Whether you love it or hate it, reality TV show is a booming industry. Let's be real there are some outright atrocious things that have been reported from some of these sets, cases where people have died, experienced severe trauma or endured long-term psychological distress. The stories are endless, you just have to look.

Survival style reality shows are a dime a dozen, hell we have Survivor which is now on its 48th season, despite only running for 25 years as of May 31st this year. Survivor drops some forty contestants on some scenic beaches and splits them into two groups and each week they can compete for resources and rewards. The experience usually runs about 40 days, while all throughout cast members are voted out until you're down to the final 2-3 remaining contestants, at which point all your past cast mates must vote for who's worthy of the grand prize.

You have shows like Naked and Afraid where two people are dropped off in different parts of the same wilderness, naked with only one item of their choice. The goal being to meet up with the other person and survive in this wilderness for 21 days with not even the shirt on your back

Over the years there has been numerous reports from inside sources that these shows aren't as intense as they seem, reality is you almost always have a production crew with you, so you're never truly alone. Often it's reported that five feet out of frame is civilization, whole production camps and that it's not uncommon for contestants to bribe crew members for favors and like any reality show it is shot and edited for maximum drama

But what Eden proposed was different. They presented a hands-off experience, no meddling producers, just the cast members and the wilderness

This was no simple task, while filming would start until Mar 2016, Eden was years in the making. And in the earliest days, it wasn't even called Eden, but instead "Year Zero" . To perform such an experiment you needed land that was isolated from people and technology, that's all but untouched and that was one of the first things production sought out and they decided to do this in the Scottish highlands

"In the fall of 2014, a pair of location scouts turned up at the office of William Kelly, the manager of the Ardnamurchan Estate, which covers much of the peninsula, and asked about shooting a TV show there. "The estate is mainly horizontal and vertical bog," Kelly told me. "We said, 'Yeah, fill your boots.' " The site that Keo and Channel 4 settled on was a six-hundred-acre headland on Ardnamurchan's northeastern side. What Eden lacked in extreme remoteness—in places there were houses only a few hundred yards away—it made up for in telegenics: spectacular dunes, ominous forest, and a broad, sandy beach. It had wood for fuel and shelter, mackerel in the spring, and deer in the fall.

Donald Houston, the landowner and Kelly's boss, wasn't much fussed either way [..] Houston noted that archeologists believed that, in the Bronze Age, the bay near Eden had sustained a community of around a thousand people. "O.K., life expectancy was maybe thirty-five in those days," he said. He rented out the woods for one pound." - Aug 28 2017 Sam Knight, The New Yorker

For the next year, Kelly and the other estate workers accompanied TV executives who came up from London to work out the logistics of the show. Dunkley, from Channel 4, lost a boot in the mud. "It is my idea of hell," he said. "I need central heating." Veterans from other reality shoots were struck by the extreme conditions. "We sat round the table going, This could either be great, or it is going to be 'Lord of the Flies,' " Mick Bass, who oversaw the installation of the camera rig, told me. - Aug 28 2017 Sam Knigh, The New Yorker

Preparing the Land

It took a bit for me to hunt down the exact location the show took place, production having worked hard to keep it obscured to prevent disturbances, but for the locals it was an open secret. The specific spot is called Cul na Croise a place you won't find labeled on google maps, but I was lucky enough to eventually find a production map. Looking at pictures you can immediately see why the location was selected

The first challenge was how they would keep Eden isolated from the world, two sides faced out to the ocean, but the other two were open to the rest of civilization, so 6ft fences were built all along here

In its current state the land wasn't much suited for farming and production planned for that to be one of the ways for the cast to get food

The ground at the "Eden" site was too poor to grow crops, so a helicopter flew in a hundred tons of topsoil. "Farmers around here would give their left testicle for ground like that," Houston said. But they weren't fool enough to camp out in the rain for a year. "We thought they were fully mental," Kelly said. "We couldn't believe anyone would be fucking stupid enough to volunteer." Aug 28 2017 Sam Knight

Production Camp

All reality shows require some form of production village, a place where the crew meets, stores their equipment, goes over footage and keeps an eye on their cast. The production for Eden would be set up just outside of the south eastern most corner of the plot.

"It was commendably ambitious – a logistical and technical effort as vast as the landscape. A quarry was dug out to build a production village – all the portacabins and equipment were helicoptered in – and the national grid extended a mile into the woodland" - Telegraph

The production village for the show was considerably smaller than most production villages you would see on a reality set, consisting of only a handful of seacan style "homes" for the staff. Production didn't need a huge staff only a good handful nearby in case of emergencies and to watch things as they progressed. But for a production camp to go through footage, they need footage

Keo was determined to make Eden be as authentic as possible and insisting on a hands off approach, wanting the cast to feel like it was really just them in this plot of land without producers whispering in their ears and nudging them in certain directions, so they came up with 3 ways to capture that footage

• 40-45 stationary cameras set up about the plot to monitor everything 24/7, providing a live feed to the production camp
• Four camera persons that would be a part of and live in the community alongside the cast.
• And each cast member would have a GoPro that they could use to film whatever they want and would take the place of standard confessionals (a common reality tv staple, where cast members can go into a closet and talk directly to the camera to explain their thoughts and motivations)

Each cast member would also always be equipped with a mic to ensure every word was picked up

Mics and cameras require power, but the production was insistent that the cast couldn't have access to power, so the solution was to create a drop box on site where the cast could replace their mic and camera batteries and turn in their footage and audio. Production would then pick up from the drop-box when cast was not around to try and be as minimally intrusive as possible

Mick Bass, Commercial Director, NEP UK Broadcast Services, said, "It's on the outer edge of what is feasible in terms of technology. We have worked very closely with KEO Films and Channel 4 throughout; they are trusting us with an incredibly complex project, and we have worked hard to ensure the rig is as robust and reliable as it can be, with a network of back-ups and redundancy in place. It's been a fantastic project to work on and it will be fascinating to see the project unfold over the year."

Starting Supplies

Unlike Survivor, the cast wouldn't be starting with nothing, show runner Liz Foley stressed that they wanted to give them the best chance at success, comparing this more to an expedition than a cast away situation. If you're planning to start a new society, you take some things with you

One of the most important things to survival is food

• They were given enough food to help them get by for 100 days as they got setup, things like barley and potatoes.
• They were given seeds and seedlings and a plot of land to farm on, but it would be months before they could eat anything they grew.
• They were given livestock, chicken, sheep, goats, pigs most of which would be too young to eat when they arrived or pregnant, so they would have to care for them and carefully decide when to slaughter them.
• They were supplied with feed for the animals
• They had direct access to a sandy beach where they could hunt razor clams and ocean where they could fish and equipment was provided to do so
• There were deer on the land they could hunt

Next is shelter

• They were given some basic tools, pots and pans, hammers, hatchets and saws.
• Tarps and bales of hay, utensils and dishes.
• There was a small hayshed and tool shed

The cast would also be given a 66 litre backpack they were welcome pack to the brim with whatever they chose

While the group is told they must stay in Eden or else they'll be kicked from the show, exceptions are made for medical emergencies and the cast is free to leave the show at any time of their own choice, they just wouldn't be allowed to return if they did, that was the agreement they all signed

Recruitment

So let's talk about the cast, because who would be crazy enough to walk away from everything they know, their friends, families, jobs, homes, creature comforts like ready access to a wide variety of food, hot showers, soft beds, indoor heating and AC? And not to even be going to some tropical island, but to the Scotland highlands which is certainly not known for its weather.

An important aspect of understanding why some people would make this choice is to look at the conditions of the world, particularly in the UK at the time

"Eden's timing was propitious. In the spring and summer of 2016, Britain was tense and introspective, contemplating the referendum on whether to leave the European Union. Channel 4's posters trolled the nation's lived experience. On the morning of the Brexit vote, "Eden" ads filled the newspapers: "No politics. No propaganda. No more not knowing."
Aug 28 2017 Sam Knight - The New Yorker

The cast were all interviewed early on and these profiles were released online in anticipation of the show. Many of the questions answered gives insight into what it was that made them make this decision

For Matt one of the camera men he says "One of the things I hate about society at the moment is walking into restaurants and seeing families eating meals and just staring at their phones or social media. People are losing the art of communication" 

and many mirrored the same concerns about technology, Tara the life coach says "There's a lot of animosity and marginalization and division, where you'd think with all the experience and knowledge we could share, we'd be coming closer together. There's something that's causing all of that, and a big part is the overwhelming effect of technology on relationships." 

Raphael: I believe now we're all rushing through life too fast – we don't stop and appreciate life. My wish is that all the satellites fall from the sky, all the oil reserves dry up, all the electricity pylons fall down, everything's kaput and everyone has to go back to working with their hands and by the sweat of their brow. That's what I'd like to do. […] The life we live now, it's too quick and it really bothers me. I find myself getting caught up in it. My wife would suggest doing something and I'd say, "I can't, I'm working."

Like many reality shows, Eden advertised all over across the internet but unlike most shows, also in niche hobby sites and magazines anything to get it in front of the eyes of someone that would be like "Sure I am down for that"

It's said that around 2,000 people applied.

But not all of the cast applied, some were sought out specifically for their skills

• "We put them together based on skill," Liz Foley, the series' editor, told me. Some abilities were harder to source than others. Robert Pattinson, a veterinarian, was signed up six days before shooting began. - Aug 28 2017 Sam Knight - The New Yorker

Raphael, the carpenter says that when he first got the call, he thought it was a prank

• Raphael: "I actually took part in the show not because I wanted to be on TV, but because I was, up to that point, an 'armchair enthusiast' always shouting at the TV, 'Oh I could do that!'" he laughs.

Stephen, the chef was approached by a casting agent that had met him in a bar. He was very reluctant, but assurances were made and it was pitched as "documentary in a reality setting" which was enough to intrigue him to sign up, in hopes that maybe he could get a gig as a tv chef afterwards

Lloyd the fisherman was a fishing coach for Angling Trust where he worked with young people with challenging needs. The call surprised him and he gave it serious consideration

• I looked at my work and life and I'm in the fortunate position where last year I couldn't have done it, next year I probably couldn't have done it, but this year I have people who can look after my business for me so I can take this on. - Telegraph

The ages of the cast would end up ranging from 24-55 with only 3 people passing the 40 mark

Eden

When Channel 4 announced to the world their project they spoke of a 16 episode epic that would cover a year in the lives of these 23 cast members. The episodes would be released in four bursts at 4 episodes apiece as the cast mates were still in Eden. The first episode aired Jul 18 2016, a little under 4 months after the cast members had arrived at Eden.

These first four episodes covered the group's arrival on March 23rd up until roughly May 24th. The idea being that the crew would collect another 3 months of footage before releasing the next batch of episodes.

Channel 4 heavily marketed the show in the UK, huge banners could be found across London and ads were aplenty, building up hype. They released profiles on each of the cast mates and explained their roles in the group. The show was very much framed as a reality-documentary, touting the fact that there would be no interference by producers, no contest or prize money, the entire goal was for 23 people to see if they could build a community and thrive together for a year

Season 1

• On the morning of March 23rd, all the participants went through one of Eden's gates, wearing microphones, GoPro cameras, and G.P.S. Man Down packs, to monitor their heart rates and trace them if they got lost. [Glenn] taped twelve bottles of whiskey to the outside of his pack; [Rob J] forgot to bring waterproof boots. "I fell into the bogs real heavy," he told me. He was relieved when he saw the group's small flock of goats, chickens, pigs, and sheep. "I was, like, Thank God," he said. "I expected to be eating bark." It rained heavily the first night, and the men and women of "Eden," who barely knew one another's names, slept huddled under tarps - Aug 28 2017 Sam Knight- The New Yorker
• Eden is certainly no paradise. As soon as I walk through the gate with series producer Liz Foley, I sink knee-deep in the bog that's laughably called "a path". The setting is both very beautiful and deeply forbidding – thick woodland, soaring sand dunes, clouds of midges. And it'll get worse: the participants arrived in spring to allow them time to build shelters and store food for the region's brutal winter. - Tue 12 Jul 2016 Gabriel Tate - The Guardian

The cast arrives to base camp, a section right off the beach where all their requested supplies await them and the group gets to work right away. Creating a shelter using haybales and tarps for the group to stay in while they figure out a more permanent solution

For many it really didn't feel real until that moment, and they quickly realized that there would be a lot more to this than they had expected. While some did have extensive experience with off the grid living and camping, some were fresh from the city and hadn't ever spent a night in a tent

Raphael: A city boy who had never been camping. The nearest I had ever been to camping was a 3-star hotel in a foreign country or a bush walk with friends on the Caribbean Island of Montserrat. No. I didn't have a true idea of what I had let myself in for.

On opening the gate to enter Eden I turn and take a good look. My honest first thought at seeing all that wood, mud, fallen trees? "OH JEEEZOS WTF"

It took me about an hour and a half to find the main camp. I was dripping with sweat, covered in mud and tired from carrying the ruck sack, but I had made it into camp. The first person I saw turned out to be Oli the camera man. This was the beginning of a new way of life for me. As yet I still don't know how important some of the stuff I had left behind would turn out to be.  | 21 August 2017- AntonWright.com

Katie: we quickly realised how much we take for granted, especially the modern time-saving gadgets that we barely gave a second thought to before. Gadgets such as lighters, washing machines, gas hobs, kettles save an incredible amount of time.

Take something as simple as making a cup of tea. It starts with collecting firewood, chopping logs and lighting a fire. Then you have to fetch fresh water to fill the kettle. If you don't like black tea, you'll have had to visit the goats in the morning for fresh milk. A freshly-lit fire takes a long time heat water; it could easily take over an hour to do something that takes just a couple of minutes in an electric kettle. We're so rushed in modern society, it was refreshing to be forced to slow down.- Countryfile.com

Raphael: Chef Steve went straight into action producing for us a beautiful first meal. However, it is the first time in my life I have eaten sand in my dinner. This was not the fault of the chef. Sand was everywhere, and from this day forth, in every meal, but being hungry you ate it anyway.

