Brooke McCreaner was excited and a little scared to be entering the desolate environment of new Channel 4 reality show, ominously called Apocalypse.
Set in an abandoned town in the US Midwest, used by the military since the early 2000s for urban combat training, its dilapidated buildings and rotting cars, resemble the location for The Walking Dead – minus the zombies.
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In a radical experiment, two groups of ordinary people enter an abandoned town, unaware of each other’s existence. With no power or food, can they survive 28 days in the Apocalypse
Chirpy black cab driver Brooke, quickly discovered how hunger, freezing cold and lack of sleep can turn people feral as her tribe turned on her, accusing her of being a liar and a traitor who needs to be banished.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, she tells us of her very personal fight for survival amongst those she thought would be friends, which shook her confidence and brought her to tears.
“You just don’t know what you’re going into,” she says. “It’s so much more than surviving without food and water.
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“I just took it for granted that I was going to get on with everybody, because that’s naturally who I am as a person. What you see is what you get. I’ll tell people how I feel and then I want to move on.
“But equally, if someone has their struggles, I will support and encourage them to get through it. I think I underestimated how important it was going to be to have the right people around me.”
Brooke, 42, is one of 14 ordinary citizens from the UK and Australia who have to survive for 28 days in the scenario of a world that has come to an end as we know it.
They are split into two teams. Westside consists of Brooke, posh Made in Chelsea star, Freddie Browne, 30, practical Welsh farmer, Ioan Humphreys, 32, and fiery local Wolverhampton councillor Celia Hibbert, 43, from the UK.
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Along with Aussies – Paralympian gold medallist Kelly Cartwright, 37, amiable chef Dean Sganga, 30, and diesel mechanic, Matty Wilson, 33.
As a London cabbie, Brooke is used to looking over her shoulder, but as they enter and start searching for a home and scavenge for food, reusing and reinventing anything that can help them get by, they initially have no idea of their rival Eastsiders.
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After a freezing night, housed inside a former laundry, they set out the following morning to find food and water.
At a bus station, Brooke finds a map on the wall and the location of a small supermarket. She and Dean head there but are unable to break through the boarded-up door.
Back at the laundry, Brooke asks the others to go back there with them to force an entry but, to her frustration, they delay it while they settle in.
Meanwhile, the Eastsiders, a mile away in an old school, come across the supermarket and muscle-bound Aussie, Scott, 42, does much of the breaking and entering.
The shelves might be empty but a store room reveals bags of rice, three large tins of tomatoes, pancake mix and nuts.
By the time Westside return, they see the open door and what food was there now gone. Now they know they have rivals.
“The insanity of knowing there was likely to be food there but being told we have to wait before going back made me ask why?” says Brooke.
“At that point, I started to feel like no one was listening to me and that became really frustrating. I was just being shut down as if I didn’t matter and then, what value are you to the group?”
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There follows the finding and rival poaching of chickens and donkeys as tempers flare and, armed with baseball bats, they confront each other in primal scenes reminiscent of Lord of the Flies.
There is also a massive fall out amongst the Westsiders themselves, with Brooke and Kelly having furious rows. In a moment of desperation, Brooke sneaks out to visit the Eastsiders to ask if she can join them.
When her tribe discover what she has done, Celia and Ioan join Kelly in their criticism of her behaviour. Celia is particularly outspoken, labelling her a traitor who should be banished.
“It did surprise me that people objected to me because I like to think of myself as someone who can connect with people,” says Brooke.
“At one point, I thought that me and Kelly really connected with each other, and then, in a split second, it changed.
“I can be a really emotional person, so when I maybe say something passionate, it is me being direct and saying how I feel. But I think that some people interpret that as being aggressive.
“One of the things Kelly said to me in the show was, ‘Oh, is that your personality?’ I’ll say what I think, but that doesn’t mean I want to have a complete falling out.
“On reflection, I should have continued to try and form a friendship with Kelly. We’re all human.
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“We all get things wrong and say things that we regret, but I think importantly, what I’ve learned is that if this had been a real apocalypse, your tribe is so important.
“When you’re, hungry, tired, cold and emotional, the last thing you want is to be at loggerheads with the people around you.
“I wanted to go in the show because it sounded right up my street. I’ve had stuff in my life where I’ve had struggles.
“I don’t want to go into that but I’ve had to tell myself, ‘Come on. You’ve got to survive this.’ So, for me, it was pushing myself again and taking myself in a completely different journey for a bit.
“I did question my character when I came out, because naturally you think, ‘I’ve got all these people coming at me, maybe it’s me.’ But then on reflection, I’m like, no. I stay true to who I am.
“I wasn’t ever unkind to anybody. I just spoke my mind, and I think that’s okay. I don’t like people who hurt others and I didn’t like us stealing from the other team.
“I think my strong moral code comes from my family, especially my nan. I was brought up a lot by my nan. She was a very strong Scots woman, one of 14 children, and she had seven children.
“All I will say is that I have had some hardship in my life growing up. I had a time when I lived in a hostel and I’ve been cold and hungry and tired. But it’s shaped me and made me who I am today. I’ve got the survival in me.
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“I think I’m an optimist. I used to love dreaming, as a little girl. I always imagined life would be very different for me right now.
“I don’t live in a big house, I’m not married, I don’t have children. But I think if I was to give up on any of the dream, then what else have I got?”
So, what is her ultimate dream now?
“It’s changed,” says Brooke, who is popular on social media talking about her life as a cabbie and her acting aspirations.
“I modelled for the clothes retailers C&A when I was a child and I have always wanted to act. When Helen McCory got in my cab, I told her about my interest in acting and she said, ‘Just pursue it.’
“I went to James Alexandrou’s drama school, who played the teenage version of Martin Fowler in EastEnders. But it’s been really tough to find work.
“There are so many wonderful actors out there and I came into it later in life. So, that’s taking a back seat for now, but I still want to be creative.”
She pauses for a moment and then laughs. “I suppose the ultimate dream would be to either sit on the panel of Loose Women or, dreaming even bigger, do Strictly Come Dancing!
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“It’s just scratching that itch of the inner child wanting to dance and play, basically.”
Rising from the ashes
The abandoned town of Riverside in Apocalypse is actually the 1,000-acre site, Muscatatuck, once a working town near Butlerville, Indiana.
Created in 1920, it became one of Indiana’s largest mental health institutions with approximately 3,000 patients and around 2,000 employees.
In 2001, Governor Frank O’Bannon announced that the state would close Muscatatuck. It was taken over by the Indiana National Guard four years later.
Rebranded as the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, it is used by the military, police and fire departments to train in urban warfare.
Apocalypse begins on Sunday on Channel 4