The new series of The Island With Bear Grylls erupts in chaos, death threats and claims of “bullying” as the camp splits bitterly in half.
This year’s “rich vs poor” theme sees the islanders, who must survive with no outside help for five weeks, initially dropped off at separate sides of the Pacific paradise, unaware of each other, only for them to bump into each other as early as the next day.
But any hopes of an amicable merger of the two groups evaporate as the “posh” campmates, with an average salary of £100,000, refuse to make their poorer counterparts welcome and treat them with contempt.
Confiding in fellow wealthy camp member Shereen, Barnes says: “When I saw them coming down the beach it was like the northern dole bus had broken down.”
Bossy doctor Shereen tells him: “These are not my sort of people.”
Art dealer Barnes, the early contender for this series’ panto villain who admits he doesn’t know how much a loaf of bread costs, even suggests sending them “food hampers” because he believes they are too incompetent to survive on their own.
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Tensions escalate when the less well-off campmates, who all earn less than the national average, take the only shelter for the night, forcing the furious rich islanders to sleep on the beach in the rain.
By morning, they’ve already voted unanimously to separate again from the other group, with Barnes adding: “I’ve never been quite so close to killing people as I was in the night. It was very, very tempting.
“I’m feeling quite irritated by the whole situation. We are not working well together.”
But by then, the “working class” group have already had their fill of their counterparts and claim Shereen is a “bully” and a “diva” after she threatened to ban some of them from the shelter because they were relaxing in the sea instead of helping to build it.
“Poor” campmate Laura says at a crisis meeting: “There are bad apples in a pack, right? She’s a bad apple. She’s not a team player. She has rubbed up every single one of us.
“The thing about you (Mercedes) being in the water and her saying, ‘If you don’t get out of the water, you can’t sleep in the shelter’, that’s bullying.
“That’s threatening behaviour and I can’t tolerate that.”
Mercedes, who was one of the bathers taking a break, replies: “The woman’s got no manners. The woman’s got no respect. I’m nobody’s idiot, I’m nobody’s dog.
“I don’t care where they’ve come from and I don’t care how much money they’ve got in their bank, nobody talks to me like a [bleep].”
The rich half decide to up sticks because of the “toxic” atmosphere and go it alone again, taking with them vital resources they’d already salvaged, infuriating the poorer half.
Barnes says: “The partition has happened. We seem quite glad to be rid of one another.”
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When the low-income party realises the wealthy islanders have taken all the water and string from the shelter, unemployed graduate Sammy says: “They’re a bunch of common thieves. That’s how people get rich. They steal.”
Laura adds: “It’s bizarre behaviour. I’ve never know anything like it. It’s vindictive.”
The bitter fracture is no surprise to “middle-class snobs” leader Tan, a donor manager, who says after they first meet: “I just don’t see how the two groups will be compatible, and soon it’s going to all come tumbling down.”
* Channel 4’s The Island With Bear Grylls starts at 9pm on Monday.