‘My life is ruined’: Organiser behind infamous Willy Wonka experience breaks silence
18 March 2024, 15:23
The organiser of an infamous Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow has revealed his life has been "ruined" because of the backlash to the controversial event.
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Billy Coull revealed in a Channel 5 documentary that he feels he has been made out to be the "face of all evil" and said he had "lost friends" over the backlash.
"My life has been turned (upside down). My life is ruined," he told the Wonka: The Scandal That Rocked Britain documentary.
"Because of everything that had happened, it ran into my personal life," he added.
"I have lost my friends. I've lost the love of my life. I was made out to be the face of all evil. And genuinely, that's really not the case."
The £35-a-ticket event promised a “chocolate fantasy like never before” and a day where “dreams come to life” - but ended up being a nightmare for those who attended.
With Mr Coull at the helm, House of Illuminati put together the event at the Box Hub in Glasgow.
But many who had expected a sweet Roald Dahl-inspired event were left furious, describing the experience as a “waste of money”.
The event went viral online, with the event ridiculed thousands of times.
Actors who were hired to play characters as part of the show have since spoken out, revealing they were left "humiliated".
Paul Connell, the actor hired to play the whimsical chocolate factory-owning character spoke out on TikTok in a series of videos.
The 31-year-old comedian criticised the script he was given, branding it as "15 pages of AI-generated gibberish".
He said: "I'm constantly applying for more acting jobs and comedy work, then I got a phone call on Thursday saying, ‘Congratulations you are going to play Willy Wonka, we will send you over the script and dress rehearsal is tomorrow'.
"The script was 15 pages of AI-generated gibberish of me just monologuing these mad things."
