1 00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:11,520 [Jane] Nikita Russian. 2 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:14,600 [Daniel] He had this look about him. 3 00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:17,880 [Lucie] He was someone that you would notice 4 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:20,760 and, like, instantly respect. 5 00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:26,280 [Daniel] This was an opportunity to start a new life. 6 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:29,320 [Lucie] I'd given up a really good job. 7 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:33,280 I'd walked away from my home, my boyfriend. 8 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:36,480 [Jane] They were so excited I thought that, 9 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:38,440 "This show is gonna change my life forever." 10 00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:43,000 [Tim] I'm off for a year, I'm gonna make £100,000. 11 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:44,040 I'll see ya then. 12 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:48,680 [Harry Hill] Thirty grown men and women gave up their jobs and homes for a year 13 00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:53,200 to be in a reality TV show that doesn't exist. 14 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:54,320 Why you do that? 15 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:55,480 [audience laughter] 16 00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:57,080 [thunder breaks] 17 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:00,360 [John] It was all smoke and mirrors. 18 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:02,440 Ah! 19 00:01:03,080 --> 00:01:03,960 [Tim] It wasn't real. 20 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:07,200 [Jane] What do you mean it's not real? 21 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:10,000 [John] No Channel 4 commission. The guy works in a bookshop. 22 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:12,160 None of it existed. 23 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:18,360 We had real strong, angry feelings towards Nik Russian. 24 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:21,880 How could you do this? What were you thinking? 25 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:24,600 [Jane] I remember John, he was saying, "I'm gonna go in there. 26 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:26,440 I'm gonna kill that Nik. I'm gonna kill him." 27 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:30,880 [John] This is a complete clusterfuck. 28 00:01:30,960 --> 00:01:32,120 What the fuck to do. 29 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:34,200 He'd made thirty people give up everything, 30 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:37,320 move to London, thinking they're gonna take part in a massive TV show 31 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:38,800 and then crashed their lives into a ditch. 32 00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:50,280 [Nik] Nobody has heard my side of this. 33 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:57,520 People seem to be cooking up that I did this for malicious motives. 34 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:01,960 I was trying to produce a TV show. 35 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:07,320 People sign up to eat kangaroo anuses in the jungle, 36 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:11,480 but going off on a mission to try and make money, 37 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:13,720 to me, it didn't seem like such a massive thing. 38 00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:16,160 I thought people had signed up for absolutely anything. 39 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:21,600 But it hasn't really worked the way I was hoping it would work. 40 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:39,400 I don't think Nik Russian realises quite how close 41 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:42,120 some of us came to... 42 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:45,480 stomping on his head. 43 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:47,880 [Lucie] Has he just left a pile of clothes? 44 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:50,640 [Maria] Well, we don't know, we can't really tell what's in it. 45 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:52,160 [overlapping chatter] 46 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:54,880 Do you think... Is it stuff he can live without? 47 00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:02,400 After Nik had slept in Tim's flat, he made a quick sharp exit. 48 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:05,000 [Tim] This is the guy's bag. Nikita Russian. 49 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:08,000 [Jane] When he'd gone, 50 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:12,440 {\an8}that's when everyone was like, "Right, what we gonna do?" 51 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:14,040 "What are we gonna do about this?" 52 00:03:14,920 --> 00:03:16,440 [Tim] Just underneath here... 53 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:22,880 [Maria] To expose Nik and what we've been caught into, 54 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:24,800 we should contact papers and stuff like that. 55 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:27,120 Absolutely. I totally agree. 56 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:28,640 -[woman 1] Yeah. -[woman 2] Yeah. 57 00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:30,760 [John] There was a bit of a plan that was hatched 58 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:35,440 {\an8}to not get some payback, but, er... 59 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:38,560 actually no, probably get some payback. 60 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:44,200 We're just trying to get something in the papers or on TV, or whatever. 61 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:47,200 I'll get some more production companies from contacts, 62 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:48,480 you've got the television company ones there. 63 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:52,760 Yeah, I've got the television, I've got BBC local radio. 64 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:54,320 [Tim] My name's Tim Eagle. 65 00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:59,960 I'm a contestant on a reality TV show that's gone wrong. 66 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:04,000 You wanna be on the telly, you wanna make telly, 67 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:07,960 I'm gonna put you on a fucking telly, mate, see what you think about that. 68 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:09,320 Alright? Here we go. 69 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:12,320 [Tim] He's called Nikita Russian. 70 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:15,400 It's Nikita Russian Productions. 71 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:22,800 I had a friend who knew about how to break news stories, you know. 72 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:27,880 {\an8}So I contacted him and he gave me the contact at London Tonight. 73 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:29,640 [London Tonight theme tune plays] 74 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:32,240 Tonight: pay up or get out. 75 00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:36,240 MPs demand the royals living at your expense foot the bill 76 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:39,200 or leave the luxury of Kensington Palace. 77 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:41,560 [London Tonight theme tune plays] 78 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:43,600 We've got... I mean, we've got... 79 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:45,760 We've got the contracts and things like that. 80 00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:47,520 We've got all the stuff that we signed. 81 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:49,800 Yeah. 82 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:54,320 Brilliant. Alright, thank you. 83 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:55,800 Cheers, bye. 84 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:01,920 Yeah, they're gonna show up at 9.30 tomorrow morning. 85 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:04,320 [cheers] 86 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:08,920 Fuck, we gotta get up really early. 87 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:11,240 [Jane] It was just so exciting. 88 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:12,360 Oh, my God! 89 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:13,880 They're actually coming! 90 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:16,080 [cheers] 91 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:18,600 We're gonna be on London Tonight news. 92 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:20,640 The whole world is going to see us. 93 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:24,800 I wonder if it really is gonna now turn into something. 94 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:28,160 It's the power of dreaming, isn't it? 95 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:31,960 It became a mission to, er, 96 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:34,160 hoist him by his own petard. 97 00:05:34,240 --> 00:05:36,080 We need to get those tapes back 98 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:38,000 off the guy who's editing. 99 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:39,520 We need to get them back right now. 100 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:44,680 I went off on the bus with John at one point to meet the editor. 101 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:48,840 He has this box of tapes. 102 00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:51,720 We went to see the editor. 