0:00

Hannah, have you ever felt like quitting

0:02

your job and escaping to the desert island of your

0:04

dreams? Only every time I'm stuck in traffic, or when

0:06

the weather is miserable, or where I'm fighting for my

0:08

life in the dark, or I'm watching

0:10

a YouTube ad with a no-skip button. Tell

0:13

me about it, and boy do I have

0:15

a story about a woman who did just

0:17

that. Her name, Hannah, is Jane. And

0:20

along with her partner Phil, her three kids,

0:22

and a reality TV crew, she

0:24

swapped her four-bedroom English home for a

0:27

tropical island, which she bought online at

0:29

a bargain price. Get it, Jane. What

0:31

a hero. An icon. A legend. But

0:34

soon, they all discover that paradise has its

0:36

secrets. No, Jane! How did you not see

0:38

that coming? Red flags. Who gets an island

0:40

for a bargain price? Things get

0:43

bad because the locals on the island

0:45

claim that the land actually belongs to

0:47

them. And they say

0:49

that it's been sold to Jane illegally. So

0:52

for Jane and Phil, family life is about

0:54

to take a terrifying turn. Sounds

0:57

like Phil and Jane are about to learn

0:59

The Price of Paradise. That's

1:01

the name of the podcast. How did you know, Hannah?

1:04

It is in the script, and I can

1:06

read with my eyes. I even brought my

1:08

glasses today. Excellent work. So

1:10

yes, Hannah has ruined it slightly, but

1:12

here we go. The Price of Paradise

1:15

is indeed a real life story of

1:17

an island dream that turns into a

1:19

living nightmare. One which

1:21

leads to kidnap, corruption, and murder.

1:24

Now, we're about to play you a clip from

1:26

the very first episode, and if you like what

1:28

you hear, search and follow The Price of Paradise

1:30

wherever you listen to your podcasts. Midnight

1:42

in Paradise. Endless

1:45

stars and hot humid nights.

1:48

A remote island off the coast of

1:50

Nicaragua. An island that's

1:52

been home to an English family from Hampshire

1:55

for the past seven months. And

1:58

for Jane Gaskin. This

2:00

island has become her dream, her

2:02

destiny. There's no

2:05

going back, she says, even

2:07

if it all goes wrong and they end up penniless.

2:11

But now, as Jane looks at her

2:13

three children and her partner Phil, it's

2:16

clear that something has gone terribly,

2:19

terribly wrong. The

2:21

Gaskin family is huddled together in a small

2:23

fishing boat, in the middle of

2:25

the night, dressed in soggy pyjamas, shivering

2:29

and blooming over them, three

2:31

masked men. Just

2:34

an hour ago, Jane was putting the

2:36

kids to bed, cleaning their teeth, before

2:39

they all crawled under their mosquito nets to

2:41

sleep. When an armed

2:43

gang threw open the door and

2:46

marched them off their island and onto

2:48

this boat, but what is it

2:50

they want? Jane and Phil

2:52

don't know. She squeezes

2:54

her daughter's hand as one of their

2:56

kidnappers raises his gun. You

2:58

need to get us a million dollars, or

3:01

someone will get hurt. Jane

3:04

locks eyes with Phil, a

3:06

million? They don't have that kind

3:08

of cash. It feels

3:10

hopeless. And that's

3:12

when she spots what her husband is up to. Phil

3:15

is turning a soggy box of matches over

3:18

and over in his hand, staring

3:20

at Jane with a look she recognizes.

3:24

Ready to listen. What?

3:28

Jane asks. As

3:30

one of the kidnappers, Phil

3:32

gets Jerry turned from the corner, and

3:34

rips the vehicle. Phil

3:38

hurls his arm forward and fuels

3:40

showers down over their captain. Then

3:44

he reaches into his back. I'm

3:47

right. Phil

3:51

ignites for all of us. Jane

3:55

drags at us and leaves easily.

4:00

He will consider his hands to be fine,

4:02

but he keeps pouring more fuel into the water.

4:07

The only thing asked him was the man. The

4:09

man, with the fire rages, he drops

4:11

the can and throws it out

4:14

of the water. He's

4:16

burning an arm extinguished in the shower. He

4:20

still crumbles on for sure and catches up

4:22

with Jane and the children as they all

4:24

race into the darkness. Nobody

4:27

dares look back, but they're not

4:29

free. Not yet. As

4:32

the family runs through sick man geese, from

4:56

Wundery, I'm Alice Levine, host

4:58

of British Scandal, and this is

5:01

The Price of Paradise. The

5:08

Price of

5:11

Paradise Have

5:23

you ever wanted to start again?

5:26

Quit your job, leave town, build

5:29

a brand new life somewhere new. You

5:31

could hand in your notice to the boss

5:33

you have always hated, bid goodbye to friends

5:36

you've outgrown, and the obligations of extended family

5:38

could be a thing of the past. You

5:40

could sprint into the sunset in search

5:43

of your own slice of paradise, whatever

5:45

that may be. I have to say,

5:47

I've been tempted to hit the reset button,

5:49

not because of the sends and family bit.

5:51

Obviously, love you all, call you soon, sorry

5:54

I haven't replied to your text. But particularly

5:56

on a grey winter's morning, on the London

5:58

Underground nestled in the dark. In a

6:00

strange, his arm sweating profusely my

6:03

outside layers. Yeah, I think

6:05

about my choices so. Will.

6:07

This series is about to women who

6:09

decided to do Just Stop. Start.

6:12

Again, Leave that old

6:14

lives behind. And risk everything

6:16

to follow their dreams. They

6:18

did happen to have bigger dream than me. This.

6:20

Is an informal disclaimer to let me off

6:22

the hook. That will be moments in the

6:24

story where you want to pull off your

6:26

headphones on some from them. And made

6:29

me cry out on the bus I'm in

6:31

the car know and I might even be

6:33

since wiring. Both. In the program

6:35

and possibly in your car. Because

6:37

a lot of things that happened involving

6:39

both of these women. Are

6:42

pretty extreme. The

6:46

first woman is acts funny though.

6:48

Jane Gaskin. I think

6:50

to understand Jane and all the wild

6:52

things that happened to her sometimes because

6:54

of her, he needs understand where she's

6:56

out when. This all star. And

6:59

that's in January two thousand, the

7:01

beginning of the New Millennium. Janus

7:04

just survived the Millennium bug. And

7:07

she just made the mother

7:09

resolutions. To leave

7:11

absolutely everything she knows in England.

7:14

Behind. Follow.

7:21

The Price of Paradise Now wherever you listen

7:24

to podcasts, Or you can bet

7:26

is the entire season at free. by

7:28

subscribing to wondered class in the wondered

7:30

up or on apple costs.