And lo, reality TV did hit the most bottomest bit of the deepest pit. GOING COLD TURKEY CH4 (UK)

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Wow. If someone had described this show just a year ago I would've laughed it off as some scathing Charlie Brooker/Chris Morris-style pisstake. But no, it's real and live on Channel 4: REAL LIVE HEROIN ADDICTS GOING COLD TURKER! Hosted by a Ch4 newsreader so it has a flimsy claim to 'seriousness' but bullshit to that, it's just Big Brother for the underest members of the underclass. And jaw-droppingly watchable too.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds28818.html

Channel 4 are planning to show heroin addicts going cold turkey in a Big Brother-style house.

The series, which will be fronted by newsreader Krishnan Guru Murphy, will monitor participants 24 hours a day as they try to beat their addiction.

A source told the Sunday Mirror, "It's an unusual idea, but it's a great chance to show people what it's like to quit a drug like heroin."

Contestants will stay at a clinic near Harrogate for the show, called Cold Turkey, which begins a five-day run on February 20.

"We have expressed serious concerns. Heroin addicts are incredibly vulnerable people and we are worried they could be exploited," DrugScope spokesman Harry Shapiro explained.

A spokesperson for Channel 4 insisted, "We are hoping to inform youngsters about the harsh reality of beating drug addiction."

Sure you are, spokesperson for Channel 4, sure you do.. And if one dies well that wouldn't be all that bad ratingswise would it now?

― Affectian (Affectian), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 23:32 (twenty years ago)

I'm proud to say that the most shocking addict, the woman with two kids who sells her body on the street and brought a HUGE KNIFE into the clinic with her (!?) is from my lovely hometown of Wigan. And another one's from Warrington. Reprazentin' for the NW MASSIVE.

The most horrible footage was of the Wigan lady scoring and shooting up her last lot of smack. Her face all mangled by addiction then laughing evilly after she'd taken it. £5 says she'll not stay off it.

― Affectian (Affectian), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 23:32 (twenty years ago)

A friend just said:
I hope they do a live screenin where people can send in texts and they scroll along the bottom.

― Affectian (Affectian), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 23:33 (twenty years ago)

dazzers da best in der hes bount take da smack propah

I just laughed my arse off at this, but in five years who knows:

i dont understand they are just locked inthere to cold turkey or do they blag em with some drugs

― Affectian (Affectian), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 23:33 (twenty years ago)

are there tasks that they need to carry out in order to score some smack?

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 23:41 (twenty years ago)

It's pretty much watching them be sick into cardboard buckets, their confused doddery parents almost crying and old footage of them shoving dirty syringes into their thighs. With that fucking Jose Gonzales version of Heartbeats soundtracking every slightly sad scene.

Top comedy moment last night though, with the Wigan mum shooting up in the bathroom. Her 15 yr old daughter comes banging on the door wanting to use the toilet:
Wigan mum: Just go away until the fumes clear will you?
Daughter: I'm not arsed about the fumes, I NEED A WEE

Class.

― Affectian (Affectian), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 23:50 (twenty years ago)

haha this bit now: "A possible love story!", schmaltzy music playing with the Brummie guy slobbering and dribbling over himself, his head lolling about everywhere while the nurses shove him about. Yup, the first GOING COLD TURKEY wedding surely beckons..

― Affectian (Affectian), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 23:52 (twenty years ago)

British TV is so much better than American.

― Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 23:59 (twenty years ago)

It is.

― Under the paving stones, Paul Scholes (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 00:01 (twenty years ago)

more like stop getting woudn up over stupid fuckign bullshit and go outside

― retarded and gay (bato), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 01:13 (twenty years ago)

Why would anyone want to watch people being sick and having the runs and lying about in cramps hallucinating for 3 weeks?