Cutlery. This is one of the first things I wish I had brought of my own. Yes, I am very fussy about what I eat from. I like my things spotless. I don't want yesterday's dinner in today's meal thank you. Because of this, it does not take long for me to be labelled G.O.B. Katie, or as I like to call her 'Fluffy' stopped me one day and said, "You Grumpy Ole Bastard" but at least it was said with endearment. […]

The things I left behind now becoming apparent. Not enough waterproofs for a start. The constant rain, the heavy water-logged jacket and the personal microphone thrown over my shoulder was making building bloody horrid not to mention the lack of physical help. Raf, you said not to mention that! - 1 September 2017 AntonWright.com

The group had their temporary shelter on the beach which they had reinforced with some timber, expanding on it and making it a little more cozy. They found discarded crab and fishing nets and used them as makeshift dressers. Their next building project was a teepee which would become their meeting place for their Monday meetings where they would together and discuss plans for the week and address any concerns

In the honeymoon phase folks seemed excited to work together and have fun. They would throw themed parties to celebrate each other's birthdays and would make costumes out of whatever they had brought and whatever they could throw together

Rachel the group's gardener wants to get the seeds and plants in the ground ASAP but finds the garden site waterlogged from weeks of Scottish rain, and days are spent digging drainage ditches to dry the soil putting off planting, though the group assembles a green house pretty quickly.

Rachel about what she thinks the challenge will be: It'll be very tricky. There are a lot of external factors, so you could be the best gardener in the world and still not get a good crop. The weather can be incredibly unpredictable – I can't look up BBC Weather, I'll just have to look out of my tent or whatever. And annoying pests can destroy a whole vegetable crop overnight. So I'm nervous about all those factors that could restrict what we can grow and achieve.- Telegraph

Pens are built for the chickens and pigs, the group quickly finding that the pigs will destroy anything and everything given the chance and were escape artists so had to be watched carefully

But tensions begin to rise as no one seems be in any rush make long term plans or even any decisions and one of the first person to raise concerns was Anton. Anton is a 41 year old rowing coach who lived out of a boat in his regular life, but more importantly, probably more than anyone else, Anton had researched the crap out of the area of before he had arrived

He knew that while the weather had been relatively mild the first couple days, 70 mp/h winds were a risk and with them ice cold rain. He tried to encourage the group to consider a winter set up on the hill in the forest where it would be better protected from the weather, but no one seemed willing to commit to anything and after a couple days of this, Anton decides to go up to the spot he had in mind and begin to work on it by himself

His choice to go into the woods and focus on the winter cabin was influenced by his desire for comfort and sturdy fortifications but also by his desire for space. He found that sleeping in one giant "tent" with 20 other people was too much, but he was also having a tough time connecting with many of the cast mates who were nearly all 10 years his junior

Anton works on his 8 person cabin by himself from the wilderness around him, but things like tarps are hard to replicate, so he ends up taking off cuts from the tarps the group had used to build their shelter

Anton spends most his spare time working on the winter cabin, which annoys other members, feeling like he's splitting the group and not helping out with more urgent tasks

A few weeks in a freak snow storm dumps some +8". The snow all but melts overnight but even that wasn't enough to make others in the group think of more long term strategies

Food quickly becomes a concern for the group. Lloyd the group's fisherman has had almost no luck fishing for the first 2 months, and with the plants not ready to produce and the animals not fit for slaughter the group sees hard times ahead. Jack who is ex military makes the call to ration the 100 days of food instead for the entire 12 months leading to a big decrease in daily nutrition.

• A few of the cast members with specific tasks soon got a sense of how hard life in Eden was going to be. The group's gardener, Rachel Butterworth, lost weeks of the planting season preparing the soil and transporting a heap of compost half a mile across the headland. Pattinson, the vet, had nowhere to gather the sheep. After surveying the dense forest, Moores, the deer hunter, realized that there would be nothing to shoot until July: "I just looked around and thought, How the hell am I going to do this?" The group decided to eke out their initial rations over the entire twelve months and entrusted them to the Army captain. "People kind of panicked," Pattinson recalled. - Aug 28 2017 Sam Knight - The New Yorker

The group really only had barley and potatoes for every meal in the early days and they were quickly running low on sugar, causing many to go into sugar withdrawal which leads to intense cravings sometimes even fatigue and headaches, but that could also just be the malnutrition the group was now suffering from. All of them drop considerable weight and even the strongest of the group struggles to get much labor done in a given day based on their energy levels.

The group is having a hard time finding direction with no one standing up to lead things, arguments over where the winter shelter should be are among many of a handful of topics that is raising tensions. This leads to resentment among some feeling like others aren't carrying their weight.

In particular a group of 4-5 men choose to focus this frustration and blame on the 10 women in the group. Much later in the show they will eventually call themselves the valley boys and to make things easier I am going to call them that now the group consists of

Jack, the ex military man, Titch the plumber and general handy man, Glenn the hunter, Rob J who is the engineer student and Stephen the chef would eventually become part of this group though early on he is much less involved

The boys have waxing and waning bouts of misogyny, but this seems to get cranked up when Glenn the hunter, who has been crushing on Caroline the shepardess for some time finds out that Caroline doesn't see him that way. He becomes quite angry and mopey and joins the boys in taking out his frustrations, they begin to plot to reduce the women's rations to starve them out, hoping to make them leave so there's less mouths to feed

• Hunger stalked the first months in Eden. There were moments when it seemed as though the experiment was working: there was a rota system for jobs around the camp, and a few weeks when the mackerel came in. But, surviving on meagre bowls of potatoes or barley, the participants soon fractured between those who felt that they were carrying the community and those who felt dominated as a result. A crude hierarchy formed, based mainly on physical strength. "You could see that some people were yearning to take control of things," Jackson said. Group meetings did not go well. Hall, who had written a short book about communal living, asked each member of Eden to write down a vision for the community. No one bothered. "I kept hearing the word 'mindful' quite a lot," Titch, the plumber, told me. "A lot of hippie-dippie stuff." - Aug 28 2017 Sam Knight - The New Yorker

Most dramatically, Katie has also spoken out about what she claims was a plot by the boys to oust the women in something they described as 'Operation C***'.

• Today, Glenn rather shamefacedly admits to suggesting the plot but says it was taken out of context. 'The wood team – girls and boys – hadn't chopped enough wood for the kitchen and had gone to the beach,' he insists. 'I came into a conversation about how lazy they were. Someone said we should starve them out and I said it was time for Operation C***. It was a throwaway comment and never even a thing and not just about girls.'- Daily Mail

Caroline: "Some of the boys mentioned starving out certain people. We all knew who they meant by that: the people who maybe didn't do as much work, who happened to all be girls.

"The boys said, 'We are going to ration the food because this is a survival thing and we want a challenge and if people don't want a challenge they can leave.' It wasn't that the men were giving the women any less [than anyone else], but they did want the rations to be cut right back so the weak people were weeded out.

"It worked. Three people who went at the same time left because a) they felt hungry and b) they felt they were hungry because somebody had implemented that on them and they had no control over their own destiny and their own food.  - July 27 2017 Damian Whitworth - The Times

To help ease some tensions Stephen the chef decides the group needs a good get together. He had spent the last month taking potato peels, and chicken feet stock and flavoring it with pine needles and nettles and managed to make some form of muddy gray liquor. It's far from palatable but a night of drinking brings some levity to the group and around the same time it becomes apparent that two romantic relationships have formed. One between Stephen the Chef and Jasmine the yoga trainer, and another between Katie the artist and Rob P the vet.

It was pouring with rain, we were huddled in the stinky straw of the pen, soaked through, and Rob was showing me how to bottle feed a kid goat. Poor little Monty was the runt of triplets, a tiny tangle of knobbly knees and white fluff, he was so hopeless he couldn't even suckle. I watched Rob pick him up with these massive strong, rough-looking hands and nurse this funny little creature so softly and so lovingly… well, that was it for me. Hooked.

I mean, there's a reason why you get calendars that feature hefty firemen cradling cute puppies. Incredible strength showing pure gentleness. As I said… Hook. Line. Sinker.

And it would seem that Rob the vet also returned these affections

If a man can still love you when you smell like wet sheep, have a smear of pig poo on your cheek and snot everywhere because it's too cold to feel it running down your face -well my friends, I think that's a keeper!  - Katie - The New Girl Skye

The entire camp is looking pretty gaunt by this point having lost considerable weight and those with greater muscle masses suffer as their body turns on itself to get the sustenance it needs. The valley boys are still frustrated about women not pulling their weight begin to pull rations back even further and hold back sugar from the women for themselves.

As spring wanes on they enter lambing season, and the pregnant sheep end up giving birth to 9 lambs which is a cause of joy, though one of the pregnant ewes was found to have got caught in the bog and was unable to get out so she drowned. The vet finds her, he's crushed but knows not to waste the meat, he dissects her to ensure that the meat is safe to eat and brings the carcass to camp where the group is thankful for a more substantive meal

The valley boys begin to target one person in particular: Tara, who is a life coach. Tara has been struggling to find her niche in the camp labor and the men keep yelling at her for being lazy and not doing enough work. One of the men asks what kind of work she wants to do and she offers to be the group's masseuse and a little massage parlor for her. This is met with really mixed feelings. The group encourages each other just to give it a try and see how it goes. Some really appreciate the service, while others have zero interest and Tara becomes an easy target for everyone's frustrations not just the boys

On May 24, exactly 3 months after she arrived, Tara is the first to leave Eden. She gives a goodbye speech before walking off through the gates leaving forever. The group erects a gravemarker with some wood, carving her name and departure date into it and placing it near camp, this would become a ritual for every departure going forward

The show doesn't say this but subsequent interviews with Tara explain that she was suffering with a disability and constant pain

• But she points out that a fractured spine from a serious fall a decade ago meant she suffered bouts of crippling pain that left her incapable of many heavy lifting tasks. - 13 August 2016 - Daily Mail

Tara also wonders how much of the animosity she faced was because she was the only foreigner in the group, being Canadian where everyone else was from the UK. Knowing what happened now, she's glad she left when she did.

By the time the last episode airs the group has come together again somewhat, finally settling on a spot for the communal winter building and dedicating one day a week where everyone works on this. Those more skilled refocus their efforts to teach those less skilled and on the first community day the group fell 20 trees in 2 hours, acquiring enough lumber to start on the frame of the building

A Year Long Break

And that's where the first batch of 4 episodes ends on Aug 8 2016. According to Channel 4's original plan the show could be expected to return in another 3 months sometime later September early October. But when no announcement or marketing comes and the social media remains dark, people begin to wonder what happened and if the show was canceled. And if it's canceled what happened to the cast members?

• Stories spread about the production. The British press reported that "Eden" was secretly in chaos: that the location was rife with midge swarms and unexploded bombs and that the cast had broken out, and had been seen roaming the countryside. - Aug 28 2017 Sam Knight- The New Yorker

Channel 4 would deny the show was cancelled but would also would not comment on when or if the show was coming back. It would be a full year after the last episode aired that the show would come back and it would come back with a different name. Not just Eden anymore, but Eden: Paradise Lost.

Paradise Lost would consist of 5 hour long episodes and would air over the period of a week, and was supposed to show the conclusion of the experiment and the unaired 9 months of footage. Now remember originally the show was going to be 16 one hour long episodes, but with this change the final episode count would be 9 hour long episodes, to cover an entire year. That's not even an hour per month

The question was why? Why had they stopped airing? Why the cut in episodes? Why was it coming out now when the experiment would've ended in Mar 2017, 5 months prior?

The showrunners have given many reasons over the years. Most entertainment news sites will say it was because the show didn't get nearly enough viewers. While the first episode year 1.7 million people and was deemed a moderate success, by the 4th episode the viewer count was down to 800 thousand.

The cast would later speculate that the production became overwhelmed with footage and couldn't keep up with the release schedule

The two most common stories from the showrunners are:

• Ian Dunkley, the Channel 4 commissioning editor […] "It became so different to what we imagined, We wanted to focus on the strongest stories and characters, and we could only be sure of that once the year had played out. I don't think anyone expected it to go as feral and dark as it did." - Telegraph
• Kelly Webb-Lamb, the head of factual entertainment at Channel 4, told the New Yorker that it took so long to return to screens because they wanted to give participants a chance to explain their behaviour [..] "When we started to see some of the darker, more uncomfortable things, it felt like the right thing to do to let them come out and be able to reflect and talk about that," said Webb-Lamb. - Telegraph

Paradise Lost

On Aug 7 2017 the first of the five episodes would air and we would return to Eden. Interspersed among the footage is new footage filmed shortly before airing, about 5 months after they left that includes interviews with some of the cast. These little snippets add a little more context to the events, but it's clear not everyone participated

The plot picks up where we left it in Jun 2016

• Sometime between the last episode and this new season someone else had left the group, Ben one of the camera men
• The cast is still by and large starving, which has driven some cast mates to steal food, Anton the rowing trainer and the one off building the winter cabin gets caught stealing some dried apricots and it turns into a whole thing not helped by his already lukewarm presence within the camp

Anton's Ostracization

• With Tara out of the picture it would seem the Valley Boys need to find a new target for their wrath, and Anton becomes an easy one. As Anton never fully integrated with the group and he spends most his time away he's very easy to mark as the "other" and put blame for things on him. For example
• The men haven't had luck catching any fish and they complain that Anton has not once gone out on the boat to fish, somehow correlating being the boatman with being the fisherman, but they have a fisherman who was going out to fish and also wasn't having luck
• Anton instead found a bigger, battered boat on the shore and goes to work repairing this, but the valley boys all frame this as Anton refusing to do anything for the group
• Finally the group is able to catch some fish which adds much needed protein and variety to the menu
• Then one day Anton goes down to the beach to work on his boat and notices the fishing boat is missing, he searches the beach and starts finding pieces of it eventually finding the boat split in half, likely dashed up upon the rocks from the storms. Anton reports this to the group
• The valley boys spin it pointing out how awfully strange it is that Anton is just finishing up his boat when the fishing boat is destroyed and this leads others to view Anton more skeptically. They try to insinuate that Anton saw how happy the fish made everyone, so he destroyed the fishing boat so he could be the savior with his boat. This makes no sense especially when you consider that he too is starving

Glenn the failed hunter

• Up until this point Valley boy "nice guy" hunter Glenn has been saying soon as hunting season opens he'll get them some food and July 1st 2016 hunting season finally opens
• Glenn plans a hunting trip and asks for rations for the trip he's given some and asks if that's all and is told they just gave him half a week's worth of rations for the whole group.
• Glenn spends a couple days out in the wilderness trying to find deer and is forced to return home empty handed
• At which Glenn announces that he's leaving, that there are no deer to catch here. Another cast mate announces that he too will be leaving, that this wasn't what he thought it would be and he just really misses his girlfriend. The two men leave Eden
• The group had really been relying on Glenn's constant claims that he would keep them all well fed through the winter, they are now stuck in a lurch on what to do, but the next day Glenn suddenly shows back up. The group is stunned and doesn't know what to say, they all signed explicit agreements that had said if they left Eden that was it, there was no coming back. They get even more incensed that he had had a good meal and pint the night before and got to sleep in a real bed before returning which to them defies the entire spirit of the experiment

The group rebels/quits

• The group is whipped into a fury and decide to rebel. They all rip off their mics and throw their clothing over the stationary cameras and start making for the gate, determined to leave. In this process Anton chooses to stay behind and goes back to work on the oars he'd been carving
• Producers rush in and some stop to talk to them, and then try to get the others to stop, but the rest of the group doesn't want to hear it. They exit the gate and are standing on the side of the road, nothing in sight but a producer in a pick up. The group is given a phone and the opportunity to speak with their families. It's after this that they are convinced to go back which they do.
• Glenn goes out hunting and bags a deer (guess there were deer there after all mr mighty hunter) he returns to camp and offers it as a peace offering, as some are still a little sore over what happened.
• The deer is a huge boon for the camp and they begin to get their energy back

Rise of the Valley Boys

• The valley boys (which includes Glenn the hunter and now Stephen the chef full time, but also Oli one of the camera men who despite most of the camera folks being pretty hands off completely immerses himself in this culture) begin to become a little obsessed with being men. They get together and verbally wank each other off constantly talking about how great they are and how shitty everyone else is (especially the useless women)
• Glenn frequently goes out hunting and keeps bringing home deer, so it's hard for the group to be mad at him, at least initially

The Garden and the Gender Divide

• During this period as the valley boys become more misogynistic and disgusting, four more people leave, including the paramedic Meanwhile, while the men all being manly and hunting and building their own cabins, having long abandoned group projects, Rachel the gardener is struggling with the garden
• Despite all her best efforts few things actually grew or took root and the garden is overrun with weeds as she has been left alone to tend it.