103 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:56,920 We re-claimed our footage so we can show it to London Tonight and the papers. 104 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:58,720 The footage of us turning up in the park. 105 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:00,840 So, we've done that 106 00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:02,880 and we're on the way back now. 107 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:04,920 And I have just texted our team 108 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:07,720 because Nik is back at the place waiting for us. 109 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:11,000 And that's why this just beeped. 110 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:17,040 [Daniel] Someone said, "Nik's here." 111 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:20,320 [laughter] 112 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:23,960 [Nick] No, you still look like you're getting up now. 113 00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:28,520 [Daniel] He came back into that environment. 114 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:32,800 {\an8}How could he? I would never have thought anyone would be that stupid or brave. 115 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:39,320 [Nik] There wasn't somewhere else for me to go to. 116 00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:42,920 I'd given up my... home. 117 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:49,400 {\an8}I was as marooned and homeless as the other people there. 118 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:53,840 [Jane] Nik came back. 119 00:06:53,920 --> 00:06:56,800 I mean, that's just, like... crazy. 120 00:06:57,600 --> 00:06:59,440 So he did us a favour. 121 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:02,560 We were able to corner him. 122 00:07:04,280 --> 00:07:06,240 [Tim] We didn't tell Nik that the TV were coming. 123 00:07:08,840 --> 00:07:10,600 So then it all become about, 124 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:14,960 Mission: Keep Nikita Russian in the Flat. 125 00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:30,600 I don't know if you've ever been held captive by a group of people. 126 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:35,080 But, er, I wouldn't recommend it as an experience. 127 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:40,600 It was frightening. 128 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:48,120 Mentally, I was falling apart a little bit. 129 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:50,200 Basically. 130 00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:53,600 I was in a very bad way. 131 00:07:56,440 --> 00:07:58,520 [Rosy] Lucie, are you going to be long? 132 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:02,000 Okay, because, erm, they wanna start filming. 133 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:12,480 [Jane] I remember him sitting on the carpet. 134 00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:15,960 I remember somebody making him a brew. 135 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:20,960 And then we all sort of surrounded him, and he was sat, actually, there. 136 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:24,280 [indistinct chatter] 137 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:31,920 I literally had three days in which to organise my life. 138 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,720 Pack my entire life into my suitcase, cancel everything. 139 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:40,000 I was actually a dancer for the Commonwealth Games. 140 00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:42,880 I got chosen, I got picked, I went for the audition. 141 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:44,520 [Nick] It's not like you're just fucking with people's lives, 142 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:46,880 you're fucking with their dreams, people's dreams. 143 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:50,440 That's, like, sacred that you're fucking with. 144 00:08:50,520 --> 00:08:52,760 [Maria] That's, like, satanic to do something like that. 145 00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:55,880 I intended to start 146 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:57,320 this part of my career 147 00:08:57,400 --> 00:08:58,640 and start my life properly doing this as well... 148 00:08:58,760 --> 00:09:00,760 [woman] We don't want to hear about you. 149 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:03,760 [Maria] "This was my dream too." I don't give a damn. 150 00:09:03,840 --> 00:09:05,280 I don't care if this was your dream, 151 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:07,080 because right about now, it's not about you, 152 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:08,720 it's about 30 other people. 153 00:09:09,320 --> 00:09:12,600 [Lucie] He was saying things like, "This is my dream." 154 00:09:12,640 --> 00:09:15,600 {\an8}I didn't really choose to be in your dream. 155 00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:19,280 I wanted to be in my dream. 156 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:21,640 Without any... 157 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:24,760 cameramen, or you know, the cameramen that you need, 158 00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:26,040 and all the equipment 159 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:29,200 and everything, everything, you do not have a show. 160 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:31,080 And what we feel is you've got a bunch of... 161 00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:33,320 people that feel like absolute mugs, 162 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:36,000 and I don't quite know really... 163 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:39,400 [interviewer] Did it feel a bit like you were getting revenge? 164 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:43,120 Sounds awful, getting revenge. 165 00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:45,440 But it probably did. 166 00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:46,760 [laughter] 167 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:48,760 Yeah. 168 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:52,040 [Maria] The media don't even know about it. 169 00:09:52,120 --> 00:09:55,080 I don't believe that you ever had negotiations with Channel 4. 170 00:09:55,160 --> 00:09:58,440 I don't believe that there's any other cable channel interested. 171 00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:02,400 [Lucie] You don't give us any information. You don't answer any of our questions. 172 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:04,280 And you don't look at us. 173 00:10:04,960 --> 00:10:07,840 [Maria] No eye contact at all. 174 00:10:07,880 --> 00:10:10,240 [Lucie] Your body language is so negative. 175 00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:12,440 You either don't know or you're lying to us. 176 00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:17,520 I'm sorry if my body language is negative, it's because I'm shit scared, frankly. 177 00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:21,760 [Maria] Everybody who I've spoken to about it 178 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:24,760 has said to me, "This guy was gonna make you all earn the money 179 00:10:24,880 --> 00:10:26,360 and he was gonna run off with it." 180 00:10:27,640 --> 00:10:29,160 I'm sorry, that's just not true. 181 00:10:31,880 --> 00:10:35,360 The stress that I was under by this point was... 182 00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:39,600 I vaguely remember there being, like, a rising high-pitched mosquito sound 183 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:43,000 going on in the back of my... consciousness. 184 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:45,880 The feeling of a loss of blood from me. 185 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:51,600 I guess in between the fear of what the hell was going on here, 186 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:53,040 there was... 187 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:55,760 on my mind, the feeling that... 188 00:10:55,840 --> 00:10:57,320 this could surely be better used 189 00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:01,160 if we focused it on the actual project rather than... 190 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:02,640 division. 191 00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:08,600 I thought these were people who had the urgency and energy 192 00:11:08,680 --> 00:11:10,880 to burst out and get things done. 193 00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:16,680 I was trying to take the reality format and produce a TV show. 194 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:18,560 So that everyone could benefit. 195 00:11:18,640 --> 00:11:22,200 [crowds cheering] 196 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:27,720 At that time, reality TV had a sense of barely controlled anarchy. 197 00:11:29,360 --> 00:11:32,160 I wonder whether you remember a show called The Word. 198 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:37,160 They had a section in there called, "I Would Do Anything to Get on TV." 199 00:11:38,040 --> 00:11:40,240 I'd do anything to get on TV. 200 00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:42,120 [Nik] People were being jubilant about the fact that 201 00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:44,680 that had earned them some airtime. 202 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:47,480 And I would think, you know, 203 00:11:47,560 --> 00:11:49,120 why isn't there something a bit more constructive 204 00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:52,120 that we could all be doing with that energy. 205 00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:54,080 -[rip] -Jesus! 206 00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:56,080 [audience cheer and jeer] 207 00:11:56,160 --> 00:11:59,960 [Nik] What about if that energy was to be focused in a particular way? 208 00:12:02,080 --> 00:12:03,880 I left home aged 16. 