{"id":83942,"date":"2023-10-05T15:31:12","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T15:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mylifestylemax.com\/?p=83942"},"modified":"2023-10-05T15:31:12","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T15:31:12","slug":"the-greatest-show-never-made-will-tell-story-of-2000-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mylifestylemax.com\/lifestyle\/the-greatest-show-never-made-will-tell-story-of-2000-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Show Never Made will tell story of 2000 scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>The Greatest Show Never Made tells the story of bookseller, 25, who made fake reality show &#8211; only for contestants to turn on him<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>More than 20 years later, a new documentary is lifting the lid of a 2000 scam<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00a0READ MORE:\u00a0Gory superhero series likened to a &#8216;blood-spattered Hogwarts&#8217; achieves rare perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8216;New reality TV show seeks contestants. One year, \u00a3100,000. Apply\u00a0if you&#8217;re characterful, resourceful and energetic,&#8217; a small advert in the theatre industry&#8217;s paper The Stage read.<\/p>\n<p>It was 2002, reality TV was in its infancy and Big Brother had just aired it&#8217;s third season. It would be three years until The Apprentice graced screens.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of wannabe stars applied to be in the new show &#8211; despite little to nothing being know about it but enticed by the promise of a six-figure sum.<\/p>\n<p>Bu the show, which was never named, never aired.<\/p>\n<p>The advert was place by then 25-year-old &#8216;Nikita &#8220;Nik&#8221; Russian&#8217; who had no experience in reality TV\u00a0or any kind of broadcast production &#8211; but instead worked part time in Waterstones Piccadilly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/05\/15\/76207315-12596711-image-a-103_1696515541692.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The documentary lifts the lid on the 2002 con. Pictured, actors playing John, Lucie, Rosy, Daniel, Jane and Tim\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>Nikita saw his chance to make a quick buck. His plan? Gather three teams to make \u00a31,000,00 in a year. Keep the cash, and then dole out \u00a3100,000 to the winner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A genius scheme it was not, despite hundreds of applications and whittling it down to a key cast of 30, he<\/span><span>\u00a0was ultimately outsmarted by his contestants &#8211;\u00a0<\/span><span>who took him hostage and turned the cameras on him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Now, more than 20 years later, Nik is talking for the first time, as part of a sensational new documentary set to air on Amazon Prime Video this month.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In 2002, Nikita &#8211; who isn&#8217;t Russian and was born\u00a0Keith Anthony Gillard in Feltham, Surrey &#8211;\u00a0recruited 30 young Brits who gathered in London with the hope of winning the \u00a3100,000 prize.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They had passed auditions on Raven&#8217;s Alt &#8211; an island in the Thames &#8211; where they first met the charismatic and charming &#8216;Nik&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>With floppy hair and dashing good looks, the &#8216;fake&#8217; TV producer\u00a0didn&#8217;t tell would-be contestants exactly what the show would be, but charmed them enough to convince them they would find TV fame and fortune.<\/p>\n<p>The 30 contestants quit their jobs for the chance. Some gave up their homes, left relationships and turned up to film with just their passports.<\/p>\n<p>But things went quickly awry when they began to film. Gathering in a London park they were told their task was simple &#8211; make \u00a31 million in a year. There was no seed money and no guidance or support.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/05\/15\/76207329-12596711-image-a-102_1696515538994.jpg\" height=\"342\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>&#8216;New reality TV show seeks contestants. One year, \u00a3100,000. Apply if you&#8217;re characterful, resourceful and energetic,&#8217; a small advert in the theatre industry&#8217;s paper The Stage read (recreation for the documentary)<\/p>\n<p>Alarm bells rang. And when they were told to give Nik access to their bank account so he could monitor their earnings, two of the three teams immediately quit.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Unexpectedly, they would also have to find their own room and board.<\/p>\n<p>Seven member of the third group decided to keep filming (themselves) and headed to contestant Tim Eagle&#8217;s to regroup.<span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Among them was Jane Marshall, who was 21 and living with her parents near Manchester, at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Speaking to the Guardian, she said she &#8216;felt like something was missing from my life&#8217; and hoped the show could boost her profile as an aspiring actor&#8217;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Also there was Lucie Miller, then 34, who said Nik was &#8216;so professional&#8217; and &#8216;oozed confidence&#8217;.