TV presenter and economist Evan Davis has been criticised by viewers and participants after his show 'The Day the Immigrants Left', in which unemployed British workers were given the chance to do jobs normally taken by migrant workers, failed to follow normal reality TV conventions.
Participant Anton Sanders said he was given no opportunity to present his weeping video diary entitled 'My Potato Packing Hell' or to redeem himself with the help of a team of psychologists and personal trainers.
Instead, when he texted in to say he was too ill to work, he was summarily replaced by an overseas worker. "This was my opening gambit, a cry for help to establish my character," he complained from his mum's kitchen. "Instead, I was made to look a bit of a prat. I was well gutted. I never even set out on my journey."
Fellow participant Brandon Wesley suffered similar treatment. "I was disoriented by unfamiliar surroundings and unreasonable demands, " he said, "but I was portrayed as a work-shy no-hoper shambling aimlessly around an asparagus field. They wouldn't even do a close-up of my agonisingly blistered finger."
Davis was also criticised for stopping the experiment after only two days rather than running it for weeks to allow characters to be developed before viewers voted them out.
"We should at least have had the chance to bring our employers to the brink of bankruptcy so they could share our pain," said Anton. "This was my big break. I could have been in the papers, on game shows, even opening supermarkets. But I never even got the chance to work through my pathological aversion to handling potatoes," he said, munching on a chip.
