blastoff during the show and spend five days believing they are in space conducting scientific experiments.

The live grand finale takes place on Friday where the recruits will learn that they have not made British history, but were in fact involved in one of television's greatest hoax's.

So far nobody has twigged that the whole show is set up, and tv producers are hoping the contestants will see the funny side of the matter when the truth is revealed. ITV

Is that the funny side when Jeremy Beadel comes wondering out with micro phone in hand? I wouldn't be too amused myself, still think it's a bit OTT, but then again, it is reality tv.

The fact that they do get a trip to Star City afterwards will soften the blow somewhat, it would be cruel to just send them home after humiliation by tv.

Unlike Craig and Makosi of course.

Alan, Derby, UK.

In the immortal words of Mark Lard Riley

Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo?