Make Bradford British - Damon

13 February 2012

Sheet metal worker Damon is 24 and lives alone since splitting up with the mother of his three-year-old daughter.

 

Why did you decide to take part in the series?
Just some people asked me to do it, really. I'd never set out to do it. But then it sounded quite interesting, so I thought I'd see what I could find out for myself.

 

Why do you think Bradford is so segregated?
That's a really hard one to answer. I don't know - people just stick to what they know, don't they? There's that many people coming over all the time, they just move into an area they know, don't they? Especially with all the religious beliefs - they like to go where they're close to a mosque, don't they?

 

What did your family and friends think about you taking part in the series?
A lot of my friends said I was a bit daft to do it. But my dad just said "Yeah, you'll probably have some good stuff to say." My mum was a bit worried that I'd make an idiot of myself - just like mothers always worry. But everyone was alright about it. I'd planned to go on a night out with Rashid and my mates, but a lot of my mates said they weren't going to go on TV. They were scared that the programme would be done in the wrong way. It wasn't so much what they would do as how they would get made to look. That put a lot of people off. It's a pretty dodgy thing to do, especially in Bradford.

 

Was the whole project what you expected?
Not really. I'd planned to be filmed going in to work, but that was cancelled by work, due to a busy schedule. I'd meant to go on a night out with my mates, but some didn't want to do it, and a whole load more had gone on holiday. So I didn't get to show things that I'd normally do myself.

 

Do you think that you were fairly represented in the programme?
If the programme that goes out is similar to the rough version that I've seen, then yeah, I'm quite happy with that. I think it shows everyone quite fairly. I don't think that anyone can really complain about anything that's on the programme. Anything that I've said is what I genuinely thought. I knew no different before. I said what I had to say, and I found out some answers that I wouldn't have known otherwise.

 

What were the high and the low points of the whole thing for you?
I don't know. There weren't really high points and low points. I suppose the high point is that having left the house, everyone has kept in touch with each other. I think that was the best thing, seeing people from totally different backgrounds going in and getting on so well so quickly. There was no tension between anyone. Low points? I can't pick any out.

 

What do you think you learned from the whole thing?
Before this, I already took people as I met them. I'll give anyone a chance. But I learned a lot about Islam, about the people who believe in it. The people who genuinely believe in it are really decent people. They get made to look bad by other people. I'm not saying every one of them's good, but you get dodgy people everywhere.

 

What do you think it means to be British?
I couldn't answer that in the programme, and I'm still struggling with it. I really don't know.