209 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:06,720 I had no money. 210 00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:11,000 I was working in... jobs that didn't pay very much. 211 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:15,000 So I wanted to make something where you could come away from the project 212 00:12:15,080 --> 00:12:17,960 with a nest egg, a business. 213 00:12:18,040 --> 00:12:20,360 The career step, where everybody was equal, 214 00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:25,080 and it did what each person wanted for that person. 215 00:12:29,120 --> 00:12:32,040 But things clearly were not going as they were supposed to. 216 00:12:33,440 --> 00:12:36,480 In fact, it was all about to get a lot worse. 217 00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:40,200 [doorbell rings] 218 00:12:43,680 --> 00:12:46,440 [Rosy chuckles] Fantastic. 219 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:48,760 Sit on the bed, alright? 220 00:12:57,240 --> 00:13:01,960 We hadn't told him that London Tonight, the news crew were gonna be coming round. 221 00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:04,360 And he got a bit of a shock when they did. 222 00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:06,400 What's happened here, mate? 223 00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:10,800 I've fucked up big time with a reality TV project 224 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:12,360 that was supposed to 225 00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:16,600 get a whole load of people to achieve their dreams. 226 00:13:16,680 --> 00:13:18,400 And, erm... 227 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:21,120 After a string of disasters and 228 00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:25,000 horrendous planning and mistakes on my part 229 00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:28,160 that should never have happened, it's all gone very, very wrong. 230 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:32,920 He seemed to be really at breaking point. 231 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:36,600 I think at that point, when the news crew came around. 232 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:40,320 But again, I was watching him, thinking... 233 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:45,640 Are you at breaking point or are you really enjoying this? 234 00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:47,640 [man] What's their reception to you been like? 235 00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:49,840 It can't be great sleeping in the same room. 236 00:13:49,920 --> 00:13:52,960 Is it the same flat as 10 of your failed contestants? 237 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:54,720 No, I've just been called satanic. 238 00:13:57,400 --> 00:13:58,800 [man] What are you gonna do next? 239 00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:00,760 What are you gonna do to help this lot out? 240 00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:05,320 The only way I can help now is we're trying to put together a pilot 241 00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:10,520 for a very scaled-down version of the show 242 00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:13,920 which we want to get in front of 243 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:16,040 the same companies and other companies 244 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:18,880 who we were talking to before. 245 00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:22,360 Perhaps we can salvage something out of this. 246 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:25,120 I remember having the barrel of the camera... 247 00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:30,640 pointing at me in much the way this camera is pointing at me right now. 248 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:33,680 Did I know I was being shamed at that moment? Yeah, absolutely. 249 00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:36,560 That was quite clearly the intention. 250 00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:41,560 But they obviously regarded it as something they needed to do. 251 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:46,320 I would have said, "If you're gonna get a local news crew involved, 252 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:49,600 try and use it to stoke the project back up." 253 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:51,800 "And why turn on me?" 254 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:53,080 [man 1] So, what happens now? 255 00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:55,400 Are you sleeping here as well? 256 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:56,640 I slept here last night. 257 00:14:56,720 --> 00:15:00,240 After tonight, I don't know where I'm going to be sleeping. 258 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:02,240 [man 1] Ok, mate, that'll do, nice one. 259 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:04,120 Thank you very much, Nikita. 260 00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:07,920 [man 2] Any chance a few of you could get back into your sleeping bags? 261 00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:13,480 [man 1] Means that you kind of create a scene of crowded chaos. 262 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:15,800 [John] They asked us to get into sleeping bags 263 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:19,680 and try to look a bit more sort of... homeless. 264 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:23,560 So we kind of played along with that and hammed it up. 265 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:26,760 [Jane] I mean, before I came here, I've got two agents, 266 00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:28,880 I'm an actress, I'm also a singer, 267 00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:32,000 and the fact that it could be a stepping stone to help my career, 268 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:33,320 I chose this. 269 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:35,640 But I am so regretting choosing this. 270 00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:38,640 I just can't believe it. 271 00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:42,520 [Tim] Well, I was really relishing this, 'cause I could see this kind of... 272 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:47,160 layering of this mad story going on in my front room. 273 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:51,400 As the reality TV show contestants being filmed, and they're being filmed, 274 00:15:51,480 --> 00:15:53,440 and this is being filmed, and everybody's being filmed. 275 00:15:53,520 --> 00:15:54,600 You know. 276 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:56,600 I think it was good telly, you know. 277 00:15:56,680 --> 00:15:58,000 The greatest show never made 278 00:15:58,080 --> 00:15:59,000 is now being made. 279 00:16:00,160 --> 00:16:02,480 [man] I think you probably need to get out of that sleeping bag now. 280 00:16:03,280 --> 00:16:05,520 [laughter] 281 00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:09,760 [Jane] We did, like, erm... 282 00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:11,240 a shot where... 283 00:16:11,760 --> 00:16:15,560 we all had to look sort of really sad, 284 00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:17,920 and hold up our passports, 285 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:21,840 to show that Nik Russian was the baddie. 286 00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:24,200 He was a bad boy. 287 00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:26,360 [laughter] 288 00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:31,400 I seem to remember some shaking of hands some "thank you very muches" 289 00:16:31,480 --> 00:16:32,360 and off they went. 290 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:34,480 Not shaking my hand, by the way, 291 00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:38,640 I should say shaking other people's hands, like this was a deal that had been done. 292 00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:41,720 "We got what we needed, thank you for providing that." 293 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:43,920 That kind of thing. And off they went. 294 00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:47,400 There was this genuine sense of achievement. 295 00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:50,480 I was satisfied with... 296 00:16:50,560 --> 00:16:52,480 what we'd done to Nik. 297 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:58,240 With how we got our... own back on him. 298 00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:14,200 {\an8}He does look very... Yeah, he looks defeated. 299 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:21,400 It was probably something that he wanted to do in his career. 300 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:25,640 After this, could you hire this man? Probably not. 301 00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:28,560 So maybe his dream has gone too. 302 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:36,560 [crash] 303 00:17:37,480 --> 00:17:38,320 Oh, my... 304 00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:40,920 [Nik] I keep making stuff. 305 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:42,400 I've noticed that about myself. 306 00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:47,280 I know when I was a kid, I'd play around making videos with my mate Mike. 307 00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:49,680 During the break, there has been some interesting developments. 308 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:52,640 [Nik] I think we were united by comedy. 