• She lost her motivation. The garden, in which Butterworth had managed to grow a stunted harvest, was soon consumed with weeds - Aug 28 2017 Sam Knight- The New Yorker

• The valley boys think there needs to be a new division of labor and Titch the plumber and the primary leader of this group goes off saying that Rachel has no idea what she's doing and it's entirely her fault that the garden barely produced anything and that it's in the state it is in.

• 'It was stressful. We literally did starve at one point,' Glenn says. 'The garden didn't produce anywhere near enough food. The show portrayed it as Rachel's fault but Rachel did her absolute best. The production company accidentally left a soil report. It said there was no way we could grow vegetables in that environment and 'Unless you do something drastic, you'll have a Castaway-style revolt on your hands'. You dug down 30cm and you hit rock.' - 12 August 2017- Daily Mail

• Titch brings up his new division of labor plans in the next group meeting

• Valley Boy and plumber Titch said in one episode: 'Girls can't carry logs, girls can't cut wood. Girls can weed in the garden and do other stuff that I don't want to do. I don't want to do any washing up and keep the camp clean.' - Daily Mail

• This, as expected upsets a lot of people but folks are feeling pretty backed into a corner as Titch is the primary leader of this crusade and the other valley boys seem to go along with whatever he says. Jack the ex military man controls the rations, and Stephen is the chef so directly controls the meals that are made.

• This triggers Ali the doctor to leave, seeing the writing on the wall. This makes her the 5th woman to leave, down from 10 women to start. This brings the numbers to 5 women and 11 men and it's about August, meaning there is still 7 months left to this experiment
• The group would celebrate everyone's birthdays, during one of the parties the group has made 20% alcohol and the birthday boy gets so drunk that Rachel the gardener begins to get very worried, they survive the night but that's the final straw for Rachel and she leaves on Aug 16 2016, not long after this Lloyd the fisherman also leaves Eden off camera bringing the total count to 14, when they started with 23

Valley Boys Escalate

• The valley boys behavior escalates from garden variety 1920s sexism, to sexual harassment as they constantly try to have hyper sexual conversations with the women, making extremely crude jokes and on occasion forcing themselves into the personal space of some of the women.
• In retrospect some of the women speculate that this behavior escalated as it did as none of them had explicitly shut the men down during earlier, much tamer transgressions that the men felt like they could just keep pushing the envelope
• The only couple remaining are Katie the artist and Rob P the vet. While chef Stephen remains, Jasmine who was his girlfriend early on has left. This isn't talked about on the show so it's not clearly what the status of things were when she left
• The valley boys talk about how much they wank with each other and how horny they are. Matt one of the camera people is gay, and this leads the Valley boys to make some incredibly homophobic jokes at his expense, ones which he walks in on further increasing the tension in the group

Project Anton

• Oli one of the 3 remaining camera people becomes obsessed with getting Anton voted off the island. The valley boys seem to prey on one person then another, always needing an enemy to make themselves feel more important? It's hard to say. Oli begins to write down every single perceived transgression Anton makes.
• By this point Anton and Raphael the carpenter have moved into their winter cabin away from the group, both too old and over it to deal with the constant toxic masculinity and they spend most their time just with each other, talking about their lives and their partners at home while slowly working away on their winter home
• Raphael still has many connections in the main camp but since Anton had few to begin with, many he did have began to deteriorate as he spent more and more time from camp.
• The boys begin to sew more discontent in the group, claiming that Anton and Raphael are stealing resources from the camp, an accusation Raphael and Anton deny, having only taken scraps no one was using and with permission, while it was well known that the valley boys had taken prime cuts and materials to make their own individual cabins
• At one point someone from the valley boys visits Anton and Raphael's place and takes note of all the firewood they have stocked inside, they use this to frame that Antone and Raphael only have concern for each other and don't help the greater camp. Which again, soon as the valley boys starting building their cabins they stopped helping with the group projects
• The valley boys plot to get Anton and Raphael kicked out and Rob the engineer says he wants to convince Anton to punch him to make him leave (it's unclear if the show has an anti violence policy or if the group just thinks the rest will be more willing to vote them out if that happens)
• Glenn the hunter of the valley boys then decides to bring Raphael and Anton some booze, seemingly with intents to get them liquored up and sloppy and this does indeed happen. Anton and Raphael come to hang out with the group and are a little spicy, but the valley boys hop on this to push his buttons trying to rile Anton up into violence. Things escalate as the boys continue to accuse Anton of things that are untrue and it makes him upset and both sides are yelling. Raphael gets between to stop any conflict and yells at the valley boys to stop antagonizing him.
• Ultimately Anton and Raphael cut their nights short and return home to sleep it off
• With the group the valley boys begin to reframe what happened, use words like "violence" to describe Anton's behavior, instilling fear in the rest of the group. In a rare moment of clarity, Stephen who is the chef but also part of the valley boys and steps away and while talking to the camera explains that he sees what the boys are doing and that they are specifically trying to turn the group against Anton and Raphael entirely and he doesn't like it. He tries to confront some of the valley boys about it but they didn't seem to take much interest in what he had to say
• The next day the group confronts Anton who apologizes for his behavior but also mentions he had heard the valley boys saying earlier that day that they had plans to rile up Anton specifically and that is part of what had triggered him
• That night camp takes a vote for removing Anton and Raphael. They agree for a vote to pass it must surpass 75%, Anton receives 9/12 and Raphael receives 8/12 making Raphael safe, but Anton just hitting that threshold of 75%. Neither Anton or Raphael participated in or were aware of this vote
• The valley boys go to inform Anton and Raphael that there was a vote and that Anton had been voted out, Raphael immediately says he's going with him and the two begin to pack their gear. Raphael gives Stephen his bed and the valley boys leave, immediately beginning to conspire of who gets Rafton towers and whatever is left behind
• As if reading their minds, Anton and Raphael begin to break apart the cabin and burn it piece by piece including all the firewood.
• Anton and Raphael go get their boat to leave when Oli the camera man comes up and says there was a math error that they said that 75% was minimum, but Anton and Raphael didn't get to vote and if they had Anton would not be voted out, as if trying to convince him to stay. But Raphael has had enough and the two leave Eden forever

The Great Divide

• With Anton and Raphael out of the picture the group now has two camps both figuratively and literally. The Valley Boys that are roughly the same exempt Rob J the engineer seems to swap sides at some point, the other group consists of the only 3 remaining women, Matt the gay man and Rob P the tender-hearted vet
• Both groups have very different goals, the valley boys seem to descend into feral madness wanting to be MEN™ and protect and hoard, where the other group wants to build a community and work together for the greater good. But everyone is still sharing food even if they live in completely separate areas now
• That is until Glenn brings a deer home and this time doesn't share it with the other group, further driving the wedge
• By November the main group has abandoned the summer camp and are still working on the community building as well as their own projects, while the valley boys live off in their valley village
• Group meals are now being cooked and served in the valley boy camp which begins to grate on the valley boys, feeling like it's an 'invasion of their space" and Matt, the gay camera man is also vegetarian which seems to offend the valley boys. The valley boys then declare that the rations will be split and that both groups will be responsible for their own meals, but will get together once a week for a shared meal. This makes the other group uneasy that this will only widen the divide, but this does not appear to be a concern for the valley boys
• Not long after this Caroline the shepardess also choose to leave, bringing the group down to 11, 3 of which are camera persons.

• She decided that the Eden experiment had failed when a decision was taken to divide the rations so that each household of two or three people cooked their own food. "What's the point in not even having your evening meal together? You may as well just be at home. People made it to the end and survived, but as a community project, as it was sold to me, it failed. We couldn't do it, which is sad." -  July 27 2017 Damian Whitworth - The Times

Descent into Carnivorous Madness

• The valley boys begin to grow even more feral and crude rampant misogynistic and homophobic discussions are shown on screen, but what's not shown but is later attested to by Jose a mixed race woman there was also a lot of racist bullshit from them that made her feel unsafe. This statement would be backed up by Raphael who is black
• 4 days after splitting the rations the valley boys decide to try go on a fully carnivorous diet. Glenn goes out hunting more frequently and the boys want to slaughter animals more often
• Rob the vet intervenes being the person that has cared for these animals since day one including birthing and rearing many of them and insists if they want to slaughter animals it should be him that does it.
• Rob is an expert farmhand and has been trained to humanely kill animals and knows how to use the boltgun they were provided which ensures the animal dies immediately and does not experience any pain. So every time the boys decide they want an animal they would call on Rob, who would do it, all these animals he knew personally and had named. He talks about how it's one thing to kill a sick animal or to do this in moderation, but what was happening was completely unnecessary and the group still had 3 months before the end of the experiment and they weren't even in the worst of winter yet, Rob P began to worry that the boys would want to kill all the animals. Rob P compares it to the foot and mouth outbreak as the last time he had to kill so many animals so needlessly and that this was much harder because at least then there was a reason

The animals had become such an integral part of the community since day one, even among those that would be come the valley boys, it's a shock to everyone fort things to escalate this rapidly. In an article written in 2017, Katie talks about what living with the animals was like

• During this period Rob is forced to slaughter 4 animals in a matter of 4 days.
• Until this point 1 animal had been killed a week but in the last month 12 animals were slaughtered
• Rob P tries to talk to the boys about this but they have no interest in hearing what he has to say
• The valley, the area where the valley boys live becomes rank, animal parts, guts and bones can be found throughout the woods there, the skulls of the killed animals nailed to the wall for decoration. The smell of rotten meat is inescapable yet the boys keep slaughtering
• Now I am going to interject here. I grew up in a hunting family, I have known hunters all my life. And yes, it is not uncommon for hunters to mount the skulls/taxidermy'd heads or horns of their kills. The difference is the amount of animals you can kill is strictly regulated, often to one animal of a species a year. The animal that is killed is often very carefully selected and tracked for days through rugged terrain. It is killed and brought home and processed and for us that meat would help feed us through the year. And I have nothing against the use of animal skeletal remains as items of interest. But what happened here is not that. Watching some of the footage of the village and the gore and animal parts strewn about was a bit much even for me. I was raised to respect animals and I have strong beliefs that animals shouldn't be killed just for fun, that if an animal has to die we should respect and use the body best we can.
• What I am describing here is not an exaggeration there were literal parts strewn about and I can't even fathom what it smelled like and these guys lived in it, there's footage at one point even of them commenting on how rank it is. Nevermind the fact they were 5 men, a single deer would feed my 4 person family throughout the year (though supplemented with other meat) and killing this many animals when you have no freezer to preserve them is just a waste on so many levels, I can't describe
• In a group meeting the main group try to get the valley boys to see reason and slow down their slaughter but they don't really care. Outside of the meeting the valley boys begin to mock Rob P for being "soft" for caring about the animals so much
• The purely carnivorous diet ends not long after, the boys saying they got bored of it and that their bodies weren't agreeing with a meat only diet. In a little over a month, 4 deer and 7 livestock were killed for the diets of 5 men
• But by this point it's too late, Katie tries to plead with Rob P to stay but he just can't anymore and he departs in the middle of the night Dec 7 2016 without a goodbye. He is found walking 5 miles from Eden by production, he talks about the rotting meat, animal parts and heads strewn in the trees and how he can't handle it anymore
• To the valley boys this is a victory, to Katie and the main group they're furious

The Slow End

• As Christmas approaches the group decides to decorate and Glenn the hunter decorates a tree with the spent shells he'd been collecting every time he shot a deer.
• Katie has taken on caring for the animals with Rob gone and this is a lot of work, she leaves notes to try and encourage the valley boys to help to no avail
• Katie spends christmas morning drinking alone

• Things further go off the rails as more and more contraband seems to show up around Eden, cigarettes, sweets, alcohol and rumor has it that a cellphone had been snuck in.
• Production leaves the group a letter in the dropbox informing them that they have heard the rumors and that they think a phone goes against the spirit of the experiment but ultimately it's up to the group to figure out what to do with it. The entire group has a meeting but no one owns up to the phone though the main group strongly suspects it's one of the valley boys though they deny it to this day
• The group agrees to an anonymous drop off location and the phone is found there, the group then smashes the phone on camera.
• More packages show up including one from Rob P for Katie, but the valley boys had picked over it upsetting her, the group then all agrees to stop taking packages, though everyone suspects that everyone else is still doing it, just hiding it
• 10 days before the end of the experience the group tries another get together but breaks into fights over the packages again.
• On the last night the boys make effigies of themselves and burn them and then the group decides to burn down some of the structures they made
• In the middle of the night Jane and Matt two of the camera persons get a message from production that they need to go check on Katie as the she had built is on fire. They get they to find it mostly just ash and ember, thankfully Katie hadn't been there and was unharmed, but to her it kind symbolized everything that had happened. They tried to build something beautiful only for it to all go up in flames

As the show comes to an end the 10 remaining cast members are shown walking out of Eden

That's where the show ends, but it's far from the whole story

After Eden

Before filming one of the questions asked to the cast was what they hoped to see when they came out after a year

Jenna: What would you like to have happened in the year you're away? It'd be nice to come out with junior doctor contracts resolved. For the NHS to have the respect and funding it deserves, rather than be dismantled. You have to pray that common sense prevails. - Telegraph

Sam: What world would you want to come back to after a year? A world where you can go on the tube and someone says good morning to you would be amazing… - Telegraph

That is not what they would find. While this content was never aired, I've pieced together some of the experiences had by the group upon leaving Eden

A risk assessment for "Eden," compiled in November, 2015, warned of the dangers of fire, trench foot, hypothermia, and "persons becoming aggressive and acting violent due to the stresses of living wild."

