Great Reality TV Swindle
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The Great Reality TV Swindle (also known as Project MS-2) was a con perpetrated in 2002 by Nik Russian, a British man who, at the time, was working at an entry-level position in a branch of the UK book chain
Waterstone's Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Wa ...
. Russian placed advertisements in major publications that invited people to audition for a year-long
reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...
programme where they could potentially win a prize of . After receiving hundreds of responses, he auditioned some of them on
Raven's Ait Raven's Ait is an ait (island) in the Thames between Surbiton, Kingston and Hampton Court Park in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, London, England, in the reach of the river above Teddington Lock. Used as a boating training centre ...
in London, then selected 30 successful auditionees to take part, without informing them that no actual programme had been commissioned. Telling them that the show would last for an entire year, Russian instructed the participants to leave their homes, quit their jobs and then meet him in London on 10 June, where they would be divided into teams of ten and set their challenge for the next twelve months. The challenge was to make £1 million in a single year. Realising that they would essentially be making their own prize money, most contestants quit the show within two days. One group stayed together for slightly longer: sleeping on the floor of their cameraman's flat, they attempted to create their own TV show about themselves. Having also given up his flat and job, Russian was also homeless, and was forced to stay with the contestants he had manipulated. After the programme failed, Russian went into hiding, and was unable to be contacted. He was eventually tracked down by one of his victims to an address in
Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London ...
, where he was forced to apologise on camera. As he had not taken any money from his victims, a criminal case against Russian was not pursued—a
civil case - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil acti ...
was also not pursued due to a lack of funds.


Background


Nik Russian

Nikita "Nik" Russian was born Keith Anthony Gillard in Surrey in 1977. Raised in Farnham, he legally changed his name to Jack Lister in his early twenties, then changed it again to Nikita Russian. He studied
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
at
Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wo ...
, but dropped out before the exams. He had set up businesses and written unpublished novels before taking a job working at a branch of
Waterstone's Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Wa ...
in London—he subsequently decided that he wanted to produce his own reality television programme.


Reality television

Reality TV was a popular genre of television programming in the UK in 2002. The third series of the UK version of '' Big Brother''—which was showing while Russian's con took place—attracted audience figures of approximately 5.8 million. Most British reality TV programmes at the time centred on a team of people trying to accomplish a specific goal or target. For example, the 2000 series '' Jailbreak'' challenged a group to escape from a mock prison, while the 2001 series '' The Mole'' gave the contestants the task of discovering which of them was sabotaging their attempts to win money. Most reality TV shows offered a cash reward to successful participants—both ''Jailbreak'' and the first series of ''The Mole'' offered a prize of £100,000. Several reality TV contestants were able to become celebrities in their own right after raising their profiles on television.
Craig Phillips Craig Phillips (born 16 October 1971) is an English television personality and builder. He is known for winning the Big Brother (British series 1), first series of ''Big Brother (British TV series), Big Brother'' in 2000. He is trained as a bri ...
and Brian Dowling, the winners of the first two series of ''Big Brother'', both created successful media careers. Phillips had been featured as a DIY expert on programmes such as
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's ''Trading Up'' and ITV's ''Renovation Street'', while Dowling became the UK's first
openly gay Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...
children's TV presenter when he hosted the Saturday morning programme ''
SMTV Live ''SMTV Live'' (an abbreviation of ''Saturday Morning Television Live'', and also stylised as ''SM: LIVE'') was a British Saturday morning children's television programme, produced by Blaze Television for ITV. Operating on a similar format to ...
''.
Ben Fogle Benjamin Myer Fogle, (born 3 November 1973) is an English broadcaster, writer and adventurer, best known for his presenting roles with British television channels Channel 5, BBC and ITV. Early life Fogle is the son of English actress Juli ...
, a contestant on the BBC reality series ''
Castaway 2000 ''Castaway 2000'' is a reality TV programme broadcast on BBC One throughout 2000. The programme followed a group of thirty-six men, women, and children who were tasked with building a community on the remote Scottish island of Taransay. Descr ...
'', went on to become a television presenter for several programmes, and hosted his own series called '' Extreme Dreams''.


Swindle


Auditions

In early 2002, Nik Russian placed advertisements for a year-long television programme in publications such as ''
The Stage ''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880. It contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those wh ...
'' and the ''
Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...
'', which invited "characterful, resourceful and energetic" people to apply for the chance to "raise heirprofile" and potentially win £100,000. Russian was e-mailed more than a thousand applications and auditioned some of them on the Raven's Ait island in London. Some had applied simply for the prize money; others hoped that exposure from the programme could help them to achieve some of their dreams, such as working as a television presenter or launching a fashion label. The auditionees were told that the show was being created by the
production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and v ...
Nikita Russian Productions (NRP). For the purposes of the auditions, Russian enlisted the help of his friends to take on roles such as
psychoanalysts PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might ...
and runners—his girlfriend, whom he had met on a university
access course The Access to Higher Education (HE) Diploma is a U.K. qualification which prepares students — usually 19+ — for study as an undergraduate at university. The diploma is designed for people who would like to study in higher education but who le ...
, acted as a psychological assessor, while his friend Mike was a cameraman. The auditionees were then divided into small groups and given practical and psychological tests to complete, such as baking a cake in under an hour without a kitchen or ingredients. From these auditionees, 30 people were selected to star in Russian's programme, which he had dubbed "Project MS-2". The winning candidates were informed of their success in an e-mail from NRP and were also sent various contracts to sign and return. They were told that the project would last for a year, so most of them gave up their
flats Flat or flats may refer to: Architecture * Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries Arts and entertainment * Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch * Flat (soldier), ...
and jobs. The contracts stated that their food, accommodation and leisure money would be provided, and that they were to meet in London on 10 June 2002 for the programme to begin filming. Each contestant was also told to set up a new bank account to which Russian could have access and to arrive without money or credit cards on the launch day.


