The new BBC series Stranded on Honeymoon Island is a “social experiment” about the reality of marriage that will teach audiences about “moving forward with your life”, its host, Davina McCall, has said.
Made by the producers of Married at First Sight UK, the show features 12 singles looking for lifelong love who are matched with someone on a speed date and “married”. They are then stranded on a tropical island dressed only in their wedding outfit for a three-week honeymoon without phones, luxuries, family or friends.
The idyllic looking island becomes a metaphor for marriage, as the reality of their situation – given basic rations and surrounded by insects – becomes apparent.
While the show’s premise could be described as Love Island for older people crossed with First Dates crossed with Survivor, McCall says it is a “real” reality series that the producers “can’t steer” or predict.
She said: “We’ll all learn something from it. It’s brilliant. It’s really tough, but it’s also amazingly helpful for moving forward with your life. I think anybody watching it is going to take a lot away from it.
“It was a brilliant kind of social experiment, looking at people meeting in the toughest of conditions and seeing if love can flourish … it is a way of getting to know somebody very, very well, very quickly.”
The presenter said the show’s format meant “leaving the distractions” of modern life behind so people could show their true characters, work ethic and resilience faster than if they met via online dating.
She also said the show was about “being stripped of everything,” which is anathema in a consumer culture used to social media, grooming products and filters.
For one contestant who likes lipstick and doing her hair, “it was really difficult” because without those things “she could feel herself losing something of herself”. McCall said it was interesting to observe how her partner reacted.
“It’s such a learning curve for everyone. Being out there, you are stripped of everything that makes you you and also makes you feel comfortable and safe or attractive. It’s a very, very difficult experience, especially when you’re with someone you don’t know at all.
“These are big things that normally don’t happen for months. It’s the quickest induction into someone’s life and personality and who they are. If you can survive that, I feel like you can survive anything.”
McCall said the Stranded participants “genuinely really want to meet someone – and it is difficult nowadays”. A point echoed by one contestant, Helen, who said she took part as she was tired of “the endless swiping” on dating apps.
At a screening of Stranded in London, McCall said she agreed to front the series – which airs on BBC1 and iPlayer this autumn – after an operation to remove a benign brain tumour which, she confirmed, “is not coming back”.
However, she said: ”It’s changed me, in a way … it’s made me want to absolutely live life to the max and grow old disgracefully and do everything I wanted to do. Because I do understand that, in life, you don’t know what’s around the corner.
“What I love about this [show] is they’re all slightly at this point where they’re like: ‘I will do anything to find love; I’m hitting that stage of my life and I’m really ready to meet somebody and settle down.’
“And they’ve taken a massive leap of faith. And I guess me having this operation was sort of very conducive to me accepting this show, because it felt quite like an adventure. And I do love love [and] being able to help people find that.”
With the fashion for turning TV series, such as The Traitors, into live experiences, there is speculation that Stranded, created by the Scandinavian company Snowman Productions, could become a real-life singles dating holiday.
