“New reality TV show seeks contestants. One year, £100,000,” read a small advert in the Stage in 2002, instructing the public to apply “if you’re characterful, resourceful and energetic”. Hundreds did. An audition with production teams and camera crews was held at Raven’s Ait island in the Thames in Surbiton, west London, with potential contestants delivered via boat, and a young man known as Nik Russian at the centre of it all.
“It was so professional,” recalls Lucie Miller, who was 34 at the time. “Everybody oozed confidence and Nik was extremely charismatic.” Daniel Pope, then 25, recalls Russian being “a very handsome man who looked as if he belonged in Hollywood”.
