Channel 4 exploitation row after film-maker dying of starvation is airlifted from wilderness
August 26, 2009 05:38 pm
Channel 4, which was mired in controversy after it published a story and video footages of interviews claimed to be of detainees complaining of maltreatment in Sri Lanka’s IDP camps, is amidst another controversy.
With doubts also being raised in certain quarters whether the Channel 4 interview with the LTTE’s international arms procurer Kumaran Pathmanadan alias KP, at an ‘undisclosed destination’ led sleuths to his arrest, this story published in The Daily Mail of UK gives a description of ‘exploitation’ of another kind by the Channel.
The report:
It promised to stretch reality television to the limit: one man pitting his wits against the Yukonwilderness with just a camera for company. But hopes for an epic three-month contest between man and nature were dashed when adventurer Ed Wardle failed to go the distance.
Seven weeks after striding out into the rugged forests of western Canadaarmed with a rifle and a fishing rod, Mr. Wardle had to be airlifted back to civilisation suffering from starvation.
He sent out a distress call five weeks before he was due to finish filming his one-man survival programme ‘Alone In The Wild’ for Channel 4.
Last night (August 25) the broadcaster faced criticism for allowing him to attempt the expedition unaided and apparently unprepared, to entertain viewers. During his adventure, Mr. Wardle, 34, was permitted to send out a daily posting on the Twitter website and transmit a single electronic signal confirming he was still alive.
Channel 4 handlers tracked his progress through the 500,000 square mile wilderness using a GPS satellite tracking device. To make the survival challenge as authentic as possible he avoided all human contact and left video tapes at drop-off points to be picked up by collection teams in a helicopter.
At first he appeared to be weathering the challenge, despite his lack of survival training.
He had been confident of finding regular food, telling the Daily Mail prior to setting off: “I imagine I have a long future of fish-eating in front of me. It’s going to be trout and grayling for 12 weeks.
“But meat’s a relatively easy thing to get your hands on too. There are hares, squirrels and gophers. They’re good to eat because they’re fatty. The porcupines are easy to catch because they don’t move very fast. As long as you’re careful with the spines, they’re a good source of food. You hit it with a big stick, roll it over, slice it open and peel the skin back, the same as you would any mammal.”
However, friends following his progress on Twitter - including long-term girlfriend Amanda Murray who lives with him in Islington, North London - became increasingly concerned when he appeared to start losing his grip on reality, hallucinating and talking to insects as starvation set in.
Two weeks ago he tweeted about losing weight rapidly, saying his muscles were ‘disappearing’. Most alarming of all, he counted his heartbeat at just 32 beats-per-minute. A healthy range is between 60 and 100 beats per minute.
His condition eventually deteriorated so much that he used his emergency satellite telephone to call for help. He was airlifted out after 50 days, and arrived back in Londonon Monday. He is now being treated at home.
John Beyer, Director of Media Watch, said last night: “This is a pretty foolish enterprise. If Channel 4 are going to send people on this kind of expedition, they really must make sure they are up to it and have the skills necessary to survive.
“If they first of all did not check that Ed Wardle was competent, then that is the height of irresponsibility on the part of Channel 4, to do that merely to provide entertainment for us all back home to watch this man steadily deteriorate.”
Mr. Wardle was chosen for the project because of his ability as a cameraman and producer, and his experience of filming in the North Pole and on the summit of Everest.
He has worked on shows for Channel 4, ITV, BBC and Discovery. But he had no specific training for living alone in the remote territory, 80 per cent of which is pristine wilderness. – (Daily Mail, UK)
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