Netflix: Squid Game spin-off sees Welsh vicar compete

Father Lee Taylor was not a fan of the original series and almost turned down the offer to appear

A priest has featured in a new Netflix reality competition to compete for a £3.6m prize.

But Father Lee Taylor almost turned down appearing in Squid Game: The Challenge because he found the drama which spawned it "too gory".

Released in 2021, the original Squid Game told of a sadistic gameshow where cash-strapped contestants faced deadly challenges in order to win a fortune.

A critical hit, it became the streaming service's most-watched series ever.

Father Taylor, of St Collen's Church in Llangollen, Denbighshire, said he was called "out of the blue" by the production company.

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A former bartender from Bolton, the 46-year-old added that they had heard of him after he hit the headlines in early 2021 with his online "Pimm's and hymns" sessions.

Designed to unite parishioners stuck at home during Covid lockdown, his "a tipple and a singsong" idea took off and attracted worshippers as far away as Brazil.

"The only problem was I tried watching Squid Game when it first came out and couldn't even make it through a single episode," he said.

"It was just too gory and shocking - but they coaxed me to give it another go.

"And when I did I started to see the show's underlying social and moral themes, and about the lengths people can be driven to by the fear of not having money. So I decided to give it a shot."

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Filmed at the start of 2023 in a cavernous aircraft hanger in Bedfordshire, Squid Game: The Challenge features the same twisted takes on childhood games as its violent South Korean predecessor.

Whereas beforehand the losers were killed, this time around elimination is not literal.

However, as contestant number 123 out of 456 hopefuls from all over the world, Father Taylor said filming was not without its challenges.

"That hangar was a huge, almost cathedral-like space, and very eerie," he said.

"And at six o'clock on a January morning it was unbelievably cold - even the thermals we had on underneath our tracksuits weren't much help."

The windowless dormitory, where players stayed between games

Father Taylor added that, although he did not win the record-breaking prize pot, he found the experience very rewarding.

"I got to meet and bond with people from across the globe and I saw how, in the face of adversity, humans can come together and try to help each other," he said.

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