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 01:21 (twenty years ago)

this is pushing things a bit no?

i started off thinking reality tv could really be something. the idea of big brother when i first heard about it was new and exciting to me and i saw it as a true social experiment to be broadcast and commented on by the masses. when it actually arrived i felt disappointed, realising that most of it was heavily manipulated by the broadcasters to increase the cheesefodder factor. once the craze caught on, my disappointment turned to boredom - a landscape of cheap telly - low on entertainment value, intellectual interest or originality.
now my boredom turns to genuine disgust. what is big brother telling people? that standing in front of a camera and being told to act like a goon automatically makes you a wonderful person/super-celeb? in ways, big brother has literally turned into BIG BROTHER - capturing our imaginations with it's turgid play-by-play account of minor everyday incidents; giving the impression of embiggening the small man to it's own dastardly ends. not only will the big brother generation become tolerant of having it's dirty laundry broadcast around the world but it will embrace the fact that one can be rewarded through exhibitionism.

― Vintage Latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 01:45 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, and cf with MySpace for similar exhibitionism/voyeurism I would think. Is nothing a private act anymore? Must everyone be available for their every thought and action?

Its like (sorry, this is a bit of an aside), if you want to be alone for a while and not be reacahble by email or phone people think you're a snob or something is the matter with you. Such exposure, such constant 24/7 demands on our time, and at such high speed, feels so wrong it really makes me want to cliche'dly scream STOP THE WORLD I WANT OFF.

Makes me want to go be an illuminated manuscript maker in the middle ages or something. Ugh.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 02:08 (twenty years ago)

"We are hoping to inform youngsters about the harsh reality of beating drug addiction."

Remember kids, don't quit drugs!

― PlayfulPuppy (playfulpuppy), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 02:18 (twenty years ago)

btw, I'm not tut-tutting about this show - I really like it! I'm merely amazed at the levels as to which reality TV will stoop. There was some BBC documentary recently, following a guy (an teeth-grindingly smarmy & unlikeable host, which explains why it was relegated to BBC3) pitching a fake show to various TV networks. The show would be hosted by Craig and Makosi from Big Brother 2007 and would follow a house full of people. These people in the house would be voted off according to their looks. At the end the couple would have a baby and win lots of money. I'd only be half-surprised if that aired now - in fact, the show ended showing a clip from a very similar show which was about to begin filming, fact follows fiction, etc - and I'd certainly watch it if it was.

I like seeing how far the average schmoe will go just to be famous. It fascinates me. Sure, it's degrading, tawdry and exploitative but it's also great viewing.

― Affectian (Affectian), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 02:56 (twenty years ago)

It will be interesting to see how much more extreme all this becomes once the broadband/TV divide is finally demolished. Once the traditional role of "broadcasters" has gone, Christ only knows what will happen.

― James Ward (jamesmichaelward), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 10:22 (twenty years ago)

More porn.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 10:31 (twenty years ago)

Never mind all that, "CHANTELLE: LIVING THE DREAM" STARTS TONIGHT!

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 10:35 (twenty years ago)

There's something amazing about the lack of enthusiasm Chantelle manages to put into the trailer for that. "Oh my God, it wasn't a dream". EVEN SHE DOESN'T CARE.

― James Ward (jamesmichaelward), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 10:39 (twenty years ago)

i think humanity has just gone up a whole stage, it's like a cut scene from '2001'.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 10:50 (twenty years ago)

from my lovely hometown of Wigan. And another one's from Warrington

.. which is my lovely hometown too, Warrington that is.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 11:06 (twenty years ago)

When is the first eviction?

Cos I usually just tune in for that...I like seeing their 'best bits'

Is Davina doing it?

― Ant, Wednesday, 22 February 2006 11:28 (twenty years ago)

I haven't heard of this

does only the winner get to stay clean and the evictees have to go back to using?

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 11:30 (twenty years ago)

Is it true that one of the constestants is a stooge who's only pretending to be addicted and could in fact quit at any time he liked?

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 11:32 (twenty years ago)

The others are already suspicious that he hasn't been sweating enough.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 11:34 (twenty years ago)

are they supplied with copious amounts of booze?

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 11:35 (twenty years ago)

Shouldn't it be cold soup and porn?

― Onimo Has Seen Trainspotting (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 11:36 (twenty years ago)

The first task is to count how many dead babies are crawling across the ceiling.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 11:38 (twenty years ago)

What happens when one of them dies?
Do the execs get charged with culpable manslaughter? Do they go to the funeral?

― mei (mei), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 13:18 (twenty years ago)

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