Billy Coull, the organiser behind the ill-fated Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow, has spoken out about the fallout from the event, revealing that his life has been “ruined” due to the backlash it received.
In a recent Channel 5 documentary titled Wonka: The Scandal That Rocked Britain, Coull expressed his distress over being vilified as the “face of all evil” and lamented the personal toll the controversy has taken on him.
“Because of everything that had happened, it ran into my personal life,” Coull disclosed in the Wonka documentary. “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 Wonka event, which charged attendees £35 per ticket, was marketed as a “chocolate fantasy like never before” and a day where “dreams come to life.” However, it quickly turned into a nightmare for many participants.
Organised by House of Illuminati, with Coull at the helm, the event took place at the Box Hub in Glasgow. Attendees, expecting a whimsical experience inspired by Roald Dahl’s beloved tale Willy Wonka, were left disappointed and outraged, describing it as a “waste of money.”
The backlash against the event spread rapidly online, with countless individuals ridiculing the experience. Actors hired to portray characters as part of the show have also come forward to share their negative experiences.
Paul Connell, a 31-year-old comedian hired to play Willy Wonka, criticised the script provided to him, calling it “15 pages of AI-generated gibberish.”
“I’m constantly applying for more acting jobs and comedy work,” Connell revealed in a series of TikTok videos. “Then I got a phone call… ‘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.”
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