309 00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:54,000 -[splash] -Ah! 310 00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:58,320 [Nik] Just the fun of achieving kind of a creative project, 311 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:01,760 putting that together. Imagining something, making it real. 312 00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:04,520 [laughing] We in the studio are sealed off from this, 313 00:18:04,560 --> 00:18:07,560 but our reporter, Orville Dempson, is in the middle of it. 314 00:18:07,680 --> 00:18:08,520 Here's his report. 315 00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:11,560 [Nik] It was bland middle-class suburbia. 316 00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:17,960 But my personal life was just a very, very unhappy time. 317 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:26,040 What was happening for me was misery. 318 00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:31,200 I can't really go into detail about what happened. 319 00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:35,800 But by the time I was 15, 320 00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:39,800 it culminated in me ending up in a very deep, dark place. 321 00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:46,920 I was just dysfunctional, extraordinarily dysfunctional. 322 00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:55,480 My imagination was the only place I could go to. 323 00:18:58,280 --> 00:18:59,320 Books were a holiday. 324 00:19:00,160 --> 00:19:02,800 They were somewhere that I could escape to. 325 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:09,160 I started writing. 326 00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:11,800 I wrote copiously. 327 00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:17,640 Stories about spaceships and aliens and all that kind of malarkey. 328 00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:24,160 It fired up my imagination and made me see what was possible in life 329 00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:27,960 and also in terms of constructing alternative narratives. 330 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:31,080 That's what really excited me. 331 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:33,880 If it didn't work, fine, start a new story, 332 00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:38,080 you can create a whole new platform to spring off from. 333 00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:43,640 I came out of childhood with a massive identity crisis. 334 00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:48,520 Without any sense of a "me" that was okay. 335 00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:56,160 And I had such a self-hate that I couldn't bear to hear my own name. 336 00:19:58,160 --> 00:19:59,680 So I had to change it. 337 00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:07,160 I changed my name a few different times. 338 00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:09,680 And I think that's what was going on, 339 00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:12,520 was I was trying out a bunch of different potential identities. 340 00:20:12,560 --> 00:20:16,200 I was sort of seeing what might make some sort of a sense. 341 00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:19,720 And I came out of it with... 342 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:20,760 a very silly name. 343 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:22,560 [muffled laughter] 344 00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:26,640 Nikita Russian. 345 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:28,720 That's the one. 346 00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:33,320 It was about establishing an identity of my own. 347 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:43,560 I was determined to get hold of life somewhere along the line. 348 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:50,560 -And who's the prat now? Nik. -[Maria] Exactly, yeah. 349 00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:55,440 [Tim] Nik left after he'd been filmed. 350 00:20:56,320 --> 00:20:58,640 I had to go down and let him out the door. 351 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:01,040 Before he left, he said to Tim, er... 352 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:05,800 "Can I take that footage with me to put into the pilot?" 353 00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:06,760 He's enjoying! 354 00:21:06,800 --> 00:21:10,240 [Tim] Yeah, I mean it makes a much better documentary for him, doesn't it? 355 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:12,760 [interviewer] Did you really think you could still make a show? 356 00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:13,680 Yep. 357 00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:15,280 Yeah. 358 00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:21,280 I really felt like this was possible. 359 00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:24,800 So now I'm at large on my own. 360 00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:28,280 On the streets of London. 361 00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:30,960 I've gotta try and figure out what to do next. 362 00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:36,160 So I spoke to a friend who'd been involved from its inception. 363 00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:37,720 We were best mates. 364 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:44,160 I hadn't spoken to him since I backed away so I didn't know any of this was going on. 365 00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:48,400 So I go and meet him in Waterloo 366 00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:51,200 and the first thing I noticed, he was shaking. 367 00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:54,320 He stood me a pint in a pub. 368 00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:58,240 While we were there, London Tonight came on. 369 00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:01,560 [London Tonight theme tune plays] 370 00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:05,600 Turning now to showbiz and the unglamorous side of reality TV. 371 00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:09,840 The meteoric rise of programmes like Big Brother and Survivor has led to many 372 00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:11,920 seeing these game shows and others like them 373 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:14,040 as a passport to fame and fortune. 374 00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:16,440 [male reporter] Some people will do anything to get on the telly, 375 00:22:16,520 --> 00:22:17,560 this lot did. 376 00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:20,840 They gave up their homes, jobs, cut all ties, 377 00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:24,640 but a reality TV show where they had to start from nothing and prosper... 378 00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:27,960 This is better than Big Brother. 379 00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:29,440 [male reporter] ...they're sleeping on a floor in Dalston. 380 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:33,120 Now, if you think they're miserable, just take a look at this guy. 381 00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:37,320 I know I'm a figure of hate now, and I think rightly so. 382 00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:41,960 Got my first taste of what it was like to have all the people in the pub 383 00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:44,040 look from the screen to me and back to the screen, 384 00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:47,760 and start pointing fingers and, er, 385 00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:49,120 that was rather uncomfortable. 386 00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:54,000 [Michael] To be on the news, even the local news, is pretty big. 387 00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:58,400 Nik's at the centre of this, er, absolute chaos that he's created, 388 00:22:58,480 --> 00:22:59,560 and there's people round him, 389 00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:01,960 and they're shouting at him. 390 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:06,080 And I... I was annoyed, I was annoyed with him because this is big 391 00:23:06,160 --> 00:23:09,000 and also, you couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for him. 392 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:12,480 There was an element of this which was about 393 00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:14,200 pushing through and getting this thing to happen. 394 00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:17,680 One of the things I'd been told when I was a kid, 395 00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:20,080 one of the things I'd had drummed into me, 396 00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:22,600 was that it wasn't good enough to start something and not finish it. 397 00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:26,560 I wanted to try and show that I could manage to do this. 398 00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:34,000 Nik asked me to help him sell his idea to media companies. 399 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:35,800 I just couldn't believe it. 400 00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:39,720 What, now? Now you want to do this? 401 00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:43,160 Could we not have done that six months ago before this car crash? 402 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:47,160 He'd made 30 people give up everything, 403 00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:50,080 move to London thinking they're gonna take part in a massive TV show 404 00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:51,760 and then crashed their lives into a ditch. 405 00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:55,880 I screamed, "I want nothing to do with this!" 406 00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:57,080 I was so angry. 407 00:23:58,080 --> 00:23:59,080 That was actually... 