Jose:

[..] Today is March 23rd, 2017. Twelve months ago, Katie and I (along with twenty-one others) had walked into 'Eden', a 600 acre site on the remote westerly peninsula of Ardnamurchan in the Scottish Highlands. Part of an experimental television project, we'd been isolated from modern society for a whole year, building our own homes, growing and foraging our food, caring for and slaughtering animals. We had survived as a closed community, completely cut off from the outside world. And now, the ten of us that had stayed until the end were here, in limbo land, a three day "decompression period" held at Glenborrodale Castle, before we returned to our everyday lives.

That morning, I'd woken up in the same sleeping bag that I'd slept in for a year, on the bed I'd made myself, in the home I'd also built with my own hands and lived in for five months. I'd burned the last of my logs in a homemade barrel fire, made some porridge and ate it with a spoon I'd carved last spring. Before leaving, I put out the rest of my dried oats for Mr Mousey - the mouse that had visited me every night.

And now I was standing at the bottom of a staircase in a castle.

A lot of mine and Katie's awkwardness comes from the realisation of how filthy we are, it's suddenly so obvious in this pristine, stately environment. Our hands are covered in little cuts, our nails dark with dirt, our hair is tangled and we really, really stink. This becomes even more clear when we're hit with the onslaught of forgotten clean smells, like furniture polish and laundry detergent. It's daytime now, and Glenborrodale Castle has big windows so the blinding shock of electric lighting will come later. Although it feels like Katie and I may stay at the bottom of the stairs forever, giggling and afraid to touch anything, we do eventually make it up the stairs to join the others.

What we all do first is what you'd expect - eat, drink, eat, wash and wash and wash, and eat some more. There's so much food everywhere, we can't turn anything down, can't get enough. Later, the psychologist will explain to us how our experience of hunger early on in the project will have lasting effects on our relationship with food. We may be prone to gorging ourselves and find it generally more difficult to ignore our animal feeding instinct than we had done in our pre-Eden lives. - JoseJourneys.com

The survivors spent three days at the castle, resting and talking to a psychologist. It was odd to walk on carpet and to sleep in a bed. Etherington and Titch, who had spent virtually every day together in Eden, caught themselves introducing themselves to each other. - Sam Knight- The New Yorker

Katie:

When you've been away from modern life for a year, it feels surreal for the end day to finally arrive. We were whisked to a local castle hotel and reunited with modern conveniences such as light switches, hot showers and stairs. It was hard to process it all. My first glimpse of myself in a full-length mirror was a shock. My body had become muscular and strong after a year of hiking through woodland, carrying animal feed and chopping wood, completely changing my shape. Even my wrists and hands had bulked up with the twice-daily routine of milking six goats. - Nov 9 2017 countryfile.com

Jose:

"Everybody gather in the living room at 3 o'clock. We've got something to show you on the TV."

The production team - or 'Production' as we call them - say and we do, it's second nature now. It's slightly strange to see the order being spoken by the lips of a human and not to hear it from the Voice of God booming across the sand dunes of Ardnamurchan, but it is done in their usual style at least - they give us a teaser and some time to gossip about it while lurking with their cameras. After all, they never know when a broadcast-worthy conversation might happen.

Maybe it's the alcohol going to our heads or maybe it's Stockholm Syndrome, but we still actually think that Production might consider our wellbeing when deciding what our first experience of looking at a television screen in twelve months might be. Maybe they're going to show us some clips from the show, or a montage of bloopers, or maybe it'll be videos from our families.

Sinking into the long-forgotten and unbelievable depth and comfiness of a sofa, I try to work out whether this an especially large TV screen or if it's really quite average and I've just forgotten how big they are. I look around at the nine people I know like I know nobody else, all now dressed in the plain tracksuits that Production have provided us with and all looking unexpectedly new after a proper wash. We look like we're in a rehab clinic, and maybe we are?

Production position themselves on the same side of the room as the screen and aim cameras at our faces, waiting for juicy reaction shots. I'm thinking about what sort of video message my family might send and imagine my Mum fussing over her outfit.

The video starts and it's soon clear that this exercise is not intended to be fun.

FIRST THERE WAS BREXIT

The words flash up in huge letters on the screen, accompanied by dramatic music. It's so bright, so loud, so fast, so surreal that it takes a few seconds to register that this is The News and not some drama or satire. The build up to the referendum flashes on the screen in short clips of news footage. When the now-notorious Brexit buses come on, a nervous splutter escapes my lips - because the campaign must have been a joke, right?

The video continues with clips from results night and selected news reports from the following weeks.

HATE CRIMES RISE BY UP TO 100% ACROSS ENGLAND AND WALES

The headline bursts across the screen, backed up by news clips and graphs. My heart jumps and my eyes dart across the room to Jane, the most politically passionate and also the only other BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) person in the room. There are tears in her eyes and she's tense, I wish I was next to her. I wonder is it still safe to walk down the street?

My face is hot. It's not just the horrifying news in front of me. It's also the presence in the room of a man I lived with in Eden who repeatedly got drunk and hurled racist slurs and general bigoted hatred around. My breathing quickens in the company of Production, who promised to protect us from violence and abuse but who failed to address his behaviour and would go on to protect him from publicity. Is the country now full of people like them?

They show maps of the referendum voting patterns across the UK, and it's not hard to spot Cornwall, the weather beaten, south westerly peninsula where I was born and grew up. It's blue, blue, blue with Brexiteers. It's not a surprise exactly, more of an instant visual representation of the othering I've felt my entire life.

LABOUR MP MURDERED BY FAR-RIGHT TERRORIST

The headlines come in flashes. We're unused to receiving information this way and it is a lot to take in. Fury is bubbling among the group. They pause the film and question us but we're silenced by the extremity of their approach. It carries on:

HOW FAR IS EUROPE SWINGING TO THE RIGHT?

Headline after headline of doom, terror and hostility that creates a picture of a cold and dangerous world. A year's news condensed into twenty minutes.

THEN THERE WAS TRUMP

The film continues, an onslaught of rumours and nightmares confirmed. It's the most visually stimulating way we've experienced anything for three hundred and sixty five days. - JoseJourneys.com

Stephen "Like, the terror in people's faces, I always felt like the world was moving forward, I was, like, How have we backtracked?" […]

When Moores saw that Britain and the United States had split more or less fifty-fifty over both Brexit and Trump, he wondered whether the division within Eden had expressed something fundamental about the way that humans live together. "It seems to me just a natural number," he told me. "It is binary. You are either in one camp or the other. It is us and them. Things tribalize." - Sam Knight - The New Yorker

Jose:

By the end we are all speechless, silenced by our emotional responses, and Production do not get the reaction shots they hoped for. Shaken, we grab hungrily at the cigarettes they hand out to us like sweets - too dazed to question if this is kindness, a reward, or part of the experiment.

The next two days pass by in a blur of food, appointments with the psychologist, food, appointments with the lawyer, food, appointments with Production, and more food until it's time to go.

"Everybody, clear out your room and meet on the lawn at 3pm." It's time to go home. Home to the little blue tip of the island where I'm not sure I'm welcome anymore. Or maybe I can save myself from a hate crime or deportation because I happened to be born here? But if my father had never came to the UK I wouldn't even exist - so what does it matter where they place their arbitrary lines?

It's time to go home. Home where I have to explain who I am over and over again when I'm not even sure myself. Home where I learnt to silence parts of myself to fit in and ensure others comfort before my own. Home where I'm Cornish with a capital ISH. Home where I'm mixed-race with a capital MIXED. Home where I'm a question before I'm a person.

It's time to go home and when I hug my beautiful brown sister hello, we breathe deep in silent relief - JoseJourneys.com

Back from Eden Now What?

Each contestant would be flown back home to their mundane lives, not knowing when or if the rest of their experience would be aired. Many struggled with trying to return to regular every day life

There was no airdate for the remaining episodes of the show, so the cast drifted back to their old lives. Pattinson resumed his work as a vet. Jackson went back to working on construction sites in Lancashire. Moores returned to I.T. contracting. Those who had aspirations of TV work wondered how they were coming across in the edit. Etherington drafted some pilots for cooking shows and went to meetings at production companies.

The British press noticed that the year was up, and the story went around the world of a reality show in the wilderness which had been cancelled without its participants knowing. The cast knew that this wasn't true. It was their first taste of the narratives that were beginning to form around "Eden"—about its delayed broadcast, and about their behavior in the woods. Kelly Webb-Lamb, the head of factual entertainment at Channel 4, told me that part of the reason it took so long for the rest of "Eden" to appear was to give the participants a chance to explain themselves. "When we started to see some of the darker, more uncomfortable things, it felt like the right thing to do to let them come out and be able to reflect and talk about that," she said. In the spring, the participants were invited to London and interviewed individually on camera. - Sam Knight - The New Yorker

Paradise Lost Rebranding

In late July, Channel 4 announced that the final eight months of the experiment would be broadcast over five nights in August, as "Eden: Paradise Lost." The rebranding made some of the cast feel that the premise of the series had shifted, and that it would be more like a conventional reality show. "When was it ever going to be paradise, guys?" Moores asked. The group was invited to Keo's offices for an advance screening of the first new episode. I met Etherington earlier in the day. He was trying to be upbeat. He still hoped that a chance might come his way. But he also wished that the final edit would acknowledge the show's experimental nature, and the fallibility of its makers, as well as of the people who were its guinea pigs. "What you should really do is just come out and say, 'Do you know what? We couldn't do it. Because it went so mental,' " he said. " 'We are really sorry. We fucked up. Here it is.' "

The broadcasts began on Monday, August 7th. Wright had reserved the back room of a pub in Cambridge, where he lives on a narrowboat. A local reporter filmed the event on his phone. As the room filled with friends, Wright called out, "I want to apologize in advance!" The opening titles of "Eden: Paradise Lost" were heavy on flames. Much of the first episode centered on Wright's alienation from the group. While he was giving a soliloquy onscreen about stealing apricots, he checked his phone to see the reaction on social media. One viewer, @IronManMode, tweeted, "I do hope this ends with Anton being flayed alive and eaten while the rest of the team dance around wearing masks made out of his skin."

Pattinson and Tunn watched the shows together in Northumberland. The new episodes included the walkout, and some of the contraband that the group smuggled in, but mostly elided the role of the producers. "It is hard to watch, because you know that so much happened that they can't put on," Tunn said. On the Wednesday, Etherington flew to Bali to get away from it all. We spoke before he left for the airport. "I just hope that people can use their fucking brains and work out that is not exactly how it was," he said. "That is not exactly how it fucking was."

Just under nine hundred thousand people tuned in to watch "Eden: Paradise Lost." The audience ebbed in the course of the week. As the show ended, images of the men and women of Eden faded away against the bogs of Ardnamurchan. The show aired almost exactly a year after Butterworth, the gardener, left Eden. She watched the first two episodes, until her departure, and then stopped, because it was too upsetting. "It was bringing back feelings from a year ago which I have been working to get over," she told me. "They didn't know what it was like to be in there. It still haunts us. It is not something that just ends as soon as you climb over the fence - Sam Knight - The New Yorker

Behind the Scenes

Since the show ended a lot has come out about what happened the other 390,000 hours of the year that weren't shown on the show adding several new layers of complexity to the events therein.

The Site Itself and Preparation

Production had been well advised by locals long before cameras ever started rolling that the site wouldn't be ideal for people trying to live off the land

A risk assessment for "Eden," compiled in November, 2015, warned of the dangers of fire, trench foot, hypothermia, and "persons becoming aggressive and acting violent due to the stresses of living wild."- Sam Knight - The New Yorker

The group quickly discovered they were also ill-equipped. 'The production company gave us antique tools because they wanted the vibe to be romantic,' Glenn says. 'We used them and they broke. No one had experience of cutting down trees. 'At one point, there was about 12 to 15 dangerous trees around. No one bothered to wear the protective clothing and goggles. It's amazing no one died.'

The production company made no comment on these claims, although it is understood they dispute that the soil or the equipment were unsuitable - The DailyMail

Though the locals also don't think the cast was that hard off

But fisherman and caravan park owner Hugh MacPherson, 50, of Ardtoe, said: 'They had the best of everything flown in. Top soil, wood, even sheep. They didn't start from scratch, the whole thing was a farce. Young crofters have less to work with. And they were far from isolated, we could hear them talking across the water. - Pressreader.com

Only a few residents of Ardnamurchan had any sense of what was going on behind the fence. David John Cameron, whose family has lived on the peninsula for hundreds of years, worked on the show as a production assistant. Like most local people, the Camerons survived on tourism and small-scale farming. It was Cameron's job to mail hard copies of the footage to London. On his days off, he grew vegetables and chopped wood. He would stop by the production room and watch the group dithering and bickering. "It drove me insane, watching twelve of them have a meeting about how to dig a furrow," Cameron said. "Just get on and dig it. You can see the clouds coming. Get on with it."

On the other side of the bay, Andrew and Margaret Green [..]. "They were out of their depth," - Sam Knight - New Yorker

But the cast didn't just feel let down by the land but also the lack of information and preparation by production

Katie: I was very naive. I thought, "This is going to be brilliant. We all want to live in nature, sit on the beach and reduce our carbon footprint – what could go wrong?" People fell into one camp or the other: those who had an industrial way of looking at things, and were interested in building and using resources, and those like me who were softer, more hippy-dippy, living as if this was the way we'd live for ever - RadioTimes.com

Raphael: Mar 31 2016: [...] I note that I wished I had brought more tools that would have made life easier. It is now I start to feel production had let me down with poor quality of information. I had believed that everyone would have tools of their given trade and I stupidly thought all would have a trade of some description. Hmm. Me and Titch are the only ones with what can be classed as proper tools, but I'll save that discussion for another blog entry. - AntonWright.com

"I remember thinking, How lucky are we to have this group of people?" Jackson said. Others were more skeptical. Andrew Whitelock, known as Titch, a plumber from Yorkshire who had taught survival courses, noted how few supplies many of the participants had brought with them. "People had come in with backpacks with bugger-all in it," he said. "I was, like, What kind of thing are we doing? It just seemed to me, people came into this underprepared." - Sam Knight - The New Yorker

Though some were more prepared than others and had done their research

• "When I walked through the gates, my first thought was, 'What the hell have I got myself involved in?'" says [Raphael] Meade. "There were trees all over the place and mud. It looked like a bomb had gone off. It was not pretty." [… "Within three hours I knew there were going to be problems," Meade says. "We had no shelter and it started raining straight away – then hunger started to kick in." Meade admits he was unprepared. "I went in cold," he says.
  
