C4's Escape Programme

[Cursitor Doom]

Gentlemen,

Can't help but notice a couple of inconsistencies in tonight's show. They're supposed to have access to only basic tools, so where did the arc welder come from and how was it powered up? They were using a grinder as well, but that was 'okayish' as it was 18V from one of the wrecked vehicle's 12V batteries using a switching buck converter so fair enough I s'pose. However, there's a sequence half way through where they say they're going to winch the Winnebego out of the sand, but they don't. Instead it appears in the very next scene to get towed out of the sand its embedded in by some unseen vehicle which can clearly be heard revving in the background. The speed is also much too fast for any winch. Maybe I'll watch it again on +1 and see if there's anything else amiss here. Looks like there's some fiddling going on, though.

[Bert Coules]

It struck me as about as authentic as was Scrapheap Challenge.

[alan_m]

They are always going to run out of water or food just before they escape.

[Brian Gaff]

Perhaps the series consultant worked on the 'A' Team, grin. Remember shows like tese are catering for the lowest common denominator and probably all viewers are expected to, to coin a phrase, to be thick as a brick. It is after all just a form of silly entertainment is it not. When I first heard of this show I made a mental note to keep well clear of it, as it just sounded very stupid indeed. Brian

[Cursitor Doom]

It would be much better if they just abandoned those people in the middle of nowhere without any tools or food or water or shelter at all. Then when they died we would know it wasn't fixed. ;-)

[charles]

But it's only a few miles walk to the nearest pub ;-)

[tim...]

Bloody 'ell

Last night's was tough going

Both in the harshness of the environment and the difficulty of that task

Much respect to the "amateur" contestants that put themselves though all that pain for what was presumably a pittance in "appearance" fees.

And for the third week running they find at the last moment that there's a strange mechanical fault with the equipment that's got nothing to do with simulated catastrophe, but was inherent all along, which is meant to test them even further.

Except that last night the test was hard enough up to that point and it just made the test impossibly difficult.

Having said that, I think that cutting the roof off the bus was an unnecessary solution.

If they had to lash so many buoyancy aids to it to make it stable, it would have been easier just to tie all the buoyant items that they had together and put the squabs from the bus seats on the top to sit on.

tim

[alan_m]

KISS Lash together the floatation aids Paddle down river - using the tide to help them along.

So many "engineers" over thinking a survival situation. Not one ounce of common sense between them.

How to make a heavy ladder float. Wrap it up with a heavy hose and fill the hose with CO2 from a fire extinguisher. Why?

Yet again - they ran out of food and water - presumably they didn't notice it was raining!

[tim...]

agreed

It is clear that the self propulsion method is forbidden by the rules of the game.

The guys in the desert could have walked out before their food/water ran out

But the theory is that you don't know this will be the case and have to prepare for a distant that cannot be successfully walked.

tim

[Brian Gaff]

I don't go for these programs, they are pretty stupid really. What is the point?

I mean life is hard enough in real life. Brian

[alan_m]

What would have made the program more interesting would have been the "participants" stealing the support boat and leaving the camera crew, director and make-up artists etc. to get back to civilisation on their own.