408 00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:03,000 That was my last ever conversation I've had with him for 20 years. 409 00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:05,960 Still, yeah, not spoken to him since. 410 00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:13,440 He agreed that he was gonna go his own way and keep out of it. 411 00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:16,400 That's the last time I ever saw him. 412 00:24:17,120 --> 00:24:19,440 My best friend since childhood. 413 00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:28,200 Did I feel terrible? 414 00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:30,320 I'll say. 415 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:32,000 And... 416 00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:34,080 And now I was homeless too. 417 00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:42,040 [man] This London Tonight thing gets better with every viewing. 418 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:45,240 [woman] Did you see it? 419 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:47,040 And doesn't he just. 420 00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:50,360 Oh, guys, my landlady says he looks like a real idiot. 421 00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:52,160 Did you see the state of him? 422 00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:57,720 It just felt like you won the lottery, yeah. 423 00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:02,760 It was our way of, like, getting something back. 424 00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:07,480 And the fact we were on TV, wow. [laughs] 425 00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:08,680 That was a bonus. 426 00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:12,560 Never in a million years did I expect that to happen. 427 00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:15,560 Yeah. 428 00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:18,840 [Jane] We're going to leave you now. 429 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:20,120 Thank you. 430 00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:22,320 -[Nick] Come on. -[Rosy] Oh, yeah. 431 00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:24,480 [Nick] It's your turn now. 432 00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:27,880 [Tim] We'd done what we could. We'd carried on as best we can. 433 00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:29,040 But in the end, 434 00:25:29,120 --> 00:25:32,000 it was just a little game we'd played for a few days. 435 00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:34,640 I'm still angry. 436 00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:35,560 [woman] Oh, yeah. 437 00:25:37,360 --> 00:25:38,600 [Rosy] Come on, come on. 438 00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:40,960 Bye-bye! 439 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:42,720 Goodbye, the world of reality TV. 440 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:43,640 Thank God. 441 00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:45,920 [indistinct chattering] 442 00:25:47,120 --> 00:25:48,840 [Tim] That was the point at which I turned my camera off. 443 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:49,800 Of course, you know. 444 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:53,960 That moment, when I walked back up into this empty flat, 445 00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:56,920 after them all being here for that week... 446 00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:01,920 It was like, pfft. 447 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:03,280 I've not escaped. 448 00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:08,480 It was my dream come true, I thought. 449 00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:10,960 I thought I was gonna be a presenter on TV. 450 00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:13,960 And so I'm suffering a bit from embarrassment as well. 451 00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:17,720 But I seriously thought for quite a while that had come true, 452 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:21,680 and that I was a very lucky girl and it was actually happening to me. 453 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:24,120 But I'm not so sure anymore. 454 00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:28,040 I did really want to be a presenter. 455 00:26:28,120 --> 00:26:31,120 I was, you know, happy when I was doing it. 456 00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:37,360 So the damage that had been done there was really huge. 457 00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:43,280 I don't think Nik Russian realises quite how close 458 00:26:43,360 --> 00:26:45,720 some of us came to... 459 00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:48,520 stomping on his head. 460 00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:52,320 Because that's better than he deserves. 461 00:26:55,720 --> 00:27:00,440 I think this might have been a bit more instrumental 462 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:05,320 in where I've ended up than I thought. 463 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:09,680 To take a real big chance on something, that was probably it. 464 00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:13,440 I think it made me more risk averse. 465 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:19,360 Our time in the flat was very much a time of its own. 466 00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:23,080 So, even though I had everybody's phone numbers, 467 00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:24,880 I didn't phone any of them. 468 00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:27,560 And none of them phoned me. 469 00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:31,440 I kind of wish I had. 470 00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:35,560 They were just good people 471 00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:39,840 who I wouldn't mind having had as proper friends in my life. 472 00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:46,240 -Ahh. -Welcome back. 473 00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:49,040 -How are you? -Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. 474 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:51,200 -Tim. Wow! -How are you? 475 00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:53,240 Hello. 476 00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:55,920 -Hello, hello, hello. -Alright! 477 00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:58,440 [laughter] 478 00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:01,560 [together] Hello! 479 00:28:05,360 --> 00:28:07,040 [indistinct] 480 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:10,560 -[gasps] -Hello. 481 00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:11,960 Rosy! 482 00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:13,280 [laughter] 483 00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:17,960 Oh, my gosh! 484 00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:19,600 Wait a minute, wait a minute. 485 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:25,240 And I only... I was lucky to get out of this really. 486 00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:26,720 -Hello. -Argh! 487 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:30,240 -[laughter] -Of course, right. 488 00:28:31,360 --> 00:28:32,760 Yes, hello. 489 00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:34,760 [Daniel] Oh, my God! 490 00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:37,400 How are you doing? 491 00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:38,640 Oh, Daniel. 492 00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:40,080 Hey! 493 00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:42,120 [laughter] 494 00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:46,200 When I came in here, I just immediately felt like 495 00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:47,600 -I was back there. -Yeah. 496 00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:50,480 And I said somebody used to sit on the toilet like this 497 00:28:50,560 --> 00:28:52,120 and then somebody would sit on the edge of the bath, 498 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:55,560 and I'd be, like, watching everybody for, like, makeup tips, 499 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:58,400 'cause everyone looked really glamorous, and, you know. 500 00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:00,280 After I left London, 501 00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:02,920 you know, it was as if like my dream had been shattered. 502 00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:03,960 [Rosy] Yeah. 503 00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:06,160 I just didn't want to go back 504 00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:08,120 because my feelings weren't great, 505 00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:10,960 because afterwards, I did go through a real low period. 506 00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:12,120 -[Rosy] That's a shame. -[Jane] Yeah. 507 00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:15,640 And, so I wanted it, I didn't want to think about it. 508 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,600 [Lucie] I just felt embarrassed to go home. 509 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:25,440 My mum gave me a letter. 510 00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:28,680 And I remember I didn't read it 'till 511 00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:30,920 when it was kind of all over. 512 00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:35,600 "Don't call me silly for worrying about you. 513 00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:36,960 I am your mother. 514 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:40,080 I'm very proud of you for what you are doing. 515 00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:45,400 A lot of women would be too afraid to go into the unknown. 