PHILLIP Schofield accidentally set fire to his camp after issuing an emergency call to producers.
The final episode of the disgraced star’s Cast Away series concluded on Wednesday as he prepared to reenter society.
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However, as Schofe approached his final days on the island he was left scared when he suspected a dangerous animal was surrounding his camp in the guise of the night.
Phil, 62, then picked up his emergency radio to speak to his Channel 5 crew on a neighbouring island.
He could be heard telling the camera: “I think the time has come to use my emergency walkie.
“I thought I heard a sort of cat-like noise – the sound of a cat fighting but bigger.”
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Schofe was then advised to extend his fire by adding bigger and longer logs and to keep his cutting tool and radio with him at all times.
Waking up the next morning, he said: “As I was sleeping disaster struck. My star fire swept out of control and set my camp ablaze.
He added: “That’s genuinely the most frightened I’ve been.”
Meanwhile Phillip also told of the exact moment his agent rang him to say he had been ‘axed’ from This Morning.
He said: “That’s it, it’s done. You’re not going back on Monday. What? Because of what?
“I think it’s the publicity though. That’s got nothing to do with me. That has nothing to do with me. Why would I be sacked for something that somebody else did?
“I’ve just been fired. Because of him. Because I was becoming more of a story than the programme. It was better for the show, better for the channel.
“And I agreed to say that I’d resigned because… It would be neater for everybody. I was always open and honest with everyone at work about what was happening with my brother.
I was fired for the bad publicity. For someone else’s crime.”
Cast Away verdict
By Rod McPhee
OVER three nights – and three hour-long episodes – Phillip Schofield has been bearing his soul in new Channel 5 show Cast Away.
And it’s basically a chance for the former This Morning host to explain the circumstances that saw him leave the show last year.
To put it mildly, he left under something of a cloud, admitting he’d had a fling with a much younger runner on the programme. But in the C5 show he presents his own versions of events – one which is at odds with the narrative that emerged at the time.
He was portrayed as a man who’d had an “unwise” affair, who’d resigned as a result and had let many of his colleagues down.
But in Cast Away Philip insists he was fired by ITV and not for the affair, but because of the bad publicity that surrounded the crimes of his paedophile brother. He summed it up best when he claimed he’d been “pushed under a bus.”
After watching Cast Away what you’re left with is something rather confusing, however.
Did Philip think he’d done something wrong by having the fling with the runner, or not? For example, he said he wouldn’t have been slammed for it quite so much if it were a heterosexual fling.
He said he: “would have received a pat on the back for having an affair with a woman.” This infers that the only thing wrong with it was that it was a same sex fling. So why does he also say: “I will be forever sorry. I screwed up. I made a mistake.”
The answer, I suspect, is that the whole affair was a murky business. There were so many blurred lines around appropriateness, professionalism and honesty.
The only firm conclusion you can draw from the show is that Phillip himself isn’t ENTIRELY sure to what extent He was guilty of wrongdoing.
Amid the confusion, what will the viewing public think? I suspect that this will leave those who disliked Phillip to feel even more suspicious of him.
Those who backed him, will feel reassured too. But those who still aren’t sure what to think will be none-the-wiser – and I’m not sure if that’s what Phillip would have wanted.
