Production on Ross Kemp’s Channel 5 programme on the world’s most hazardous jails has been paused.
Filming for Ross Kemp: 72 Hours in… had begun, but everything was halted just as the crew was about to embark on the next phase of filming in South America until the holiday season.
According to Deadline, filming has been halted due to a ‘incident,’ with discussions underway between the documentary’s producers and the Paramount UK network to get things back on track.
A Channel 5 spokesperson said: ‘Filming had begun on the series, but due to unforeseen production challenges, we have made the practical decision to halt filming at the moment.’
The eight-part series, which premiered this summer, follows the 59-year-old former EastEnders actor as he goes ‘behind bars in some of the world’s most high-security, high-risk jails housing gang leaders, serial murders, violent criminals, drug lords, and mass murderers’.
The former soap actor turned documentary filmmaker earlier hinted that he will push himself ‘far further than before’ for the new series.
‘I’ve been to some of the toughest prisons in the UK and all around the world. I thought I’d experienced it all, and taken every adventure, but this time we’re going even further than before,’ he said in a statement announcing the project.
‘I’m looking forward to my first documentary series with Channel 5 and taking you all on this journey with me.’
And Federico Ruiz, the head of Channel 5 added at the time: ‘We’re thrilled to expand our working relationship with Ross who is no stranger to immersing himself in some of the world’s most dangerous environments.
‘This series will see him push himself further than ever before and experience raw, visceral reactions when coming face-to-face with some of the world’s most dangerous criminals locked up in extraordinary prisons.’
Ross recently talked up about his previous arduous shootings, which included getting fired at by the Taliban and being detained at gunpoint in Papua New Guinea.
And, while he admits they pale in comparison to the problems of fatherhood, he believes it is critical to have a ‘black sense of humour’ in order to cope with such horrific situations.
‘We also use trauma risk management which means sitting down and talking through trauma with your colleagues. That can be being shot at, you can be in a road traffic accident or your son has been killed by drug dealers,’ he told The Sun.
‘What keeps me up now isn’t necessarily those events, it’s worrying about not being around for my kids.’