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Another contestant, Daniel Pope, then 25, says Nik was &#8216;a very handsome man who looked as if he belonged in Hollywood&#8217;.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After regrouping, they discovered that Nik was not a TV producer &#8211; but a part-time book seller. His production company, Nikita Russian Productions, was just him.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/05\/15\/76207897-12596711-image-a-104_1696516013333.jpg\" height=\"342\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Scenes have been recreated for the documentary &#8211; pictured is\u00a0Daniel\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Although at one point he had a childhood friend helping him out &#8211; he left before filming began over ethical and legal fears. He also had a professional director on board who quit before filming began.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In a bizarre twist, Nikita then turned up at Eagle&#8217;s flat, announcing he was homeless and asking if he could stay &#8211; angering many of the contestants he conned.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They let him in and for the next week was held captive while the contestants\u00a0 attempted to make their own documentary about him.<\/p>\n<p>They also contacted a news crew to film him and expose the con, with an team from ITV eventually showing up. (Nik has since said he was &#8216;s**t-scared&#8217; because &#8216;at least one person wanted to do him serious harm&#8217; during that week, but Tim said &#8216;no fisticuffs&#8217;).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Decided to change the narrative, Tim set up a diary room and the group began making their own show. He put the camera on Nik too.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We stuck him in the corner and grilled him until this proper crew came,&#8217; recalls Nik. &#8216;I love the multilayer madness of that \u2013 we managed to hoist him by his own petard and hang him out to dry on the medium he so wished to be a part of.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Soon after, Channel 4 made a documentary about the con, called the Great Reality TV Swindle, but he didn&#8217;t co-operate with the crew.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After it aired, and exposed him, Nik said he was homeless, sleeping outside a cinema and in parks.<\/p>\n<p>Now, 20 years on, the 45-year-old is telling his side of the story for the first time for the new documentary.<\/p>\n<p>Footage from the time, with interviews from today and scenes recreated by actors come together to make the show.<\/p>\n<p>He now goes by Nick Quentin Woolf and lives in Buckinghamshire.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the Times, he said that Nik Russian was a &#8216;persona he was trying out&#8217; and he truly believed in wanting to make a &#8216;DIY vibe&#8217; TV show.<\/p>\n<p><span>&#8216;I had an idea, a bit like The Apprentice in embryo. Teams of people pulling together, making money [and] everybody ends up hopefully with a nest egg. People who wanted to be in camerawork could get some camera experience. And people who wanted to be a presenter could be a presenter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8216;I thought: &#8216;I&#8217;ve really come up with a genius idea.&#8217; The problem was I had no idea what was going on behind the scenes [in TV]. There was no funding. I was somewhat seduced by the DIY thing and wrongly so. I was overreaching and naive.&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He added that he &#8216;didn&#8217;t create an illusion&#8217; of a proper production company and denies telling contestants it had been commissioned by Channel 4. He added he had no intention to lead customers to think food and lodging was provided.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Completely unrecognisable from his youth, he says after the scheme he ended up drinking heavily and moved to the south of France for &#8216;isolation&#8217;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He has since written a novel, The Death of a Poet, about &#8216;trauma and the consequences of bad decisions&#8217;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Now sober, married and a father-of-two, he writes about culture for online publications and has worked as a writing mentor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>One mentee is Tara Westover, the author of the international bestselling memoir Educated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span><span><span>The Greatest Show Never Made launches on Prime Video on October 11<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/femail\/article-12596711\/Greatest-Never-Made.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Greatest Show Never Made tells the story of bookseller, 25, who made fake reality show &#8211; only for contestants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83941,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Greatest Show Never Made will tell story of 2000 scam - My LifeStyle Max<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mylifestylemax.com\/lifestyle\/the-greatest-show-never-made-will-tell-story-of-2000-scam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Greatest Show Never Made will tell story of 2000 scam - My LifeStyle Max\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Greatest Show Never Made tells the story of bookseller, 25, who made fake reality show &#8211; 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