516 00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:48,440 Even if, really, they would love the opportunity. 517 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:51,320 Well, you have the opportunity. 518 00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:52,720 Love from Mum." 519 00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:59,560 And I just wanted to die inside. 520 00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:01,520 I just felt... 521 00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:07,400 I felt stupid right then. 522 00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:09,560 Just at that point. 523 00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:12,480 This isn't how it was supposed to be. 524 00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:13,960 You know? 525 00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:20,080 ['00s Nokia ringtone plays] 526 00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:26,200 It was like if I went home, that's it. 527 00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:28,440 You're closing the door, it's finished. 528 00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:30,000 [ringtone continues] 529 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:33,800 So I stayed here for about, I think another four months. 530 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:36,120 I needed my independence 531 00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:39,080 and to show my dad that I can live my own life. 532 00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:43,920 And me and Daniel, we went on some amazing nights out. 533 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:45,720 ♪ Sexy ♪ 534 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:49,760 {\an8}♪ Everything about you is so sexy ♪ 535 00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:53,120 [Jane] One of the songs that we used to like dancing to was 536 00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:55,680 Liberty X "Just a Little". 537 00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:57,080 And I knew all the steps 538 00:30:57,160 --> 00:30:59,360 and the dance routine and everything, you know. 539 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:00,440 ♪ Oh, yeah ♪ 540 00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:04,320 [Jane] But I got recognised from the London Tonight news. 541 00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:07,880 People just came over, "Oh, my God, it's them!" 542 00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:11,960 You know, and they were just like coming running at us in, you know, in bars 543 00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:15,160 and offering to buy us drinks and everything. 544 00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:21,720 Never knew what it felt like to be sort of mini-famous, 545 00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:23,200 but we were. 546 00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:25,440 ♪ Hot just a little ♪ 547 00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:29,800 "Were you on TV?" And I'd go, "I was on TV, yes." 548 00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:32,920 Yeah. "What you doin' here?" You know. 549 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:35,960 "What's happening now?" 550 00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:37,520 I'd say, "Oh, nothing at the moment." 551 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:43,680 [laughter] 552 00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:45,440 -John. -Lucie. 553 00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:46,680 -Hello. -Hello. 554 00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:49,040 Amazing to meet you! [laughter] 555 00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:50,080 [Lucie] Again. 556 00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:53,320 -[Lucie] How are you? -[John] I am... 557 00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:55,560 Older, probably not much wiser. 558 00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:56,680 [Jane] Hi, John! 559 00:31:56,760 --> 00:31:57,600 [laughter] 560 00:31:57,680 --> 00:31:59,280 -Hey, Jane. -Hiya. 561 00:31:59,360 --> 00:32:00,520 [John] How are you? 562 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:01,720 And Rosy. 563 00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:03,600 John, come on! 564 00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:06,520 Oh, wow. Wow. Hey. 565 00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:10,280 Oh, my gosh! It's Daniel! 566 00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:12,160 Hello! 567 00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:17,720 What you all doing in my flat then, eh? Come on. 568 00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:20,360 [squeals] 569 00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:24,120 [Tim] Welcome back, guys! 570 00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:28,880 Put the kettle on. 571 00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:30,560 [Tim] I will put the kettle on. 572 00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:32,720 You know where you're all sleeping, don't you? 573 00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:38,200 To be sitting here with you guys now, to me, seems really natural. 574 00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:39,120 [all] Yeah. 575 00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:41,880 [Jane] Do you remember Nik Russian being in here with us? 576 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:43,240 [Tim] Yeah, yeah. 577 00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:44,720 I would love to meet him. 578 00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:48,560 I don't wanna meet him. I'm curious, yeah. No, not at all. 579 00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:51,000 I can't think I would actually... 580 00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:55,840 believe much that he told me now, if I met him. 581 00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:56,920 Okay. 582 00:32:57,480 --> 00:32:59,560 [interviewer] What did Nik Russian actually do wrong? 583 00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:02,680 He was, er, I think... 584 00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:06,760 I think the only thing he... Yeah, he didn't tell the truth. 585 00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:08,560 [Tim] It was his kind of psychological thing. 586 00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:11,240 He kind of played us, didn't tell the full story. 587 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:12,160 [Lucie] He didn't tell... Yeah. 588 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:15,680 [interviewer] What do you think you actually did wrong? 589 00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:27,560 So you're after a list of liabilities, is there a list of culpabilities? 590 00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:32,320 Maybe by withholding what the nature of the show was, 591 00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:37,120 I'd allowed them to fill it in with what they wanted it to be. 592 00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:42,800 Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, the advert was absolutely inappropriate. 593 00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:47,120 It was really just shorthand for, "This is the outcome." 594 00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:50,440 It wasn't meant to imply that there was a prize fund there. 595 00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:52,560 {\an8}Yeah, it was definitely a misjudgement. 596 00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:56,800 {\an8}[Lucie] There were some untruths 597 00:33:56,880 --> 00:33:59,760 that had a lot to do with me making my mind up 598 00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:02,040 whether to be involved with this or not. 599 00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:04,960 There were some... there were some lies in there, you know. 600 00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:06,080 What did he lie about? 601 00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:09,240 -That it was commissioned to Channel 4. -[Jane] That's right. 602 00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:10,400 Yep. 603 00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:13,440 I don't know where the idea of it 604 00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:16,600 having been past tense "commissioned" came from. 605 00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:22,000 I might have said to somebody that we were gonna talk to Channel 4. 606 00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:28,160 The idea was that this was going to be started and then sold. 607 00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:33,000 Why not tell us to begin with? 608 00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:34,320 -I agree. I agree with you. -Yeah. 609 00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:36,680 Perhaps because he knew that it was gonna fall apart. 610 00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:38,840 Because like that David Wilder, you know he dropped out. 611 00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:41,880 -[Rosy] Who's David Wilder? -[Tim] He was his director guy. 612 00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:46,040 He was part of what made me believe that it was for real. 613 00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:50,400 [David] When I left, I thought, "Oh, well, he'll just get someone else." 614 00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:52,120 {\an8}I think the contestants 615 00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:56,600 {\an8}were, in some cases, expecting something great to happen. 616 00:34:57,120 --> 00:34:59,920 So they must have been very disappointed. 