C4 rubbish Dumped set-up claims (From Croydon Guardian)

C4 rubbish Dumped set-up claims

9:22am Sunday 2nd September 2007 in

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Channel Four has defended reality TV programme Dumped following claims the show was staged.

Promotional material for the show, which begins today, said viewers would see 11 contestants living on the tip in Beddington Lane, Croydon for three weeks.

The contestants would be forced to build a life for themselves from things scavenged from the dump.

However the programme's creators have admitted the contestants lived on a special dump recreated for them because of health and safety fears.

“We surrounded the group with a representative pile of rubbish. If we'd put them up on the landfill they'd have been exposed to heavy machinery, dangerous gases, which we couldn't possibly have exposed them to - but that doesn't undermine the fact they were genuinely living surrounded by a thousand tonnes of rubbish."

Helen Hawkin

Contestants were also given food rations to live on because the show's bosses were concerned about contamination.

Dumped producer Helen Hawkin told Capital Radio: "It wasn't a fix at all - obviously in asking people to take part in the programme their health and safety and well-being has to be our paramount concern - we couldn't put people at risk of death.

"We surrounded the group with a representative pile of rubbish. If we'd put them up on the landfill they'd have been exposed to heavy machinery, dangerous gases, which we couldn't possibly have exposed them to - but that doesn't undermine the fact they were genuinely living surrounded by a thousand tonnes of rubbish.

"We did give them food, again, if they'd had to take food from a landfill site it could have been contaminated, and that wouldn't have been responsible."

Dumped begins today at 9pm and continues on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at the same time.