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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/Tokyono on 2024-05-20 14:01:26+00:00.

This is my first Hobby Drama post in 8 months!. I am back with some more modern hobby drama! Usually, I write historical stuff, but wanted to change it up a bit :) Oh and prepare for lots and lots of carpentry puns!

Wood you look at that: Reality TV in the UK

When you think of reality tv, the words “trashy”, “exploitative”, “rigged”, usually come to mind. However, in the UK, another word comes to mind…

“Cozy”.

What do I mean by this?

Shows like the Great British Bake Off (GBBO), Antiques Roadshow, Sort Your Life Out With Stacey Solomon, Great Pottery Throwdown, etc. Shows that have a calm, relaxed, atmosphere, with a genial host, where the contestants are (for the most part) kind and cordial towards one another. However, as wholesome as these shows appear on the surface, they have their fair share of controversies. Especially the GBBO, which has a whole section on Wikipedia about its numerous controversies. Everything from issues with product placement, to contestant favouritism, to unfair elimination, production woes, leak of a winner, and even accusations of “racism” aimed at its “Nationally themed weeks” (a post for another time).

All of these issues pale in comparison to the controversy I am going to cover today. Also, unlike the show I am going to discuss, the GBBO has survived every controversy that plagued it. After 13 seasons, it is still running strong.

Chop Chop Chop: What is the Chop?

Announced in June 2020, The Chop: Britain’s Top Woodworker, was a show unsurprisingly about carpentry. It was originally planned to air on the Sky History channel. Sky is a British broadcaster.

Here is the full description:

Hosted by comedian Lee Mack, TV Presenter Rick Edwards and Master Carpenter William Hardie, The Chop: Britain’s Top Woodworker sees 10 of the country’s finest carpenters gather in Epping Forest to whittle, carve and chop their way to the final, to see who will be crowned Britain’s Top Woodworker and the chance to stage their own personal exhibition at the prestigious William Morris Gallery in London.

Master Carpenter William Hardie oversees the construction of a grand and spectacular cabin in the woods, adding a new room every week, each on a different historical theme, including Nelson’s cabin on HMS Victory, a Victorian pub, a Gothic bedroom, a Georgian hunting lodge, and a 1960s’ Mad Men-inspired lounge.

It followed a standard reality show format. Every week, someone wood be eliminated until a clear winner emerged. Viewers had a lot to look forewood to. Hopefully the show would be able to carve out its own niche. Okay, enough would puns. I know you’re all on-board.

Like most British reality tv shows, The Chop had a comfortable atmosphere, with friendly presenters that would engage in ribbing with one another and the contestants. Here are some early trailers for the show: one and two. The show was filmed pre-covid lockdown.

Mack, 52, said: “It’s quite ironic that everything was filmed pre-lockdown and pre-Covid and yet most of the contestants spend most of the time with a mask on, because it’s woodwork.

“So people will watch it and go: ‘Well they’re obeying the rules but Rick and Will aren’t’, but actually it was filmed a long time ago – this time last year.”

So, the winner was set in wood, long before the first episode aired. If you want to know more about the contestants, I found their official show biographies.

The focus of this writeup will be a guy named Darren:

Name: Darren

Age: 40

From: Bristol

Occupation: Carpenter/Joiner

Background: Darren has been working in woodwork since he left school, he loves the variety that each day brings. Darren has two children and loves building them wooden items. His favourites were special beds and wardrobes he made for his children which included LED lights.

Meet Darren: Aka “The Woodsman”, Aka “the-Bloke-With-All-The-Tattoos”.

Early on, out of all the contestants, Darren was hyped up as a potential audience favourite:

It remains to be seen which of the contestants, seven men and three women, will become the viewers’ favourite, although Darren, a furniture maker from Bristol, is an early frontrunner.

Nicknamed ‘The Woodman’, his entire face is covered in tattoos and he’s not averse to making controversial statements.

‘He’s quite a character,’ says Lee. ‘We met him again at a photo shoot recently and he’d had more tattoos etched on top of his other tattoos, which I thought showed an incredible level of commitment to the cause.’

His tattoos became a key part of his marketing for the show. This was reflected in his character trailers, as well as in interviews about the show.

Darren is probably one of the show’s most striking characters, due to the fact he is very heavily tattooed – even on his head and face.

He started having his head and face tattooed around 10 years ago.

“I had other tattoos already,” he said.

“But about 10 years ago I saw someone with facial tattoos and started to work with my tattooist on my look.

“I have my daughter on the back of my head and my son on my cheek.

“When some people first meet me they are a bit shocked, admittedly.

“But they soon warm to me after a few minutes.

“Some people ask for selfies with me. I’ve never had a negative reaction to my tattoos. They are just me.”

Darren says his appearance on the show, since the trailers have gone out, has prompted people to recognise him.

“I’ve already been stopped by people who have seen the adverts.

“No one went on the show to become famous.

“But hopefully it will come across on the show that I’m a bit of a character.

There was another difference between Darren and the other contestants: he had prior experience with reality tv.

In 2007, Darren (without any tattoos) starred in “Dumped”, a show in which 11 contestants lived in a garbage dump for three weeks, in a shelter they constructed from discarded rubbish.

Darren quit after three days. He said he did it because he didn’t believe in the aims of the show

Not all the participants were convinced. Darren Lumsden, 27, owns four cars, only recycles because his rubbish would not be taken away otherwise, and throws away his pants and socks at the end of every day. He left the dump on day three. "With me it's a bit like the smoking ban – I'll only be green if I'm forced to be." Lumsden also says rumours that some local authorities only recycle half of what goes into their green bins reduce the incentive.

He also told fellow contestants: “I don't believe that what we are going to do is going to achieve anything. If I don't believe in it I won't be doing any good for myself or other people.”.

Well, he certainly achieved something with his next reality tv appearance…

On the chopping block. The controversy

The first episode of The Chop aired on October 15, 2020. Shortly afterwards, some viewers noticed certain...things about Darren’s tattoos. Certain numbers and symbols…were linked to white supremacy.

“Darren appears to have these two on his face 88 = HH = Heil Hitler 23/16 = WP = White Supremacy There's also: 18 = AH = Adolf Hitler 1488: a reference to the so-called 14 words, coined by white supremacist terrorist David Lane.”

Darren also had a sig rune on his nose…the SS symbol used by the Nazis.

Sky History was criticised by historians and antisemitism groups.

After the trailer for the programme was aired, historian Dr Elizabeth Boyle from Maynooth University in Ireland said she had seen "at least five recognised Nazi/white power tattoos".

The Campaign Against Antisemitism group also criticised Sky History, saying it had ma...

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