617 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,200 God bless them, you know. 618 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,400 [interviewer] Did you consider not going ahead with the project 619 00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:06,640 when the director pulled out? 620 00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:08,080 Yeah, of course. 621 00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:14,760 I was getting messages in from... 622 00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:16,480 various people involved with it, 623 00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:19,640 saying "I've handed back the keys to my flat now, 624 00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:21,440 we're all ready to go, I've got my bags packed, 625 00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:22,560 I'm standing by the front door." 626 00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:23,760 This kind of thing. 627 00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:28,600 And I have a choice to make at this point, do I try to make it work without him? 628 00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:32,840 Or do I... put a stop to everything? 629 00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:36,080 I just remember having to make a choice. 630 00:35:40,200 --> 00:35:41,800 What he did, he took a chance. 631 00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:43,600 And we allowed him to take that chance. 632 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:45,640 I know we were young, 633 00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:47,520 but we were adults, 634 00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:50,880 and we... we... The decisions you make are on you. 635 00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:54,920 We were so fixated on achieving that one thing, 636 00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:55,920 whatever it was, 637 00:35:56,640 --> 00:35:59,280 that we were willing to forget about all the other tell-tale signs. 638 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,080 That's what we wanted, we went for it. 639 00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:02,920 -We must be honest with ourselves. -[Tim] No, I agree. 640 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:05,560 I recognise my culpability. 641 00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:09,120 -On reflection, I fooled myself there. -[Rosy] Yeah. 642 00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:11,320 [Tim] Because that's what I wanted to believe. 643 00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:13,560 [Lucie] Yeah, but I hope that... 644 00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:17,080 Yeah, I hope that, you know, he learned from it as well. 645 00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:20,520 You know, you don't get a group of people and... 646 00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:25,160 dupe them into giving up their careers and relationships. 647 00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:28,360 That's quite a serious thing to do. 648 00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:31,200 [Rosy] I've always wondered... 649 00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:34,000 how he's doing as well, 650 00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:36,360 because, you know, 651 00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:38,960 the subsequent vilification of him, 652 00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:42,320 you know, in the media afterwards, must have had some effect. 653 00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:45,560 [interviewer] Can you tell me a little bit about 654 00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:50,640 how the months following the launch of the project played out for you? 655 00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:56,880 [Nik] As a result of what happened, my life was completely transformed. 656 00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:02,040 I was on the street for some weeks, and homeless. 657 00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:08,320 There were lots of unfavourable articles about me. 658 00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:13,360 I was being recognised everywhere. 659 00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:16,640 I would be routinely sitting on a bus 660 00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:19,200 and there would be people two seats behind discussing loudly 661 00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:23,880 how I'd done this or done that, the most outrageous fictions. 662 00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:28,520 There's a movie where as the, em, 663 00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:31,160 as the dream that somebody's in starts to break down 664 00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:34,200 all the people in the streetscape around them begin to look at them. 665 00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:36,640 It didn't feel too different from that, really. 666 00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:42,080 That's extremely unnerving. 667 00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:53,280 I found myself slipping more and more into drink. 668 00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:56,000 I was a, an alcoholic. 669 00:37:56,920 --> 00:38:01,000 So I was completely isolated and... 670 00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:03,800 I was in a terrible, terrible state, for a long time. 671 00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:06,520 Probably ten years. 672 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:16,640 Everything from my childhood was all flooding back, and I... 673 00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:18,920 I wanted my life to end. 674 00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:21,280 And... 675 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:26,640 But the most crushing thing was that I'd done wrong by these people, 676 00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:30,440 and that's... that's the thing that really just destroyed me, 677 00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:36,520 was the knowledge that I had done terrible harm to these people. 678 00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:43,040 [Jane] Believe it or not, I would thank him. 679 00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:48,160 Because he turned my life around and changed it for the better. 680 00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:51,640 If I hadn't had been in this flat with you guys, 681 00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:56,120 my life as it is now might never have happened. 682 00:39:00,920 --> 00:39:02,200 So when I went back to Manchester, 683 00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:05,440 I did feel deflated. 684 00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:08,080 So I just lived off 685 00:39:08,160 --> 00:39:09,840 spicy chicken wings. 686 00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:12,600 You know, they were like comforts for me. 687 00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:17,320 My dad had seen the London Tonight news, 688 00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:21,600 and he just said, "Oh, don't worry," and gave me a massive hug 689 00:39:21,640 --> 00:39:24,640 and said, "I love you so much, I'm so proud of you." 690 00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:29,200 And that was so nice to hear that from my dad. 691 00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:32,320 But then I had to think, "What am I going to do?" 692 00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:37,440 And so I joined an Extra Agency. 693 00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:42,120 I mean, I was nervous to begin with, like, 694 00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:46,160 again being around, like, on set and cameras and everything, 695 00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:48,800 but bit by bit the confidence grew. 696 00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:52,440 I did lots of different TV dramas. 697 00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:55,680 I met so many famous people. 698 00:39:56,800 --> 00:39:58,400 [interviewer] Sounds like you were living a dream. 699 00:39:58,480 --> 00:39:59,640 [Jane] Yeah, I was. 700 00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:01,520 Wow. [laughter] 701 00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:04,600 And that was in 2003, so that's a year later. 702 00:40:04,640 --> 00:40:10,000 So I do have... a lot to thank Nik Russian for, in a way. 703 00:40:11,800 --> 00:40:15,160 So, thank you, Nik. If you're out there listening. 704 00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:17,360 Changed my life. 705 00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:28,000 Well, that's remarkable, isn't it? 706 00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:30,080 Erm... 707 00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:34,560 No matter what he did, talent like that, 708 00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:36,680 he was very intelligent, very creative. 709 00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:40,280 He did a stupid thing, we allowed him to do a stupid thing. 710 00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:42,520 We were all culpable, we were all involved. 711 00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:43,800 Hey, I wish him all the best. 712 00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:45,640 I'd like to know what he's done with his life. 713 00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:46,920 I hope he's done something great. 714 00:40:47,920 --> 00:40:50,920 Yeah, I agree. I hope that he's tried again. 715 00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,400 I hope that it didn't completely dampen his spirit. 716 00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:57,440 I'm glad to hear them talking like that. 717 00:40:57,520 --> 00:40:59,880 It's a really amazing thing to see. 718 00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:01,800 I'm really glad to have seen it. 719 00:41:04,680 --> 00:41:08,200 I'd never meant to do anybody any harm, quite the opposite, 720 00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:10,880 I'd been trying to make something good happen. 