  Far better prepared was the group's boatman, Anton Wright, a rowing instructor and adventurer. "He'd researched the area," says Meade. "He knew where to go, what to do… if the world was going to end tomorrow, I'd pack a bag and go to his house." - Telegraph
• Anton had gone in pretty well prepped. "The brief was you'll be here for a year, you need to survive, if there's anything specific you need, let us know." He came up with a seven-page document. "It included medical supplies, tools, plumbing supplies, the means to make log-burning stoves. Not the boat or the oars though – that's why I had to make my own!"
  
  He'd also studied the location itself before setting foot on it. "I researched the topography, the weather patterns. I'd pinpointed the location for the log cabin's site even before I'd arrived there."
  
  This prior knowledge meant he knew what he was doing, which made it even crazier that the group elected to stay on the beach through the summer rather than prepare an inland retreat to winter in. "There were 70mph winds from the north-east coming right across the dunes into the camp. It was obvious what had to be done." - Cambridge Independent 

Compensation

For those on the show production made a deal with them to cover all their expenses while they were in Eden. Things like rent, hydro bills and whatever expenses they would incur while away

Etherington recalls that money, which participants claimed as expenses, also upset the dynamic in the group. "Everybody was on different money," he says. "Everyone's starving and wet and enduring being in the middle of nowhere, and someone turns to say, 'Out of interest, what are you getting? Ninety grand?! What the f–––?' It stirred up this massive contentious situation." - Telegraph

Trying to Keep People Away and In

Production strongly believed that for the experiment to be a success there should be as little outside involvement as possible. To help ensure this not only were there the 6ft fences, but also security 24/7 patrols both in the water and on land to help keep nosy folks away from Eden and its cast. Obviously this was far from flawless

• Channel 4 has appealed to members of the public not to gate-crash the set of its new back-to-basics reality show, after curious fans attempted to enter the remote Highlands estate in which a group of strangers have been marooned. [..]
  
  Andrew Palmer, the programme's executive producer, said: "It is up to the community if they wish to interact with the outside world however, for the integrity of what the group hope to achieve in this remote location we would hope that people leave them to it and observe the section 11 order." - Telegraph

"I've also heard that holiday-makers who went on the beach have been asked to post letters for the participants but the visitors were told by the camp's tannoy to get away." Neighbour Margaret Green, of Dal-Ghorm House 200 yards across the bay said - PressandJournal.com

• Production firm Keo Films sparked outrage by securing an exemption order, under Section 11 of the Land Reform Act, which temporarily revoked the public's right to access the estate, and by fencing in the 600-acre plot – which takes in the 'Singing Sands' beauty spot
  
  Pensioner William Somerville, 70, from Retford, Nottinghamshire, who has enjoyed holidays in Ardtoe for the past 12 years, said: 'We drive 12 hours for a two-week holiday every year and when we arrived last year the Singing Sands was out of bounds. There was also a patrol boat yelling at us to get off.' - Pressreader.com

While the show was being filmed I was kept away from the Singing Sands by security. If I so much as stepped foot on the public beach there was a patrol boat telling me to leave. A lot of locals found it very intimidating. - fisherman and caravan park owner Hugh MacPherson - Pressreader.com

But despite all these attempts to keep people away it wasn't always successful

Tara: The security was a bit of a shambles. My sister Emma came all the way up from Northumberland with her fiance and managed to get to the beach in a kayak. She handed over a bag with wine and a few pieces of food in it before the security came down and kicked her off. She also pointed to a cave where she had hidden some more food out of the camp which I later snuck away to get. I shared it all with the camp. At first we got told off by the production crew for breaking the rules — they took me to one side for escaping a couple of times. - DailyMail

Which raises the oft posed question: how isolated is it really?

According to many locals, not at all

Even in the show we see some times where the barrier of Eden is broken. Early on when Lloyd the fisherman is attempting to catch fish to no avail, a fishing boat comes by to talk. They tell him he probably won't have much luck for another month at which point it will be teeming with mackerel. A couple days later the same boat stopped at the beach and dropped off a package of sweets, beer and apples much to the joy of the group

And through Paradise Lost it's easy to see the things that are out of place among the rustic décor. The packages get talked about on camera and we know that Rob the vet had sent Katie at least one and then there's the phone which to this day no one will own up to

Through outside interviews though it seems there may have been way more but due to not wanting to feature a brand on screen or not wanting to show these immersion breaking packages it made the footage containing them unusable

In March 2016 while the show was weeks out from shooting, the Daily Mail reported on the fact that Eden really wasn't that far away, how there was a town less than 5 miles away, Acheracle, which contained a pub, fishing shop, a hotel and a fish and chips and bakery joint

Retired administrator Margaret Green lives within earshot of the 'wilderness' encampment at Ardtoe. Ms Green, 67, said: 'The notion that the contestants are going to be living in a wilderness is absolutely ridiculous. Our house is just 250 metres away. It's so quiet here that we can hear the workman talking on the site. When the inmates, or whatever they are going to be called, arrive I'm sure we'll be able to hear them too. We're the closest to the site but there are other people living nearly as near. - DailyMail

• Villagers reported being plagued by contestants begging for handouts after they failed to grow their own crops. Some of the 23 strangers who signed up to Channel 4 show Eden: Paradise Lost were even spotted breaking free from their camp, a stone's throw from the village of Acharacle, Argyll, to buy supplies using contraband cash.
  
  [..] Margaret Green, 70, 'We could hear the contestants shouting and swearing from across the water. They were always coming over in a rowing boat to the village. One night a group came across and they must have gone to the pub in the village because they came back drunk, shouting and swearing at the bottom of my garden saying what a great time they had. Another day a few of them stayed in a cottage near the pier and had hot showers and watched TV. One night I don't know what they were doing but it sounded like a massive orgy. It was more like an all-inclusive holiday camp than a social experiment.' […]
  
  Contestant Caroline Gray, 28, from Kelso, Roxburghshire, told the Scottish Daily Mail on Saturday that as faith in the production company collapsed, campers began to go AWOL and made runs to the local shop to buy chocolate and cigarettes with cash smuggled in from the outside. Miss Gray, who walked out after seven months, also said participants had visits from friends and family who bypassed security teams to drop off luxury goods. She and others claimed they were left to 'starve', forcing them to scrounge and cheat. - Pressreader.com

The local added: "I was walking close to the seven-foot wooden security fence, which screens the Eden site from the public, when what sounded like the voices of two young women shouted to me over the fence, begging for any chocolate I might have on me. They sounded desperate and must have had a sweet tooth. "To know I was there, they must have heard my feet crunching on the gravel path on the public side of the fence.

"I told them I was sorry I had no chocolate. But I have been following the show on TV and had a brief chat with the girls".- Express

Why Did People Leave?

The obvious answer is that living on little to no food, swarmed by midges and always being some combination of dirty, tired and cold is enough for anyone to consider ducking out of most things

• Show insiders claim hunger, tiredness and boredom were the main reasons the eight left but say some had also become disillusioned with the concept and felt 'they weren't getting to achieve what they had hoped to'. - PressandJournal.com
  
• In August, the participant Tom Wah tweeted that he "left because it wasn't what I was told it was going to be. What you see on TV is all bullshit. You're not seeing the whole picture. The programme is extremely misleading." - The Guardian

• The cast members also relentlessly exchanged rumors about one another. In November, the group decided to split their rations, deepening the divide between the two factions. A story spread that the Valley Boys, who had been experimenting with an all-meat diet, were intending to slaughter all the animals in Eden. Pattinson, the vet, cracked. On December 7th, he waited until darkness fell and then scrambled over the fence and ran into the woods. He walked for nine miles in the rain before he came to a holiday cottage. He found a key under a stone and slept on the floor. "I was so pleased to be free," he said. The next morning, an estate worker picked him up hitchhiking near Ockle, in the north of Ardnamurchan. Kelly, the estate manager, phoned the production office. "We have found one of your escapees," he said. - Sam Knight - The New Yorker
• Jenna, one of the community's on-site medics, feels similarly disillusioned with the finished product. She left the show four months in, after the production team began allowing people to leave the site and return – something she felt compromised the entire premise.  - Vice

Production's Involvement

Production had stated their goal from the beginning was to be hands off and strictly observe the events inside, only intervening if there was an emergency. But after the group all tried to leave the one time, the group realized they had power over production and used this to their advantage

Yet many talk about all the things production witnessed and didn't intervene on

Channel 4 has rejected any concerns and stated: 'The health and wellbeing of contributors is closely monitored.' - pressandjournal.com

• The integrity of the project rested on the community being left to its own devices. Series producer Liz Foley insists they would have stepped in "if someone had been in mortal danger or was desperately traumatised", yet should the moral imperative to intervene have taken precedence over the professional one to simply document events?
  
  It was a dilemma 43-year-old Jane, one of four embedded camera crew, felt keenly. "Part of my job was to maintain relationships so I could get the story," she explains. "If I had said how I felt as a community member, I would have shut down barriers to people. As a woman, I regret not feeling able to stand up for what I believed in 100%. As a professional cameraperson, I'm quite proud. But I struggle with that on a daily basis." - The Guardian

The early interactions between the producers and the community were firm. The cast members were allowed to leave letters with their microphone packs, which were recharged every day. But when Pattinson asked for materials with which to build a sheep pen, or Butterworth asked for nets to keep butterflies off the plants, they were rebuffed. "They said, 'We are not your minders,' " Butterworth recalled. Eden was supposed to be cut off and self-reliant. "If you respond, you are creating that environment where they can ask, and they are relying on you," Foley said. - Sam Knight - The New Yorker

• […]The camera-shy searched for places in Eden where they could disappear, and take off their microphone packs for a few hours. But a loudspeaker system rigged in the trees, known as the Voice of God, would tell them to put them back on again. On day six, Hall wrote in her diary, "I'm trying to believe in this community, and to trust in Keo (because otherwise, what can I do?). But did they really choose people to make this work? . . . TV is weird. I don't know if I can get past that." - Sam Knight - The New Yorker

The question of production's involvement first rose when they began to try and prevent people from leaving

Raphael: "We were told if you leave you can't come back," he says. Jasmine Comber, a yoga instructor, tried to leave but was persuaded by producers to stay – and was permitted a phone call with her father. "She left for about three hours and came back," says Meade. "That showed us that we had some kind of power and they needed us. That set in motion people's mindsets – 'Hang about, we can swing this to work in our favour.'" - Telegraph

But Jasmine did eventually leave

An insider said: 'Jasmine was talking to the locals and seemed happy to be out of there. The survival nature of the show was always going to make it tough but no one expected so many to go so soon. It begs the question of whether there should have been more of an incentive to stay.' - PressandJournal.com

Tara: 'But it got to the point later on, because so many people were leaving, that they couldn't afford to lose any more contestants, so they buckled to some of our demands and dropped in more supplies, which included a big bag of sugar dropped from a helicopter which we used to make alcohol.' - Daily Mail

Mental Health

It's pretty clear on screen that by the end many people were really not doing ok, but there's more to that than we saw. This was even apparent to the locals

Margaret Green, living across the water, found that she could no longer do the ironing in her front room. She used to work as a police dispatcher and recognized the anguish as real. "It would all of a sudden go quiet," she said. "And you were, like, What's happened? - Sam Knight - The New Yorker

In August, Caroline the shepherdess began to crack, she imagined she was stuck in Eden permanently and if she tried to leave the police would catch her and bring her back "I totally believed it. That is how ill we all got in there.", on August 16th she'd hop the fence and leave for good

Some of the valley boys struggled with what they had become, Stephen the chef said "I found a man inside me that I didn't know existed, An absolute primal beast." 

Production reported that in autumn after the walkout the cast did little else but drink, which would lead to the confrontation with Anton. One of the girls said she had a nightmare about Anton and Glenn the hunter would claim he had feared Anton would retaliate so he slept with a hammer under his pillow 

By December it was dark 16 hours a day. It was too cold to do much outside and the darkness didn't exactly motivate people, Jose reported spending most of her time reading, "Quite often we would joke, We can't believe people are watching this," 

Raphael backed up what many of the women had encountered when it came to the alcohol-fueled and feral valley boys "Misandry, misogyny, racism, sexism, procrastination, bullying… It was all in there. It was intense. It was in your face." 

The group all had a psychological assessment before entering the show which is common for most reality shows, but Ali the doctor reports that nothing could've prepared them for the mental toll that the cold, hunger and strenuous manual labor would have on them. Every day they were undertaking potentially dangerous tasks between tree-felling, fishing and tending to campfires while they were both physically and mentally drained. One mistake could've led to severe injury or worse. The tensions in the group didn't help, it's hard enough to deal with those conditions when that's all you were dealing with, but with relationships always fluctuating and people being unable to align on goals it was just one more thing that ground them down

According to Ali "Everyone's psychological health was compromised at some point, and this included my own, exacerbated when taking on other people's problems. At times I felt myself getting paranoid and severely anxious; the cameras were on us at all times and I never forgot about them, which added to the stress. Support was available to us in the form of a clinical psychologist, who was contactable by phone – I used this to my advantage and encouraged others to follow suit." 

Caroline the shepherdess said she had become quite concerned about the other women when they started shaving their heads 

Hunger

What no one had anticipated was just how hungry they would be, how food became such a huge focus and it really changed their relationship with it after

Raphael reviewed some of his journals that he wrote while in Eden, within the first week he's talking about how much he misses food. "I have always believed food to be an inconvenience to my day. Now I have it as number 3 in my list of importance – seeing, breathing, eating. Who'd have thought eh lol."

On Mar 30th, day 7, he wrote "The upside of this day is Chef Steve made what I STILL consider to be the best sausages I have ever had. They were so good that had I dropped them in poo, I'd have picked them up, rinsed them off and eaten them same way. I must add that there is the element of hunger that makes you think this way" 

By day 8 the group is gnawing on bones "a pig has been killed. Chef Steve has done a tremendous job and left a pile of boiled bones for us to gnaw on. These bones have been chewed by two separate groups of people before us and STILL we attack them like wild caged beasts."

