Extreme Channel 4 reality challenge Mutiny makes its sailors suffer – iNews

Its the latest extreme reality show designed to place participants in mortal danger.

But Channel 4s attempt to replicate the gruelling journey after the Mutiny on the Bounty added trench hand and hallucinations to the roll call of injuries sustained in the name of entertainment.

A hardy crew of nine men crammed into a rickety 23ft wooden boat and recreated the 3,600 mile journey of Bligh, who was cast adrift in the Pacific Ocean and somehow navigated a path to Indonesia with 18 of his men.

Living off dried beef and biscuits and squatting over the side of the boat for calls of nature, the crew relied on the nautical skills of their skipper Anthony Middleton, a former special forces soldier who tests the physical and psychological fitness of contestants on the Channel 4 series SAS: Who Dares Wins.

The weakened sailors soon fell vulnerable to illness. Youve heard of trench foot? Well I had trench hand, said crewman Sam Brown..

He added: Both my hands had huge chunks of flesh dropping off them. I couldnt undo my fly. I couldnt hold a rope. I couldnt operate a camera.

If it had rained for one more day, I think Id have had to have been medevac-ed. My hands were literally falling apart. I still have scars on them now.

When a fearsome storm lashed the ship five days in, even a bruised and dehydrated Middleton, who led Special Boat Service operations in Afghanistan, feared for his life.

Luke Kane, the boats doctor, said: In the middle of these huge waves, in the pitch black, with torrential rain coming down, I was hallucinating.

Ive never been that scared. Youre totally powerless. All you can do is sit there.I really did think we were going to capsize and die.

Kane, who lost four stone during the journey, treated his fellow seasoned survivalists for dehydration. He said: I couldnt sit down without being in pain. I couldnt lie down. And Im a doctor, I know that the sort of weight loss I was showing was very, very unhealthy.

A rescue boat tracked the replica Bounty but was too far behind to pull anyone out of the water had the storm forced a man overboard.

Middleton said: I made it very clear from the beginning that I only wanted to be involved if it was going to be as authentic as possible, down to the rations, the boat, the islands.

Basically keeping the health and safety team at bay as much as possible so we could remain in our bubble.

Although he did not quite inspire a mutiny among the crew, Kane said of their demanding captain: Its quite weird. Im getting better now, but I couldnt talk about Ant for quite a long time without crying, which is really weird.

The modern-day Bountineers may have got off lightly.

A contestant fell 20ft off a cliff edge in the last series of The Island with Bear Grylls and was aiflfted from the camp.

Channel 4s most recent survival series Eden, a ground-breaking social experiment in which a group of volunteers attempted to create a new utopia within the wilds of the Scottish Highlands, failed to live up to its billing when a third of the 23 volunteers walked out within months.

:: Mutiny, Monday March 6, 9pm on Channel 4

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Extreme Channel 4 reality challenge Mutiny makes its sailors suffer - iNews