Great Barrier Island in running to host Castaway reality TV series

A cabbage tree over Medlands beach at Oruawharo Bay on Great Barrier Island.

Great Barrier Island could be the next location for an award-winning BBC reality TV series.

Lion Television met with islanders last night to discuss its bid to film the next series of Castaway on their home patch in the Hauraki Gulf next year.

On the first series of Castaway in 2000, 36 people lived on a deserted island in Scotland for a year and learned to live and build their own community.

The ground-breaking series is seen as the first of the reality genre, which spawned the blockbusting "Survivor" series.

This time there will be just 12 people and the show will last for 12 weeks. The people chosen to be castaways will reflect all aspects of British life: all ages; all backgrounds; a variety of skills or none; and with a range of personalities.

Lion Television is in talks with the Department of Conservation and the local iwi and is promising to use the local community for labour, transport and accommodation.

An unofficial fan website says the castaways will explore the best ways to live in close quarters with people that they may not have much in common with, draw on personal skills to develop the infrastructure of the island and, in the process, discover more about themselves as individuals.

It quotes Peter Fincham, the controller of British TV channel BBC One as saying "It's really exciting to think Castaway will be back on BBC One. Fans of the previous series will recognise it, but we've got a few twists and surprises up our sleeve."

- NEWSTALK ZB