PALIN MITENK BLOG

By Paul Revoir and Simon Cable

Trooper Stephen Shine was injured in Iraq when the tank he was driving was hit by a roadside bomb.

Soldiers who have lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan are being targeted to take part in Big Brother.

The Channel 4 show's producers were accused of sinking to 'a new low for reality TV' in a desperate bid to make the last series the most sensational ever.

Army charities have been contacted by Endemol, the production-company behind the series, asking for 'case studies' of soldiers who are homeless or who have been injured in recent wars.

A senior casting director has even sent Facebook messages to soldiers who have had amputations asking them to appear on the show, which has frequently been accused of exploiting the vulnerable in the quest for viewers.

One of those approached was Trooper Stephen Shine, a tank driver with the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, who lost a leg in an explosion in Iraq on April 6, 2007. His story features on the website of the Army Benevolent Fund, one of the organisations contacted by Big Brother.

The revelation will shock the public, coming a day after the Queen said the whole country owed soldiers, and the families of those killed in action, a 'debt of gratitude'.

In the last year, 106 British soldiers have died in Helmand and more than 430 have been wounded.

Annabelle Fuller, spokesman for the Army Benevolent Fund, said: 'We're a charity, not a selection box for bad TV programmes. The people we help are often vulnerable.'

After receiving the email asking for potential candidates, she was so offended that she wrote in a blog: 'Men and women who have bravely served their country and fallen on hard times or dealt badly with the transition from the Armed Forces to civvy street are now ideal people to be under continual observation and media scrutiny, are they?



Big Brother Presenter Davina McCall. The final series aims to be as sensational as possible


'How heartless do you have to be to think that putting a homeless person in a house where they face a weekly eviction vote is a good idea?'

The email sent to the ABF from Endemol said: 'As well as the open auditions we always cast the net far and wide. I'd like to politely enquire if any of your members would be interested in BB11?'

A similar one was sent to Dr Hugh Milroy, chief executive of the Veterans Fund, who called it a 'new low for reality TV'.


The Daily Mail has highlighted the plight of the wounded with our 'Help Heal Our Broken Heroes' Christmas appeal, with our readers raising more than £400,000 for the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA).

Dave Davies, from the South Wales division of the SSAFA, said:
'My fear is that programme makers will try to turn a disabled soldier into a laughing stock. They thrive on exposing people's weaknesses.

'It is deeply cynical of the producers to try to do such a thing.'

Commander John Muxworthy, of the UK National Defence Association, said:

'How anyone could even attempt to try to take advantage of these people and their suffering is staggering. It is not just unacceptable but completely unethical.

'I imagine they will try to justify it by saying they are drawing attention to the plight of these soldiers but I would seriously question whether that is their real motive.'

Colonel Bob Stewart, chairman of Action For Armed Forces, which represents wounded soldiers, said: 'They are trying to hitch a ride on the back of the massive public sympathy for our ex-servicemen. It's an act of desperation from the makers of a horrid little programme.'

A spokesman for Endemol said: 'Every year we contact lots of organisations because we want to get a wide variety of people in the house. That does not mean to say we will put someone from the military in there.

'It is an opportunity for everybody to audition. The casting director has contacted a variety of organisations including the ones mentioned and lots of other places as well.'

The father of Jamie Cooper, the youngest serviceman injured in Iraq, last night condemned Big Brother producers, accusing them of resorting to 'ghoulish' tactics to boost ratings.

Private Jamie Cooper, now 21, lost the use of a leg and a hand in a mortar attack in Basra in November 2006 while on patrol with the Royal Green Jackets. He was hit by two shells which ripped through his stomach, pelvis and limbs and spent more than a year recovering at Selly Oak hospital.

His father Philip, 51, who lives in Bristol said: 'It's disgusting that they are trying to take advantage of injured servicemen like my son. I totally disagree with it, Jamie would feel the same, I'm sure.

'Everyone knows that the show is dead in the water and what they are doing is really cynical. They are trying to boost ratings and it's ghoulish.'


dailymail