Launch day

The 30 contestants were divided into three teams of ten named Team 1, Team 2 and Team 3, and each group met in a different London location on 10 June, the day of the programme's launch. To record what each team did, Russian hired unpaid trainee cameramen. Once the teams were assembled, they were given their challenge: in a year, they had to make £1 million. Their first task was to find accommodation for themselves for free for a week. The contestants slowly realised that, despite what their contracts had claimed, they would have to find their own food and accommodation, and would essentially be making their own prize money. Some contestants demanded to meet with Russian, who eventually revealed to them that no television channel had actually commissioned his show. Teams 1 and 3 disbanded within two days. Team 2 remained together for slightly longer—sleeping on the floor of the flat in
Dalston Dalston () is an area of East London, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is northeast of Charing Cross. Dalston began as a hamlet on either side of Dalston Lane, and as the area urbanised the term also came to apply to surrounding areas includ ...
that belonged to their cameraman Tim Eagle, they decided to film their own reality TV programme about themselves, and set up a " diary room" to discuss their thoughts about Russian and his show. On 12 June, Eagle contacted the local news programme, ''
London Tonight ''ITV News London'' is a British television news service broadcast on both ITV London and the ITV Hub. It is produced by ITN. History London News Network The programme launched on Monday 4 January 1993 as ''London Tonight'', after Carlton ...
'', and the group locked Russian in the flat, forcing him to speak with the journalists once they had arrived. After their story made the local news, Team 2 stayed together until 14 June before they also split up.


Aftermath

Having believed that they would be participating in Russian's television programme for an entire year, most contestants had given up their homes, jobs and partners—most had to find new employment and some were forced to move in with their parents. Russian went into hiding and was unable to be reached by his victims. On 13 June 2002, Debbie Leigh Driver, one of Russian's contestants, contacted Caz Gorham and Frances Dickenson of the independent production company Christmas TV & Film and told them about the hoax. Gorham and Dickenson produced a genuine TV programme to document the story of the con and how the participants were now trying to get their lives back together, which was shown on
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
in December 2002. Some participants tried to track Russian down to have their questions answered. One contestant, Louise Miles, discovered that Russian's production company, NRP, did not actually exist and that the woman who had been answering their phone calls was really Russian's mother, Margaret. Another participant, Daniel Pope, managed to track Russian down to an address in
Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London ...
and convinced him to be interviewed by Christmas TV and apologise on camera. As Russian had not actually taken money from his victims, he had not committed a crime, and a
civil case - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil acti ...
was not pursued due to a lack of funds.


Media reaction

Much of the mainstream media's reaction to the con was published in December 2002, around the time that Christmas TV's documentary was shown on Channel 4. Although most commentators placed the blame for the swindle on Russian himself by denouncing him as a manipulative con man, others were more sympathetic. Rupert Smith of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' described Russian as a "tragic figure". Some critics placed blame on the contestants' overly trusting nature and desire for fame, calling them gullible wannabes. Others noted the irony in how the con had, ultimately, put them on television, which Gorham described as "a happy ending". In another article for ''The Guardian'', Smith remarked: "These are not stupid people. In archive footage from the fake show, they look like any other post-Big-Brother buffoons; but in the sombre, reflective interviews after the event they come across as likable, wounded individuals." Other commentators speculated that Russian's physical appearance may have helped him perpetrate his con. Critics described him as "beautiful" and "
Byronic The Byronic hero is a variant of the Romantic hero as a type of character, named after the English Romantic poet Lord Byron. Both Byron's own persona as well as characters from his writings are considered to provide defining features to the cha ...
", and noted that he "appeared every inch the cocky TV producer he aspired to be". Some felt that the con represented an indictment on how reality television had altered the public's notion of celebrity. Paul English of '' The Daily Record'' noted that the swindle reflected a "fascination with reality TV – and how the draw of being on telly can turn us into gullible fools". Both of Christmas TV's producers agreed. Gorham called the con "a fantastic wake-up call for reality TV"; Dickenson remarked: "I hope he swindleshows those who may be interested in these programmes that they should be careful."


See also

*''
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle ''The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle'' is a 1980 British mockumentary film directed by Julien Temple and produced by Don Boyd and Jeremy Thomas. It centres on the British punk rock band Sex Pistols and, most prominently, their manager Malcolm Mc ...
'' – a 1980 film that lends its name to this con *
List of confidence tricks Confidence tricks and scams are difficult to classify, because they change often and often contain elements of more than one type. Throughout this list, the perpetrator of the confidence trick is called the "con artist" or simply "artist", and t ...


References


Footnotes


Sources

* * {{good article Confidence tricks Hoaxes in the United Kingdom 2002 hoaxes 2002 in the United Kingdom