721 00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:14,800 I can't change, of course, what happened. I can take... 722 00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:18,160 And I do take responsibility for everything I've done at every point. 723 00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:26,440 And maybe... maybe putting this stuff into the open, 724 00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:29,280 maybe that's... maybe that's good for someone. 725 00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:36,000 My life now is stable. 726 00:41:36,640 --> 00:41:38,120 I think maybe I'm stable. 727 00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:43,600 I've rather willingly changed my name to the name I have now. 728 00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:48,040 {\an8}And my name is N. Quentin Woolf, Nik Quentin Woolf. 729 00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:49,320 {\an8}Erm... 730 00:41:50,360 --> 00:41:53,880 {\an8}I wrote a book called The Death of the Poet. 731 00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:55,760 {\an8}And it was all about two characters 732 00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:58,840 {\an8}who are suffering from trauma. 733 00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:04,160 {\an8}All he really wanted to be was a writer, 734 00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:07,320 and he was good at that, and I think it's nice that that's kind of, 735 00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:09,000 you know, that's the world he's entered. 736 00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:12,320 The biggest loser in this was Nik. 737 00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:15,600 He's had to live his life on the down-low, right? 738 00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:19,440 And that's not what he wanted for himself, it's not what I wanted for him. 739 00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:20,840 Nobody wanted that for him. 740 00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:27,840 [interviewer] What you up to now? 741 00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:31,400 Well, I've had, erm, a few setbacks, erm... 742 00:42:32,640 --> 00:42:33,840 I lost my dad. 743 00:42:35,800 --> 00:42:36,880 And, erm... 744 00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:42,120 When he was unwell, 745 00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:44,800 I just had to be there for him. 746 00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:46,560 The whole time. 747 00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:54,760 So... I had to put my life on hold. 748 00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:56,560 And the acting on hold. 749 00:42:56,640 --> 00:43:01,520 Well, this is me. In a town called Bury. 750 00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:08,000 And I have so many happy memories of being here with my dad. 751 00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:14,600 The fact that my dad's gone, maybe it's like inner strength. 752 00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:18,360 It's made me even stronger. 753 00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:23,120 I'm still determined not to give up on my dream to be an actress. 754 00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:25,960 I'd like to inspire people 755 00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:28,080 to, like, have fun as well. 756 00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:30,600 [laughter] 757 00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:33,160 And to be a little bit crazy. 758 00:43:36,600 --> 00:43:37,440 Yeah. 759 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:41,200 Now it's, erm, I was thinking earlier on. 760 00:43:42,280 --> 00:43:45,160 A little idea, that I could go if I can remember it. 761 00:43:45,240 --> 00:43:48,280 [guitar string tuning] 762 00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:54,000 ♪ Welcome to the greatest show never made ♪ 763 00:43:54,080 --> 00:43:56,280 ♪ It's up to you ♪ 764 00:43:56,360 --> 00:43:58,960 ♪ To make it happen ♪ 765 00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:05,240 ♪ Welcome to the greatest show never made ♪ 766 00:44:05,320 --> 00:44:06,640 ♪ It's up to you ♪ 767 00:44:07,280 --> 00:44:10,200 ♪ To fake it 'till you make it ♪ 768 00:44:11,240 --> 00:44:13,360 I sort of thought I was gonna to be a teacher. 769 00:44:13,960 --> 00:44:15,320 But now I'm a... 770 00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:17,920 I'm a sell-out in the city. 771 00:44:19,240 --> 00:44:22,480 I became a Management Consultant. 772 00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:24,040 [interviewer] Are you happy? 773 00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:26,040 Yeah, I am happy. 774 00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:27,640 Yeah. 775 00:44:29,400 --> 00:44:31,280 [song continues] 776 00:44:32,560 --> 00:44:34,160 [Daniel] I work in finance. 777 00:44:34,240 --> 00:44:39,320 And I'm very... comfortable with my lifestyle. 778 00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:41,720 I'm very... I don't know if I can say happy, 779 00:44:41,800 --> 00:44:43,280 I don't know if adults can really be happy. 780 00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:45,240 I'm very content. I'm very content. 781 00:44:48,120 --> 00:44:49,960 I want my daughter to have weird experiences 782 00:44:50,040 --> 00:44:52,040 and to learn from them and to have fun, 783 00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:53,480 and to look back when she's an old woman 784 00:44:53,560 --> 00:44:55,640 and think, "I've lived life to the fullest," 785 00:44:55,720 --> 00:44:57,960 and laugh at some of the mistakes that she's made. 786 00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:03,280 After 11 years of working in the corporate world, 787 00:45:03,360 --> 00:45:06,080 again, I was itching for another adventure. 788 00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:09,520 And so I decided to pack my bags, 789 00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:12,480 and my partner and I, we have this farm in Spain, 790 00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:16,560 producing really good quality olive oil. 791 00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:21,560 Yeah, so another adventure, and now we've added 500 bees! 792 00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:24,360 So we'll do honey as well. [laughter] 793 00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:25,560 Who knows what next? 794 00:45:27,280 --> 00:45:29,840 [interviewer] What happened to your dream of being a presenter? 795 00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:35,080 I did do a little bit of presenting after this. 796 00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:36,680 Erm... 797 00:45:37,960 --> 00:45:39,600 You know what? I think... 798 00:45:40,240 --> 00:45:42,960 Bigger dreams overtook it. 799 00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:46,680 And became more important. 800 00:45:47,880 --> 00:45:49,560 -Boo! -[laughter] 801 00:45:49,880 --> 00:45:52,240 I'm a mum, and it feels... 802 00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:56,680 You know, I'm feeling emotional by saying that! 803 00:45:56,760 --> 00:46:00,080 Because that's what I really wanted. 804 00:46:03,240 --> 00:46:06,480 We're allowed to have dreams and we can have as many as we want. 805 00:46:06,560 --> 00:46:07,880 Right? 806 00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:09,320 [laughter] 807 00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:13,800 I'm married to a wonderful human being. 808 00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:17,680 I've got two excellent children 809 00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:20,640 who are gonna go on to be amazing 810 00:46:20,720 --> 00:46:23,120 in their special unique ways. 811 00:46:24,280 --> 00:46:29,600 And it's an authentic, well-built, real life. 812 00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:41,320 [Tim] This experience made me change who I was. 813 00:46:41,920 --> 00:46:43,480 And for the better. 814 00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:50,520 I was able to leave those thoughts of fame behind 815 00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:52,520 and just be happy with what I've got. 816 00:46:52,600 --> 00:46:55,800 I've got my home and I've got my wife and I've got my child 817 00:46:55,880 --> 00:46:58,240 and I've got all those things that I ever wanted. 818 00:46:58,960 --> 00:47:01,840 Apart from the fame and the worldwide success. 819 00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:03,800 But, you know, that's coming. 820 00:47:03,880 --> 00:47:09,480 ♪ Welcome to the greatest show never made ♪ 821 00:47:09,560 --> 00:47:14,920 ♪ It's up to you to make it happen ♪ 822 00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:19,800 It is quite possible that Nik could be involved in this show 823 00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:23,600 in some capacity, at a very senior level, pulling the strings. 824 00:47:23,680 --> 00:47:25,560 I would not be surprised if... 825 00:47:25,640 --> 00:47:27,960 -I never thought of that. -I see what you mean. 826 00:47:28,040 --> 00:47:28,880 Yep. 827 00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:30,280 [gasps] 828 00:47:32,240 --> 00:47:34,880 This could be a Nik Russian Production. 829 00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:37,080 -[Lucie] That's brilliant. -[Daniel] He got me twice, Jesus! 830 00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:39,800 [laughter] 831 00:47:41,480 --> 00:47:44,240 ♪ Maybe we'll surprise you all ♪ 832 00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:49,760 ♪ And make that show after all ♪ 833 00:47:51,840 --> 00:47:54,000 -[applause] -[David] You're too kind. 834 00:47:54,960 --> 00:47:56,480 You're too kind. 835 00:47:58,600 --> 00:47:59,840 You're too kind.