In the show itself there comes points where the group rush to lick the cooking pots, and scrape out any remaining food, just any amount to add a little more to their stomach

Caroline the shepherdess "I milked the goats every day and I would sneakily down a glass of milk. That made such a huge difference. Without that milk I think I would really have struggled. We were basically starving for a month and a half. [..] I was really, really hungry. I got very bony. A lot of the girls, their periods stopped. I think that is your body shutting down." she talks about how in retrospect she thinks that chef Stephen was feeding everyone equally, you would become paranoid and convinced that others were getting more food. "You were so tired all the time and it put a lot of strain on you mentally and emotionally. You'd look at the plates and think, 'They've had a slightly bigger portion than me tonight,' and it would ruin your whole evening." 

Within a month of arriving Tara reports that everyone's personal stashes of alcohol and tobacco were running drying and people began to get desperate to get more, some would trade their meat ration from dinner or even the whole meal for these things they so desperately missed

Katie the artist and Rob vet found themselves resorting to eating chicken feed. Katie said they mixed it with milk or lamb colostrum, or made their own salt and vinegar variety. Eventually they got a letter from production insisting they stop eating the animal food. "My period stopped because of it," says Tunn. "And my hair really thinned – it's taken years to grow back properly.". It's not clear if anyone else took part in this chicken feed meal, but there were reports that after the show some of the cast had to seek out dental treatment due to the damage caused by eating chicken feed

And this desperation for food only fed into the tensions and control issues in the group, according to Showrunner Liz Foley reported "If you controlled access to the food, you were in charge. Everybody who tried to be in charge openly got shot down. It was much more subtle, creeping power. There was a divide and it was probably down to gender."  

Anton tells of leaving Eden and while attending dinner with family and friends being asked the simple question of "would you like meat or fish?" and this was revolutionary for him, having spent 6 months having little to no control over what he could eat. He talks about looking at his journals from around that time about just how much was focused on food and how much he enjoyed it, finding a whole new appreciation for it

PTSD

Near everyone from the cast has reported some variety of PTSD and difficulty adjusting to the real world after. Many of the cast joined WhatsApp group chats with each other where they talked about their struggles reintegrating. Caroline the shepherdess said 'Because I always had the mindset it was just a TV programme, I never felt mentally there and never settled. But I know a lot of people struggled and when they came out, they began to have nightmares and flashbacks.' which is something Katie confirmed even 5 months after she left

Raphael said "I just wasn't right in the head, I've learned to live with it now... but for about a year and half after I wasn't quite myself. I'd drift off and daydream. I did suffer some sort of PTSD, I couldn't think right, didn't feel comfortable wherever I was. A bit moody, but I couldn't put my finger on it." but he doesn't think the cast were the only ones affected, thinking on production "They were as mentally affected as we were, Even though they weren't locked in, they were within their own confines. They were up there for months at a time." 

On Aug 16 2017, Rachel the gardener made a post celebrating the year since she had escaped Eden and thanking her friends and family for all their support in recovering over the last year

Stephen the chef said he didn't suffer from PTSD but he did move to Bali when the second part of the show aired just to get away from the press and all the social media reactions. 

Katie said "Returning to the 'real world' was completely overwhelming. The renewed joy of food was tempered by the wastefulness of modern life. Even vegetable peelings and bones were used in Eden cooking. The pressure of emails, phone calls and social media also made me anxious. The political news was particularly shocking." 

Physical Health

Many mocked the show not calling it real "survival" giving the cast too many things, I guess they wanted them to go in there with nothing? In a place like Scotland it would've been pretty hard to eek a living

All the cast reported weightloss particularly after a couple months of food hardship, Glenn the hunter reported that when he first tried to leave he was already down 60 lbs but few have permanent physical scars

While not a permanent impact, an aspect that wasn't covered on the show was the midges, small insects known to fly around in swarms in Late spring to later summer in Scotland are just one of the many banes Scots live with. The insects bite though this is barely a prick, but the bumps and itchings that make themselves known in the following days is the real annoyance. And there's rumors that the bugs may have been a big influence in some cast mates leaving. 

One of the neighbors in the area reported that the midges that summer were the worst they had known in 20 years 

Ali who had been one of the doctors among the cast reported on some of the things she had helped with

• Ali: As the spec said, we were "cut off from society". However, the doctors were given our own radios so there was a direct link to the producers in the event of illness. I organised a simulation trauma scenario to test out this process, which was successful. We also taught basic life support to the other contributors, so that they could respond to an event. Luckily the radios were not needed for any major trauma, but I did have to call through a dislocated finger that had been crushed by a log. It was a significant challenge to explain the issues, from a doctor's point of view, to a production team more familiar with the media industry than medical jargon. - The Adventure Medic
• Ali: I learned the different roles of being a medic on expedition, extending from simple medical care to an almost maternal role. I was surprised by how much I was leant upon, even for cuts, grazes and simple colds. My role was, however, vital at times – cleaning and dressing wounds from infected insect bites and preventing the spread of a bout of gastroenteritis with stringent hygiene measures. I had attended two expedition medicine courses before the project; everything that came up on those courses happened, and more. Luckily we had prepared well, had meticulously organised medical kit, waterproof documentation paper and ensured the medical stock was kept clean, dry and at the correct temperature at all times. - The Adventure Medic

The Valley Boys

What was shown on the show when it came to the valley boys was bad. Between their toxic masculinity, need to belittle and mock others and the rampant misogyny, homophobia and racism they became the primary villain in the last 5 episodes and rightfully so. They're probably the most reported on part of Paradise Lost and this seemed to piss a lot of them off, many of them taking interviews and trying to argue that things weren't really that bad, that it was just a bad cut and that the other cast members that have come forth since reaffirming what happened are liars

The reality is those last 5 episodes covered only 5 hours of 9 months. What occurred in between those hours we may never know for certain, whether it was more of the same or if there had been more positive interactions.

Anton had left before the worst of it, but even before that he was so often away from the main camp that he didn't witness much of it. Anton only features in the first two episodes of Paradise Lost, but he continued to watch after that, wanting to see what happened, he blogged about this and what he saw horrified him

• Last night's Eden was intense viewing for everyone, including myself. Eden was a crazy experience that I'm proud to have been a part of, but the episode did make me question that pride.[..] Some of what we saw last night was a genuine surprise to me — I had slept through a lot of what happened in my controversial home on the other side of Eden and I'm generally an early-to-bed, early-to-rise person thanks to the habits of years of rowing.
  
  Was what we saw last night on TV an accurate view of what happened? Editing can push a particular story and create both good and bad guys in a programme, I think we can all agree on that. But editing can't put words in your mouth, nor can it force you to do something you don't believe in.
  
  These things did happen. Yes, the presentation is condensed into a short programme, with months of footage squeezed into a mere handful of hours, but doesn't that make it even worse? The pressure you see on the screens is most likely the peak of the tension within the Eden community, but it's also the tip of the iceberg. Imagine living and coping with that 24 hours a day for months on end — the anxiety being forced upon you and then released again without any warning of when it might apply its grip again.
  
  I struggled with the bullying but the women had to deal with so much more. - AntonWright.com

Anton then shared a comment from an unnamed female cast member "It sounds silly but I feel really validated. It happened and it was seen — it felt like the boys were so sly that they got away with everything and just looked harmless." 

Anton continued to watch the show and it did not bring him any further comfort

• Anton: I had no intention of blogging today. My time in Eden is over and it was other peoples experience to share now. But after watching last night's episode…. Well, where do I start? It's not exaggerating to say that I felt physically sick during the programme. […]
  
  Firstly, homophobic roleplay…. WHAT? I'm conscious that this is seven months of life condensed into two hour-long episodes, but even seven minutes of that is too much. [..] Matt, you have the patience of a saint because that experience must have been soul-destroying. You did nothing to deserve that treatment.
  
  Next. It's always distressing to see someone upset, but what I saw on Katie's face last night was heartbreaking. [..] I'm sure I'm not alone at shouting at the screen for Glenn to just leave her alone. How she dealt with all of that I have no idea because she was cornered in a space where she had no escape from a conversation that she clearly did not want to have at that time. Katie, I'm only thankful that you have Rob with you now. - AntonWright.com

• Anton: "I thought the way Rob conducted himself with that was amazing – quickly, competently and in an intelligent way. He was shut down every time. I was most disappointed by Jack (the former Army officer). Of all the people there, he had the skills and the training to make things happen but he didn't. He kind of stirred things up instead of leading from the front."  - Cambridge Independent 

The Valley Boys Defend Themselves

Before the first episode of Paradise Lost aired the valley boys were already trying to defend themselves. They had seen the first episode of Paradise Lost with the other cast mates at a Channel 4 wrap party. Chef Stephen recalls being furious, he felt like it was a total betrayal saying "amped up by about 10,000. It was something, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't the only storyline. Did people get a bit feral? Probably people got a bit feral."  In an interview with vice before the other four episodes aired, Stephen says he had thought he was getting involved with "high-brow entertainment" and feels he's been dragged into "sensationalist bullshit" and feels the edit treated him and others unfairly "It's just escalating into something it wasn't, and obviously Channel 4 are licking their lips because [sexism] is such a big social issue [...] People are thinking, 'I wanna see those sexist arseholes.'"

Katie's reaction was more somber "Yeah, I see it as accurate, I feel like it got the mood of it." 

On the other hand, Jenna who had been one of the doctors has claimed that the sexism isn't true "There was a divide between two friendship groups, and one of the groups was all men, but the other group was completely mixed. Nobody in there was sexist. That's just been made up.". She points out how those most talking about these claims are Anton and Katie "It's like they've been brainwashed. They are talking like they were in that TV show, whereas that wasn't the experience we had." 

But I want to say that while Jenna claims what is shown is false, she also left 4 months into the experience. The worst of the misandry appeared to be in November, 8 months into the experience

Of all the valley boys the most vocal in their defence is Glenn the hunter, the "nice guy" that got all bent out of shape when one of the women said they weren't interested in him in that way.

An interview with Glenn argued that "there's another side to that story. [..] There are different approaches. The girls would have approached it with a more soft, compassionate angle on how to proceed and go forward and sometimes the guys just wanted to get stuff done. But generally the guys' attitude was to make sure everyone was looked after."

But it's clear the public didn't agree with this take. By the time the last episode aired, Glenn had been forced off of twitter after he had claimed that what people saw was the result of malicious editing. Meanwhile Titch, the plumber and general leader of the Valley Boys said "I can't remember it being that dark tbf [to be fair], I think I've come off ok."  

As the episodes aired many took their opportunity to speak out, one of the most vocal was Katie who had no qualms about sharing how horrible her experience was, particularly when it came to valley boys, which only seemed to further infuriate Glenn.

• 'We all had a horrific time at Eden. Why the hell is Katie leaping on the bandwagon now when she knows what was shown is not the full picture?' 'She's turned into a sort of persecutor-in-chief. 'She would come round to our house for cups of tea. But when you look back at her private videos, she was slagging us off from day one. It was duplicitous.'. 'We're the pantomime villains in Channel 4's production. The Glenn you see on TV is not a person my girlfriend knows. It's not a person I recognise either. I gave a year of my life – blood, sweat and tears – to build something fresh, only for it to be twisted into the diabolical, highly edited trash Channel 4 produced. It's soul destroying and I'm a bit shell-shocked by it.' - DailyMail

Glenn filed a complaint with ofcom, a government approved regulatory organization for broadcast television, but Channel 4 is clear in their stance

• 'All the contributors were made aware of the premise of the programme and the resulting series is a fair and accurate account of what took place.'

As Vice puts it " No amount of editing can conjure comments about "girl jobs" and "boy jobs" into being, nor is it possible to ignore the incidents of dismissive and patronising attitudes towards female community members. While editing may have distorted the regularity of this behaviour, it doesn't provide an excuse for it."

When asked if he feels he ever overstepped the line, Stephen says "One hundred percent. I think anybody would find themselves in that situation, saying something and then thinking, 'That was a bit much, thank fuck I wasn't on television' – but I didn't have that last year. Sometimes your mouth moves quicker than your head." but he still denies that this an accurate depiction of what happened. "They turned it into wanky sensationalist crap because that's what people want to watch on television, apparently. I thought it was gonna be part of something special,"

While some of the valley boys at least acknowledge that some of their behaviour got out of hand at times, they do tend to pin it on that period in the end, as if it were the result of the situation and not rooted in something more fundamental to who they are. Raphael has posted some snippets from the journal he kept that shows that even 5 days in these men were already looking at the women as objects. And there's plenty of footage that seems to support this

• Raphael: Flitting through the journal, date 28th March 2016. The entry is 'who will pair up with whom?? Yes, just 5 days in and those randy buggers can't wait to sort out pairing up. Sex has already been mentioned by two individuals. Dare I say their names? Well one hunts and the other is "I Don't wanna be that guy." I think that's enough of a clue. Can you believe one has even voiced how he has been "wanking in the woods!!" I kid you not. I was even asked if I had brought condoms!?! Me!!! Are you mad? How would that go down with my wife watching at home? Defo loss of nuts on my return. - AntonWright

Change in Direction: Paradise Lost

Even before Paradise lost some of the cast mates expressed annoyance at what was shown on television, Lloyd the fisherman has raised questions about the lack of positive footage that was used 

But regardless of which side the cast mates ended up on the rebranding to Paradise Lost put them on edge

• The source added: 'The producers have completely rebranded the programme. It didn't work out as planned but they don't want it to look like a failure, so they are now trying to make good out of bad.
  
  'Everything they are going to focus on is dark and quite negative and some of the participants are upset that their year in Eden will be pretty much ignored to make way for those who fought. - Press Reader

'You look back and think was it worth doing?' [Glenn] says. 'I was in a good relationship, I gave up my job and came back to a load of debt – we were paid expenses. 'If any of us had known it had gone from a 16-part documentary to a five-episode reality TV show that doesn't give people the right to reply and omits the context of the story, we'd have walked out. - Daily Mail

The Show's Slow Death

The latter 9 months of the experience got condensed into 5 hours, there seems to be many reasons for this. Between issues with care packages including branded items making footage unusable, and just overall exhaustion from the group as they splintered off.

Nearly no footage is show from January-March, the story tapers off around Christmas and is picked back up in the last couple days of the experience. Chef Stephen says "It got diluted, which killed the integrity of it. They couldn't show much from Christmas Day because there were so many known brands in the background!"

