Why, when people want to set themselves a challenge and see what they are capable of, do they feel they can only do it in a harsh physical environment miles from a late shop, pub or bus route?

Four thousand people applied to a team of TV documentary makers to spend a year on a remote, uninhabited Scottish island with a bunch of complete strangers, no food bar live animals and nothing even remotely resembling a flushing loo.

Bizarrely, people assume that by going back to basics - living life without a television (although in this case, that's replaced with a television crew), washing machine and car they will test their survival instincts to the full, have time to mull over the meaning of life and come out at the end better people.

To be honest, there are easier ways to find out whether you've got survival instincts right here on the mainland.

You don't have to capture and slaughter live chickens - as the castaways were taught - to get the adrenaline pumping. Try the poultry aisle at Tesco when they're selling off birds at knock-down prices. If you can beat the scrum and emerge with your quarry you're one of life's winners.

If you want to test your orienteering skills, forget forests and windswept moorland - there's no better place than Ikea. If you can weave your way through to the checkout, then double back and find the office furniture section, the rug department and the restaurant in less than four hours you're a born leader of men.

And throwing up a makeshift shelter has to be a doddle compared with putting a king-size duvet cover on a bed quilt.

The hardest part of life on that island will be maintaining harmony with the other people. As in most situations where a group of individuals get together - family Christmases, school reunions, holidays - there's friction. Last week on Castaway 2000, as the volunteers took part in selection tests, some almost came to blows.

Yet once again you don't need to be shipwrecked to test your tolerance and so-called interpersonal skills to the limit. Simply dial a public utility company and, after being told by a machine to hang on for an hour or more, then being put through to someone who says they can't help and curtly insists on directing you back to the switchboard, see how long you can keep your cool.

In the real world, every day is a fight for survival - commuting, working, paying the bills - it's a heck of a lot harder than chopping a few logs, strangling the odd hen and carrying water from a well in a beautiful, unpolluted - albeit harsh - environment. Living on that island is hardly the challenge its cracked up to be.

Sadly, I didn't seen the advert asking for volunteers or I'd have applied like a shot. I could do with a nice long break from the genuine stresses and strains of life.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.