The Island

Created from the prompt: ‘The island remained a beacon of non-conformity, a refuge for the unconventional,' chosen randomly from a nearby book:

The remote Hebridean island of Taransay was the setting for a television project which made good viewing. A group of selected ‘volunteers’ were selected to set up and run a commune using only what was provided, which included tools, livestock and seeds, and some essentials to healthy existence. 

36  men, women and children were picked by the BBC to live for a year on the previously uninhabited island for a social experiment called the Castaway 2000 project.

Cameras followed the islanders, including the then unknown Ben Fogle, as they built their own sustainable community, grew their food, killed their meat and set up their own school.

On the surface, it sounded an idyllic existence. The emergence of dictators who saw themselves as leaders, lazy bums who tried every trick to avoid work, earth mothers wanting everything to be organic and healthy, never mind the conditions, healers who had convinced themselves (but very few others) that meditation was the cure-all solution, and smilers and jokers who uplifted everyone’s spirits by day and spent half the night worrying and weeping. It seemed like all of society’s outcasts and hopeless had applied.

Naturally, cliques and political stances soon emerged and the castaways either left or were required to leave by means of a voting system.

It could be the perfect setting for the TV dating sitcom Love Island!

Jean Taylor