There's rumor that one of the cast engineered a hospital trip so they could contact a friend and get cannabis delivered. Cast mates were known to sneak out, Raphael has said "they had people there who lived in the area. They'd sneak out, go to a friend's house for a cup of tea, and come back." 

After the walk-out seemed everyone was over it and simply weren't committed to following the rules anymore and while many claimed to not care so much about the show not broadcasting anymore, once they found out in October that seemed to kill what little spirit was left to make the community work. Caroline the Shepherdess reports that this kind of behavior really made her lose faith in the production and the experiment as a whole 

Titch the plumber tells of one such expedition "We had this crappy little rowboat, rowed for an hour and half in the p–––––– rain," he says. Eventually, they found a house, where a "horrendously posh Englishman" opened the door. "We went to the dining table with about 16 people," laughs Etherington. "We're sat there with all these prim and fancy people. I'm drinking Rémy Martin XO, smoking a cigar."

Boredom became a big factor in the end, which is also likely why there isn't much footage after Christmas. Who wants to watch a bunch of people bum around reading or doing daily chores?

•  "The cast learned of Brexit and Trump's election from passing walkers but did not know if the news was true. To hide their knowledge from the cameras, they passed notes inside books. One day, Etherington opened a novel and found out that Prince had died." 

Fallout and Legacy

The show

Eden has been quietly relegated to history, something mostly forgotten until there's another "top 10 times reality shows went off the rails" and I believe it was through a reddit thread like this that I had first heard of it as well. Like so many things the common narrative is more salacious "the show was cancelled 3 months in and no one told them and left them to rot!" which is only partially true, but even then barely and the news articles about the show are brief blips of "it was bad yo" but few get into the actual details of what happened and why never mind digging further past the common narrative

Channel 4 had seemed determined to make Eden work, and many speculate this has something to do with them looking for an equivalent hit to Big Brother since they gave up the franchise in 2010. They were dumping money into the show with a rumored budget of 15 million pounds 

Foley spent the opening weeks of the shoot grinning. "A lot," she told me. "Thinking, Look at them. Look at what they are achieving. This is going to work." - Sam Knight - The New Yorker

Early in the show's marketing and even during the initial airing Channel 4 made it seem like this was going to be a series.

• There have only been four episodes so far – but the makers of Eden have now told stunned locals they want to shoot a second series in the Scottish wilderness. […] at a public meeting held at Acharacle on the Ardnamurchan Estate – where Eden is being filmed – on Monday, representatives of production company Keo Films told more than 20 residents present that they were hoping for a second series. […]
  
  "They were hoping to do it – and they gave the impression it could either be using the existing participants or a new batch. It could be either. That surprised a few people as we haven't seen much of the first. "They said they would apply for permission to exclude the public again. They said they were very pleased with the way it had gone and were satisfied with the ratings which were around 2 million viewers for each episode [ said one local who was at the meeting.] - Press and Journal

But by the time Paradise Lost aired any thoughts of carrying on the show died with it. Instead the Channel was forced to contend with accusations by the cast and public about how the show as edited and manipulated. A statement by Channel 4 said

"The series follows actual events and we are satisfied that they are fair and accurate, in compliance with the Ofcom broadcasting code. Any claim that we have falsely constructed scenes or events is strongly denied; the different dynamics and attitudes between the contributors speak for themselves in the series." - Vice

But no one can deny the sharp tonal shift that occurred between the first and second season. While the first still had the ear marks of a reality show with a focus on drama, there was still hope and many lighter moments were covered. But by the time Paradise Lost aired the show had nose-dived into a much tighter focus on what seems to be the most negative and salacious scenes.

The general public considers the experiment a failure, but showrunner Liz Foley doesn't

Foley says the experiment must be deemed a success because "people got to the end. They had moments of absolute glory and beauty. But that's still a community and they were still interacting. All communities have fractures. We used to put people in the stocks and throw tomatoes at them. They didn't go that far." - The Times

The Area

When Keo first started location scouting they assured the locals that this would be a boon on their tourism and many were optimistic in the early days

• But Jill Gosney, who owns Ardshealach Lodge guest house and restaurant in Acharacle, yesterday said she was very pleased they had chosen to film Eden in Ardnamurchan. She said: "I think it's good for the area. It's always a struggle trying to run a business here. "It's exciting that they're making a TV programme here and it can only bring us business."
  
  Councillor Thomas MacLennan, Fort William and Ardnamurchan, said: "I'm delighted to hear that it's all up and running and filming is taking place. "I'm sure it will be good publicity for that part of Lochaber when it appears on the television." - Press and Journal

Heather MacIver, who runs a tea room in nearby Acharacle, said that she would happily serve the show's contestants if they were to crack. She said: 'The show coming here is great, there's been a few people focusing on the negatives but 95 per cent of people I talk to think it will be great to have it here. 'Ardnamurchan being on television can only be a good thing for bringing tourists to the area because it's such a beautiful part of the world" - Daily Mail

but no such boon ever came

• "It has not done this area any favours – it has just not lived up to expectations." Local resident Maria Macpherson said yesterday - Press and Journal
• "They also said that they believed the series had contributed greatly to local tourism and had employed eight to ten people. But I, and others, have seen no evidence of a tourism boom." [local] October 26 2016 - Press and Journal
• The show became something of a laughing stock among local residents who said it had been "a joke", with some contestants smuggling in junk food and alcohol. - The Guardian

The Site

Eden became just as much a character as its cast, but like the show it has been abandoned

• Five months after filming ceased, the show's location looked as though it had been the scene of a small but tidy war. There was a dark-blue shipping container and the outlines of eight small modular buildings, where a crew of around a dozen had spent the year collecting footage and audio from the other side of a six-foot-high wooden fence. -  Sam Knight- The New Yorker
  

• Inside the gate, the path into Eden led up through the trees. At first, it was heavily scored with tire tracks, from the off-road vehicles that brought in the show's forty-six cameras, the power lines, and twenty-two kilometres of fibre-optic cable. At the peak of the headland, the path gave out. I stumbled downhill for a while, tripping on roots, until I noticed a small opening among the trees and three large heaps of cut wood. Some of the longer pieces had nails in them, with fragments of tarp attached. There were other domestic touches: a small bridge over a stream, a rough door, the suggestion of a chair. I leaned down to touch something of the palest green, which turned out to be the skeleton of a sheep.
  
  I set off to find the beach where the "Eden" community lived during the summer months, but soon got lost. Steep valleys of ferns led nowhere. The rain had stopped, but I was soaking. When I finally emerged onto the dunes, clouds hung on the hills like smoke. The only remains of the "Eden" camp were some old fire pits and more bones. A young buzzard hovered for a long time, and then sped away. I picked my way along the shore, falling once or twice in the seaweed, before I found a hole in the fence and clambered out. The first person I met was a woman in a blue anorak walking her dog. I asked if she knew what the enclosure was for. "Aye," she said. "That reality show." She cocked her ear to the silence of the forest. "Are they still in there?" -   Sam Knight- The New Yorker

And I was shocked to find out that Eden wasn't the only thing abandoned. A little over two years after filming at ended in September 2019, Caroline the Shepherdess had returned to Eden after a friend had visited the area a few months prior and reported to her that there were still sheep there.

Caroline was appalled. Sheep have been bred to be completely dependent on people to survive, so to have stranded them there was all but a death sentence.

The sheep had originally been brought over by boat by production, as with the walls all other ways to exit were to swim or try to make it through the thick forest or cliffs. Keo had told the cast that the animals would all be rehomed, but when Caroline looked into it she heard that some of the sheep had been recovered, but the others had been left after the Ardnamurchan estate deemed them "feral" and unsuitable to be moved.

Caroline and farmer boyfriend borrowed a boat from a local fisherman, she had been told that fifteen sheep had been left, but by the time she arrived only seven still lived. They were suffering from severe exhaustion, ill health and overgrown fleeces. She and her boyfriend took the sheep and they are now caring for them.

Caroline said 'I feel Channel 4 had the moral duty to ensure they were taken care of. 'During filming, Keo films went on and on about our welfare and animal welfare, but the aftercare shown to both was shocking. I tried repeatedly to speak to them about it but I was just brushed away.' […]'The aftercare was shocking'

The Cast

Eden is a bit of an anomaly of a reality show, there's this strange phenomenon where once you've been on a reality show you get connected to the reality star hivemind and thus never really leave the public consciousness. But for the most part with the cast of Eden, they have faded into obscurity, and for most that seems to be by choice

Unlike many reality shows that select their cast based off of their social medias, that wasn't the case here. Many of the cast members were contacted through bizarre indirect ways, like production calling a work place looking for someone with specific skills. It seems almost half and half, the number of people that sought out the experience and applied and those that were sought. This makes most of the cast closer to your average Joe than the influencers we usually see

Only a couple seemed to have their eyes set beyond the horizon hoping this would lead to further film opportunities. Chef Stephen has been known to say that he went on the show in hopes that it could lead to him getting his own show

But most went to expand their own experiences, to prove something to themselves to others or to really just escape (there is some irony of escaping by joining a publicly broadcasted show in an enclosure but to each their own)

Strangely despite how many of the cast report trauma from their experience and taking months to find a normal groove again, they have also claimed they don't regret the experience, at least from what can be found publicly, as I said most have remained quiet about the whole thing

Artist Katie and Vet Rob stayed together for year after filming ended, even living with each other for a time, but eventually would split . Plumber Titch and Chef Stephen became roommates and were considering starting a business together. Raphael and Anton have become lifelong friends, with Raphael even being Anton's best man at his wedding

Many of the group still stay in contact via whatsapp groups, but for some they will never reconcile

Tom Wah

• Amazing experience, amazing, it's just a shame you don't see the good side of what we did whilst we was there - Telegraph

Glenn Moore (Hunter)

Was surprised to find the experiment had been branded a failure 

• "If you heard that [someone] had an accident, or that they were lost in the woods, everybody would have got up and run to help them. [...] [With] all the conflict and the rifts and the division, it just seems to me it's exactly the same in the outside world. You've got 50% who want to be in the EU, roughly half want to be out. It's the same in the US, half are for Donald Trump, half are against him."  -  BBC

Raphael Meade (Carpenter)

• "People like the blood and guts. They're going to want to know what went wrong. We had the opportunity to show some of humanity's strengths, when we really showed a lot of society's weaknesses." - The Guardian
• Still, it wasn't all savagery in Eden. "We had some good times there, when we were playing volleyball and games," says Meade [Raphael]. "Anton was a good storyteller – we had story nights and poetry nights."  - The Telegraph
• "If there hadn't been certain people in there," says [Raphael], "and other certain people hadn't left, it could have been absolute paradise, it really could have."  - Telegraph
• "That show changed me as a person to appreciate and have more empathy and sympathy for others" - Absolutely Magazines
• Eden provided "an opportunity for me to see if I had developed into the person I am now, much better than the person I used to be". Raphael has a new perspective on life: "I wake up every morning with a smile on my face. I know I can survive anything." - The Guardian

Anton Wright (Boatman)

• "As you can probably imagine, the outcome of my time in Eden wasn't what I'd hoped for — but rarely is, and the trick is to dust yourself off and try again. I'm quite pleased with the programme and how accurately it represented what happened" - AntonWright.com

• "A lot has changed for me of the past year or so, last year especially. Some of you may know I had been living off grid for a number of years however I'm now back in bricks and mortar […] I've also graduated from University after successfully completing a Masters in Film and Television production, the inspiration of which came from my involvement in the EDEN programme, and an urge to be behind the camera and have more control"  -AntonWright.com
• "What I like most about being friends with Raph is that he is just as up for silly things as I am. So when I challenged him to do an open mic night at the Lion's Den Comedy Club he just shrugged and said 'sure, why not'. That's how it started, and last night the pair of us got up on stage and each did a 5-minute set. Neither of us knew what the other would say, nor had we done it before, and we just went for it."  - AntonWright.com
• "Everyone else was delivered to their home when leaving Eden, but I was delivered to the airport, and from there my adventure continued. - AntonWright.com

• Rafael joined me a few days later. As crazy as it probably sounds, I've never had a best friend. I've never let anyone get close enough, but Raf and I experienced something amazing together and we already planned a life after Eden with marriages to our partners; to be the best man at each other's weddings; holidays together, and most importantly — focusing on family. I'm still in awe of how he stood by me through this, and he would joke that he was my bodyguard. We are both lucky to have been able to experience Eden, but now it's time to do so much more.  - AntonWright.com

• Raf and his wife came to visit and helped to remind me that the challenges I now faced were not just my own, as both of our families had worked hard and struggled with our absence. Our actions put a lot of pressure on everyone, but our partners had become close friends in the preceding months, and the four of us were able to help and support each other. The inevitable online chats, pictures and videos followed, and new feeling started to fill me, a feeling of family, positivity and a future with new friends."  - AntonWright.com

• The bond was forged with Raf because of a similar mentality and way of thinking. Very quickly we'd got annoyed by what was going on and decided, also very quickly, to work on the log camp – Rafton Towers – and we decided to get up at 7 every morning to help achieve that." Rafton Towers was the duo's rather splendid camp in the woods, which had hot water, a stove and a certain level of comfort. It was here that Anton's "too many logs" slogan was coined: they had more firewood than they knew what to do with.
  
  "I live on a narrowboat on the Cam: I've lived off-grid for five years. You survive, you strive, then you thrive. I don't want to chop wood in winter. I do it in the summer and take it easy during the winter. I was chopping logs in Eden from day five! We spent five months chopping up logs and the others were jealous because they hadn't done it themselves." - Cambridge Independent

A really cute montage of Anton and Raphael's friendship: 

https://x.com/theantonwright/status/937317037881397251/video/1 

Jane

• Jane delighted herself by "digging deep", getting through it and learning unlikely skills including tree-felling and fire-starting  - The Guardian

Katie Tunn

• Katie built a house, met her boyfriend and argues the programme serves a vital purpose. "It's fascinating as an anthropological experiment: how we live, struggles for power, for food, for sex … If you want to see how human beings work, that's it." - The Guardian
• Tunn has some fond memories too. "For me, one of the most amazing things was to spend time in nature where you could actually see the seasons change," she says. Tunn also recalls how, towards the end when she lived in a little woodland hut, animals would come in and join her for breakfast. "Like Snow White – if Snow White was slowly losing the plot and swearing a lot."  - Telegraph

• "The self-styled Girl Friday set off to spend 40 days and 40 nights alone on an uninhabited Hebridean island at the beginning of the month as part of an Ordnance Survey campaign to get more people outdoors.
  
  But halfway through the challenge, the 32-year-old artist from Berkshire, who moved to Skye four years ago, had to be rescued after falling and suffering a head injury.
  
