Page 383 - They Also Served

Stafford was next sponsored by the Discovery Channel to star in a series Naked and Marooned, where he was dropped, without clothing or supplies, onto the deserted Pacific Island of Olorua. After prioritising the basic needs of water, food, shelter, and warmth, he survived for 60 days, later writing a book about his experience. Stafford then followed up with Marooned with Ed Stafford, repeating the format in other exotic locations such as Botswana, Australia, Rwanda, and the Gobi Desert. Only in the Norway episode, as a concession to the extreme cold, did Stafford start his adventure with any clothes.
Further series along similar lines followed, such as Ed Stafford: Left for Dead, before he was filmed in two ground-breaking series, as a rough sleeper in 60 Days on the Streets and, in 60 Days with the Gypsies, he spent the time with members of the travelling community. In this latter series, although not subjected to the hardships of earlier programmes, he experienced the prejudices against his hosts first-hand. He described his opening view of his first site, teeming with dogs and chickens and the air thick with tension as ‘This is mental!’
After returning from the Amazon, Stafford traced his biological family, the Lovells: ‘Not because I needed new parents in my life, but because it’s just inherent to want to know’. This resulted in meeting his two younger brothers and the revelation that he is descended from Romani gypsies.
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