I can understand both sides here! yeah nige is right in what he has said. mark and maxine should have chosen there words more wisely but its easier said than done when you have someone standing behind the camera egging you on to say more! I also had this tryed on me, and connor fell victim of this also and has had a little trouble in school because of it. i will give you an example: at the begining of the show you see connor talking about how he always fights in school and he uses his kickboxing moves on some of the kids! they forgot to show the bit of me telling connor off for lying! i tell my children that when they lie there tounge turns green? before anyone says a word, you have got to be over 18 to have these magical powers lol. so when they refuse to stick it out i know they are telling porkies... they was also encouraging him to say it, and i gave them a right b******ing for doing that and i made it clear right from the start that i wouldn't accept this behaviour. I would like to say connor has never been in trouble at school for fighting! his teachers were disgusted with what they had seen written in one of the tv mags, it made connor sound like some sort of bully that goes round beating people up and parents told their children to stay away from him and this has upset connor to the extent that he wants to leave the school. From then on if i didnt want to answer a question they asked, i told them ask something else im not answering it. I also found it easier not looking at the camera.
I wouldn't say that i regret doing it, because if i had the chance again i would do it but differently! (mentaly)
This program has affected my private life deeply, and we didnt come across bad. so my heart goes out to the barlows and the other families that was involved. Because now its over i see none of ch4 picking up the pieces that have been hacked off peoples reputations. we all done this knowing that we wasnt getting paid, we thought we were helping to get muay thai recognised and it backfired on some of us!
Terry already new what this would cause and pointed this out to the director from the start!!! he had a simular experience 20+ years ago with his son terry butwell jnr he was filmed for some news program about boxing and thai boxing and it caused a big stur then. so we was very cautious and we was right in doing so.
It will take a long time before anybody gets over this, especially the families who took part. ( a few know my situation! )
I dont think it has made the sport look bad? it has shown us what we have got to do to make it even better... fingers crossed it gets bigger and bigger then we are all laughing!!!
Rant finished haha