  Determined not to admit defeat, Miss Tunn persuaded doctors to allow her to complete the quest after her CT scan came back clear.
  
  'The trip has been magical and I can't wait to get back to complete it.'[..]
  
  She added: 'Spending a year off-grid in Ardnamurchan for Eden wasn't exactly the immersive close-to-nature experience I had expected. It often felt like a constant battle to persuade certain people to respect the environment in which we were living.  - Pressreader

My reaction on seeing a child for the first time in a year: "That person over there is really small!"

…first horse: "That thing is huuuuge! Have they always been that big?!"

First time seeing Skye Bridge again: It was overwhelming to see home again. Got misty eyes for my Misty Isle! - The Times

As the months passed and people left, the general tasks were shared by a smaller group and spare time became more scarce. However, between chasing the pigs and chopping logs we did find the hours to enjoy our natural home. Some people read, some whittled and others wrote. […]

My snatched time was for being creative. [..]. There was a stag made from moss, a whale tail made from washed up fishing gear and, my favourite, a 7ft woman made from heather who gazed out to sea towards Skye. I was particularly touched when, after the project had finished, a local fisherman approached me and promised to maintain her after we'd gone. The land had sustained us for a whole year, so it felt important to leave something more beautiful than just tree stumps and ashes.

That said, my proudest creation was the home that I built. Because we were living in such an unusual situation I wanted to create a dwelling that was as extraordinary as the experience. [..]

Whilst we built we were often accompanied by a bold little robin. He became such a regular feature that Rob designed a special little hinged window to let him inside once we'd sealed the roof on. It was a great joy through the dark winter months to have this jolly little fellow sitting on the desk as I went about my daily tasks. [..]

Over time I became familiar with the behaviour and quirks of the voles, mice and shrews that shared the Rabbit Hole with me. The voles were the boldest, appearing each morning, by January they trusted me enough to eat oatmeal from my hand. [..]

My time living alongside such wildlife in the Rabbit Hole was one of the most magical experiences of my life. I began to record all the different species that I'd seen, including otters, woodpeckers, eagles, common seal and yellowhammer – among others, by carving their names onto offcuts of old fence posts and nailing them to my ceiling beams. By the final week there were almost 80 wooden tiles decorating the roof.

In a cruel twist, the Rabbit Hole did not survive the project. On the last morning I returned home to find the whole thing ablaze. I was devastated. I lost my diaries, my sketches and all the gifts that I'd treasured throughout the year to remind me of home. Yet the most upsetting thing was losing the house itself, a sanctuary and place connected to nature. The Rabbit Hole was my biggest work of art and I'd put my soul into it. [..]

Strangely though, as time has passed, I've come to see the loss as a good thing – perhaps, if it had remained I would have found it hard to leave. My only regret is that the beautiful woodland I tried so hard not to change was scorched by the fire. I had hoped to leave it as bothy for walkers, but with the Rabbit Hole gone I lost my tie to the Eden landscape. I was ready to go home.[…]

Spending a year in Eden was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was also one of the most rewarding. The experience taught me to how to appreciate a slower pace of life and enjoy small simple moments which bring joy. [..] I'm also looking forward to the day when I'm settled enough to have my own naughty pigs.

Countryfile

Ali Blatcher

• My time in Eden taught me a great deal about myself and about humanity. I felt that, as well as being the medic, my role in the team was one of morale booster. I was told that I frequently lifted the mood of the camp, whether with a ukulele song or a chat. Importantly, however, I also learned what my limits were. By four months, I felt I had gained enough and decided to withdraw myself from the process.
  
  Many people have asked if I regret the experience. I certainly don't, as I think that every life event, good and bad, can teach you many things. My learning curve in those four months was so steep. I learned about morals and ethics, teamwork and leadership, social group dynamics, community, psychology and diversity. And I learned what is important in life: interpersonal human interactions and new experiences, versus material objects and home comforts.
  
  My biggest insight was realising that I am an individual with my own goals and ambitions, and it is up to me to follow them. Many doctors feel trapped in their profession. Whilst always having respect for the decisions of those around me, I feel enabled to go down an unconventional path in my career, and live my life in a way that makes me feel happy and wholesome. Having lived in a community where we made our own rules, I now feel a new sense of freedom. - The Adventure Medic

Jack Campbell

• Jack Campbell was one of the 10 contestants that stayed in the game for the whole 12 months. Speaking to presenters Jeremy Kyle and Kate Garraway on GMB, he insisted there were no hard feelings towards Channel 4 over how it handled the situation. He said: "We don't feel cheated at all. The whole premise of doing this is that it was an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience. The TV element wasn't that big of an issue for us - DigitalSpy

• Jack also looks back with satisfaction on his year. "I've done things before that were physically challenging and I know how far I can push myself," he says. "For me it has been a hugely positive life-changing experience." Jack has become a vegetarian, given up alcohol and plans to build a log cabin in Scotland. - The Times

Stephen Etherington

• Stephen describes it as "an amazing, unbelievable experience". He and Titch have become flatmates and are planning to start a business together. - The Times

Tara Zielemen

• For her part, Tara doesn't regret taking part, but admits to having been naive. 'I went in with an idealistic vision, but that wasn't shared by most people there.'
  
  She says she has met several others recently and the majority are said to be in regular communication online. - Daily Mail
• [Tara] says: 'I was surprised that people didn't miss their phones as much as I thought they would. They were enjoying not being bombarded with messages all the time - Daily Mail

Rob Pattinson

• The beauty and the rawness of Eden were still overwhelming. Pattinson, the vet, had grown up on a hill farm in Northumberland and often loved his days on the headland. "It was just good," he said. "Wake up when the sun came up. Get a fire going. Boil your kettle. Make your tea. Feed the hens, feed the goats, check the eggs."  - Telegraph

Jose

Two years on from the day I walked into Eden, I'm reminiscing about the house I built there…[..]

Strangers to each other, 23 of us arrived in Eden on March 23rd, 2016. There was so much to do and get used to in those first few months that most days I didn't believe I would ever have the physical energy and practical skills necessary to build a home.[..]

On the top of a little hill, at the edge of the forest, we found the perfect spot between four trees, almost in a square on top of a little hill. We decided we would build around the trees, so we would have tree trunks inside each corner of the house and roots on the "floor" – a tree house, but grounded. […]

We were ambitious at first, thinking we would have a double wall for extra warmth, and even a porch area and double-doorway! We really had no idea what we were doing, as you'll see from this very vague plan I jotted down in my diary on June 1st:

[..] On 8th of June, I wrote in my diary: "Today I realised that we can actually do this, we can build our own house and we will – just one tree at a time." [..]

My house got me through many tough times in Eden. On 8th September, I wrote in my diary:

"I was in danger of falling into a hole of anxiety, but my house saved me. I headed up the hill and started tackling my window. I was hesitant to begin with, but it all started coming together much easier than expected. It's funny how I can build these things up in my mind." [..]

I worked hard all day long, barely stopping at all. I clambered up makeshift ladders and hung awkwardly off trees, stretching to nail in logs in hard to reach places. By 4pm, I was done. I was ecstatic! I rushed to the nearest houses to find someone to tell and found Vet Rob fast asleep. I promptly shook him awake and dragged him up the hill to show off my roof frame. He pointed out some sawing I still needed to do, gave me a hand and when it was finally done we celebrated with a cup of tea and headed back to summer camp for the birthday celebrations. 

[…] On October 10th, I had the first fire in my house and celebrated with a cup of tea with my Eden sisters, Katie and Jane.

A week later, October 17th, I finally moved in. The first night alone in my house was such a surreal and wonderful experience. [..] And sleeping in the house that I built?! It was so exciting that I could barely sleep at all! [..]

It took another month or so for me to build a bed, a seat/spare bed, a desk, a wardrobe area…

I was still putting shelves up in December and I didn't even make a door until January! For a long time, people came in and out through the window. [..]

I loved spending time in my house, and others seemed to as well. It was incredibly warm when I had the fire on, at times I would be inside cooking in a strap top when it was -5͒° outside! Building at the top of the hill had paid off, my floor dried out quickly and I had no trouble with damp. On very windy nights, the trees in the corners – and therefore the entire house – would sway gently and sometimes creak and wail loudly, giving the feeling of being inside a boat on a rough sea. [..]

When it came time to leave Eden in March 2017, a year after we had entered, there were many many mixed feelings. I was of course eager to get out, to see my friends and family, to eat whatever food I liked and to hear what had been happening in the world for the last year. But there was also sadness at leaving the beautiful place we had come to call home, and to leave my house that I loved living in so very much.

But I also left with a newfound sense of confidence and resilience, and a peaceful certainty that one day I will build my own home again – and this time, I will live in it for much longer than six months. -JoseJourneys

Conclusion

It's disappointing that in the last 8 years I could probably count on one hand the number of serious investigative journalists that have actually looked closer at this to figure out what happened. Most of what we know comes from blog and articles written by the cast themselves, but even they have been pretty quiet about the whole thing.

The show tried to ride a difficult line between documentary and reality tv and it seems that when the documentary aspirations weren't paying off they put everything on reality and in the end it cheapened the experience and is likely a big contributor to why not as many people have looked into what happened.

I have to wonder what happened to the likely millions of hours of footage. Is it in a vault somewhere? Or has it been destroyed? I think there's potential to make a real documentary about this failed one and to really look at what happened both in front of and behind the camera, investigate the claims, interview thee cast and production. The goal had been admirable, putting a group of people in the wilderness to see if they could make something of it is fascinating and it's probably why this story has enthralled me so much ever since I heard of it, because it had so much potential.

The cast is different than your typical reality cast, they are skilled individuals who were primarily there for challenge instead of the insta fame, and with the right group I think they could've did something pretty amazing and there's glimmers throughout of what could've been, only emphasized by the more positive stories told by the cast after the fact

Startlingly, all four maintain that it is still possible to start again. "Because otherwise," says Jane, "humanity's doomed." - The Guardian

Full Source List

• https://absolutelymagazines.com/why-essex-carpenter-raphael-meade-is-known-as-the-fixer/  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_and_Afraid  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_(American_TV_series)  
• https://josejourneys.com/2018/03/23/the-tree-house/  
• https://josejourneys.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/silenced-hungry-and-furious-who-are-we-now.pdf  
• https://thenewgirlskye.com/2017/04/03/its-good-to-be-home/  
• https://thenewgirlskye.com/2017/08/11/eden-the-vet-and-the-artist/  
• https://web.archive.org/web/20220809112057/https:/www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/989990/contestants-walk-off-highland-reality-show-because-of-midges/ 
• https://web.archive.org/web/20220830082146/https:/www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/1017005/contestants-quit-channel-4s-eden-boredom-tiredness-hunger-midgies-bite/ 
• https://web.archive.org/web/20241103132858/https:/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/24/channel-4-begs-public-to-stay-away-from-eden-wilderness/ 
• https://web.archive.org/web/20250522163846/https:/www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/1066583/eden-will-second-season-start/  
• https://web.archive.org/web/20250524060838/https:/www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/897980/filming-of-eden-begins-in-remote-lochaber-forest/ 
• https://www.antonwright.com/2017/08/09/eden_rules/ 
• https://www.antonwright.com/2017/08/11/eden-exposed/ 
• https://www.antonwright.com/2017/08/17/my-eden-after-eden/ 
• https://www.antonwright.com/2017/08/21/guest-post-why-did-you-do-it/ 
• https://www.antonwright.com/2017/09/01/eden-the-beginning-guest-post-by-raph-meade/ 
• https://www.antonwright.com/2017/09/21/eden-10-june-2016-how-the-wheels-came-off/ 
• https://www.antonwright.com/2017/09/28/whos-for-who-guest-post-by-raph-meade/ 
• https://www.antonwright.com/2020/02/20/sorry-its-been-so-long/ 
• https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-40847891 
• https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/how-i-survived-a-year-on-remote-peninsula-for-reality-show-eden-9050964/ 
• https://www.countryfile.com/people/experiences/life-on-eden-a-year-living-in-the-wild 
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3474678/Channel-4-fire-survival-filmed-suspiciously-close-mod-cons.html 
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3739420/Hounded-beasts-Eden-Contestant-tells-bullying-sexual-tension-bitter-rivalries-Channel-4-s-TV-experiment-create-Nirvana.html  
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4785586/Male-stars-reality-TV-accused-sexism-hit-back.html  
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4762066/Eden-TV-proved-no-better-cavemen.html  
• https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/695032/eden-channel-4-quit-locals-reveal  
• https://www.flashpack.com/solo/travel/solo-travel-tips/interview-katie-turn/  
• https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15470094.they-havent-shown-worst-it---participants-shocking-reality-television-show-eden-speak/  
• https://www.live-production.tv/news/cultural-events/nep-uk-provides-fixed-rig-and-production-services-new-channel-4-show-eden.html 
• https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/04/reality-tvs-wildest-disaster  
• https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20170807/281900183300204  
• https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-scottish-mail-on-sunday/20170730/282144996420865  
• https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/entertainment/eden-on-channel-4-the-social-experiment-that-began-with-a-dream-but-ended-in-a-nightmare/  
• https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/st5vso/reality_television_eden_the_community_that_spent/ 
• https://www.scotsman.com/regions/inverness-highlands-and-islands/reality-tv-show-eden-heads-for-remote-scots-west-coast-beach-1487104  
• https://www.scottishlandandestates.co.uk/helping-it-happen/case-studies/back-brink  
• https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/nep-uk-providing-fixed-rig-and-production-services-for-channel-4s-eden/  
• https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/eden-alone-channel-4-reality-tv-disaster/  
• https://www.televisual.com/news/nep-provides-fixed-rig-for-channel-4-s-eden_nid-6078/   
• https://www.theadventuremedic.com/adventures/an-alternative-career-eden/  
• https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jul/12/channel-4-eden-set-visit  
• https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jul/19/eden-review-the-worlds-newest-reality-tv-show-is-love-island-with-trench-foot 
• https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/aug/04/eden-paradise-lost-reality-show-nobody-watched  
• https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/mar/23/eden-reality-show-contestants-year-wilderness-no-one-watching  
• https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/the-men-rationed-the-food-and-the-weak-were-weeded-out-qn2jjm3s3?region=global  
• https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-complicated-truth-about-the-sexism-on-channel-4s-eden/  
• https://www.voice-online.co.uk/news/2021/06/20/the-man-that-can-raphael-meade/  
• https://www.wildardnamurchan.com/day-trips/ardtoe-the-singing-sands-and-eden-too   
• https://x.com/RunawayCrofter/status/897821412584456193