ZARA McDermott revealed she was nearly arrested in Thailand after just 24 hours while filming her new BBC documentary.
The Strictly star, 28, explores The Dark Side of Paradise in Thailand – from the sex industry to backpackers looking for a good time and the serious dangers and consequences of being in a foreign country.
Zara McDermott revealed the terrifying moment she was nearly arrested[/caption]
The documentary maker visited the Red Light District in Bangkok[/caption]
Zara revealed police ordered her out of the area and followed them[/caption]
Zara headed to Khao San Road, known as the red light district, where prostitution is freely available – despite it being illegal in Thailand.
After filming for over an hour and capturing footage of a string of women in their underwear along streets and doorways with blinds, Zara and her crew were ordered by the police to leave.
But this was not before a crew member had an ashtray brutally thrown at their head before they were marched out.
The former Love Islander revealed that they were followed by police who tried to seize their footage – despite insisting they had the correct permits to film in that specific location.
Zara said at the press launch: “The edit can only capture so much but realistically that was around an hour-and-a-half of our time and our crew got split up in that process.
“We were really trying to get out of that situation, but unfortunately with the language barrier and trying to communicate with the police and this is our first proper night and we didn’t really understand how to deal with a situation like that and ‘what do you do?’.
“We were really lucky that we were able to get away in the end and not have to hand over our footage because we would have also lost the previous parts of that clip if we had to delete all the footage, it would have been quite a problem for us.”
Zara described Thailand as a big ‘contradiction’ as she said the team “jumped through hoops” to get them an expensive permit – but was still told to leave despite being initially allowed into film.
She said: “We were confused initially, we’d obviously done months of work, the team had done a lot of the leg work to make that possible. We’d jumped through all the hoops, we’d got the permission, we paid for a permit which is a fair amount of money for us and then to get there and feel so unwelcomed.
“I expected in some ways for the girls to not want to be on camera and for people to be ducking and diving away from the camera at certain points but to actually be told by the police you cannot film even though we jumped through all those hoops, it was a bit confusing for us, we didn’t know what to do.
“But I think it’s important to editorialise those moments and to not switch the camera off and to just roll in real time.
“It’s an important part of documentary making is breaking that fourth wall and showing the viewer what we had to deal with that evening and taking them along, rather than editing it out as if it didn’t happen.
“It’s really important to show the realness as it really reflects what you go on to see through the series – the kind of corruption that does exit in Thailand.”
She added: “I think one of the words we kept using during filming was contradiction, Thailand does feel a bit like a contradiction.
“A lot of it didn’t make sense and we’re trying to work it out on the ground.
“Dealing with a foreign authority, it is difficult because the rules are so different from the UK, the police just work differently and trying to film a whole documentary and capture that while also dealing with the repercussions of that is challenging but we got there.”
Zara delves deep into the party culture and those who are seeking longer term roots, including a man who has left the UK to start a relationship with a Thai woman and make money via webcams.
The media personality turned documentary maker also interviewed a sex workers who found herself in a rabbit hole.
She also spoke to tourists who found themselves on the other side of the law and the heartbreak when something goes wrong.
Zara admitted the story of tourist Regan Kelly still “keeps her up at night” after his body was found in the sea in Thailand.
The TV star spoke to his sister about that devastating night, which CCTV footage saw him run to the beach but never return.
Thailand: The Dark Side of Paradise airs on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer from Monday 8 September.
A crew member had an ashtray thrown at their head before they were marched out[/caption]
Zara takes a deep dive into the dangerous side of Thailand[/caption]