Participants in Channel 4’s new show recreate the journeys made by refugees for entertainment. It’s awkward watching, and feels like a pointless endeavour
Channel 4 is often criticised for not being the bold and ballsy network it once was. That may be true – but where else on British TV would you find a reality docuseries in which participants recreate the treacherous journeys undertaken by asylum seekers? Go Back to Where You Came From (Monday, 9pm) has already been the subject of social media speculation and furious comment pieces, all before a single episode has aired. A refugee charity derided it as “A Place in the Sun meets Benefits Street”, which is a truly horrifying combination, but also – unfortunately – made me want to watch it more. At the other end of the spectrum, people with union jacks in their X bios have decided that it is “lefty propaganda” and a PR effort for those they refer to as “illegals”.
Go Back to Where You Came From is based on an Australian series, which proved equally divisive at first but was eventually praised as “ambitious” and “confronting”. This version is certainly in-your-face: Nathan, who owns a haulage company back in Barnsley, is essentially a human foghorn, and opens the series bellowing about how illegal immigration is akin to rape and murder. A chef called Dave says he wants the Royal Navy to set up landmines to blow up small boats, and offers a memorable, if tasteless, soundbite as he looks across the Dover coast: “it’s like rats – you leave food out and they keep coming”. Soon they will be on the streets of Mogadishu and Raqqa, hollering far worse. Meanwhile, the producers let a Welsh woman called Jess complain that everyone in town calls her a “flap guzzler” because she’s gay, and then – when she remembers she’s here to make a documentary about immigration – film her shaking in fear at the sight of a local asylum hotel. Nathan, Dave and Jess’s views are roughly in line with those of another participant, Chloe, while Bushra and Mathilda are more sympathetic to the plight of those hoping to make a new life in the UK. As Bushra points out, if the shoe was on the other foot, most people rallying against unauthorised border crossings wouldn’t hesitate to find a safe place for their families to live.
