Phillip Schofield is back on our screens after his dramatic departure more than a year ago.
The former This Morning host, whose long and successful television career came to an abrupt end in May 2023 after admitting to an extra-marital affair with a much younger male co-worker at ITV, is returning to the small screen only to be cast adrift.
The 62-year-old has teamed up with Channel 5 to film Phillip Schofield: Cast Away, a three-episode programme which has him trying to survive alone on the remote, unpopulated island of Nosy Ankarea off the coast of Madagascar for 10 days where he must forage for food and water.
He is left with only a handful of cameras to document his experience and confront the challenges of total isolation, the forces of nature and his own personal dilemmas.
Speaking about his decision to do it, he said it was “the only thing I felt compelled to do” and “appealed to me on so many levels”.
“I’ve recently had a lot of time to think about my life, what went right and what went wrong, but I’ve always had the safe arms of friends and family wrapped around me”, he added, “This time it’s just me, no ‘phone, no comforts, no crew and only lip balm as a luxury.
“I’m looking forward to exploring the island, trying to tie knots to secure my shelter and foraging and fending for myself in the wild … with no help.
“Maybe I’ll be Robinson Crusoe, or maybe I’ll just be Tom Hank’s Wilson and quietly drift off into the wild blue yonder!!”
When is Phillip Schofield: Cast Away on TV?
Phillip Schofield: Cast Away airs at 9pm on Monday 30 September on Channel 5.
The second and third episodes will be broadcast on Tuesday 1 October and Wednesday 2 October also at 9pm on Channel 5.
It will also be available to stream for free on My5.
What should we expect from the series?
Scofield has described the show in a trailer for it as “my chance to tell my side of my story” adding that he knew what he did was “unwise” but asked “is it enough to absolutely destroy someone”.
He has previously referred to his affair with an ITV colleague as “unwise but not illegal” and claimed homophobia was a factor in the reporting of the revelations about his relationship with a 20–year-old man.
Schofield came out as gay and separated from his wife of 27 years in 2020.
Clips of the programme at the start show Schofield at a family barbecue with his wife Stephanie Lowe and his two daughters Molly and Ruby, in which he credits them for keeping him going.
He said he still has “the love of my family” which has “never wavered” and it was his daughter Molly who stopped him from taking his own life at his lowest ebb.
“Molly said, ‘Do you imagine what this would do to us if you actually managed to pull this off? Imagine what would happen. Can you imagine what it would do to me if you did this on my watch?’, and that was just enough to take a step back from the edge”, he said.
During the course of the three episodes, viewers will see the former Going Live! and Dancing on Ice presenter forced to fend for himself, while the production team is stationed 30 minutes offshore.
Schofield also takes the opportunity to discuss his fall from grace after more than 40 years on television.
He takes aim at three “cowards” he said he worked with in television, claiming he has “been chucked under a bus”.
And he suggests this will be his swansong before leaving the media spotlight for good, saying he doesn’t “care any more, this is me having my say as I bow out”.
Guy Davies, Channel 5’s commissioning editor, said: “This isn’t just a survival challenge, it’s chance for Phillip to look back over the last explosive 18 months of his life, and explore what happened.
“The audience will learn how he feels now about television and the future, as well as the past.
“And it will be Phillip Schofield as we have never seen him before – unguarded, emotional and brutally honest…”.
Include details from clips etc that are already out there, what reviews are saying etc.
i TV editor Emily Baker has described the show as “a shameless attempt for attention and an egotistical effort to claw back some semblance of respect from the public that – in his mind – used to love him so much”.
While PR consultant Mark Borkowski, writing for The Guardian, labels the show “a very modern form of public therapy in which a disgraced star seeks redemption through the absurd theatre of manufactured reality”.
