Billy Coull: Man behind Willy Wonka-inspired event in Glasgow tells how life has been ‘ruined’
The organiser of the infamous Willy Wonka-inspired experience in Glasgow has told of how he has lost the “love of his life” and his life has been “ruined” because of the event.
Billy Coull said his life has been turned upside down due to the controversy surrounding the event and claimed he was made out to be the “face of all evil”.
Speaking in the Channel 5 documentary Wonka: The Scandal That Rocked Britain, Mr Coull said: “My life has been turned (upside down). My life is ruined.”
He added: “Because of everything that had happened, it ran into my personal life.
“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.”
Seven-year-old Elliot dressed up as an Oompa Loompa. Pic: Janine Yardley
Willy’s Chocolate Experience gained viral notoriety after images and videos of the event were shared online.
The £35-a-ticket experience at the city’s Box Hub venue was sold as a “chocolate fantasy like never before” where “dreams become reality”.
Instead, families were met with a near-empty venue decorated with a handful of Wonka-themed props and a small bouncy castle.
Pic: Stuart Sinclair
The quarter cups of juice. Pic: Jack Proctor
Parents also told of how their children only received a couple of sweets and a quarter of a can of limeade.
Mr Coull claimed key visual equipment for the event wasn’t delivered.
He said: “I was gutted, but I believed that we could push on.”
The event was brought to a halt on its opening day as parents demanded their money back from Mr Coull’s company, House of Illuminati.
The Unknown. Pic: London Dungeon/Felicia
Mr Coull said it turned into “absolute chaos”, adding: “It was absolute carnage.”
Mr Coull told the documentary he received hundreds of nasty messages branding him a “villain or devil”, adding: “Saying that I’m a horrific dad, I’m better off dead, I should kill myself.”
He said he was left “devastated” over the response to the event and felt “sick to the pit” of his stomach.
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Glasgow mum Maryanne McCormack, whose video of The Unknown scaring children went viral, told Sky News she still hasn’t received her £75 refund.
Ms McCormack said Mr Coull should find a different way to boost his income.
She added: “He just isn’t cut out for what he’s trying to do. (He should stop this) for his own good and his own mental health.”
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Glaswegian teenager Felicia took to TikTok to reveal her identity after her role in the experience went viral
Performers at the event described it as a place “where dreams went to die” and said the scripts had been AI-generated.
Mr Coull claimed he wrote the scripts, but he ran them through AI to check the spelling, grammar, and continuity due to his dyslexia.
The performers themselves have since become internet sensations.
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Wonka actor reveals behind-the-scenes ‘bonkers’ experience
Glasgow teenager Felicia, 16, who played The Unknown, has been booked to scare children at London Dungeon this Easter.
Announcing her upcoming guest appearance, she said: “Who would have thought my wild Wonka experience would have led me to this.”
Entertainment
Googlebox star George Gilbey’s mum reveals his last words to her before he fell to his death
The mother of Gogglebox star George Gilbey has revealed his last words to her were “I love you”.
Gilbey died after falling through a plastic skylight while fixing a warehouse roof in Essex in March.
The 40-year-old appeared alongside his mum, Linda McGarry, and stepdad on the hit Channel 4 show.
The family first appeared on the second series of Gogglebox in 2013 but were dropped the following year when Gilbey signed up for the 14th series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2014, reaching the final.
Mrs McGarry said she spoke to him on the phone hours before his death.
Gilbey appeared alongside his mum Linda and stepdad Pete on Gogglebox. Pic: PA
She told The Sun: “He phoned me at 9.30 in the morning and said he was working – and asked me for his ‘breakfast money’.
“I put £30 in his account so he could get food, and he seemed fine.
“He had a drink the night before, and liked a bottle of white wine or two, but was happy that he was working. He ended the phone call by saying, ‘I love you’ like he usually did. I treasure those words.”
She added: “It was an honour for him to have been my son. We had a blast for 40 years.”
Mrs McGarry said her son had struggled with the death of his dad, stepfather and her own Parkinson’s diagnosis.
At the time of his death, he was working to save money to move closer to his seven-year-old daughter, Amelie, in southwest London.
“He wanted to be with Amelie, who he adored,” she told The Sun.
“They were on the third day of a job that was going to last a month, and he was going to get money together from that.
“When they were together, George and Amelie were always laughing. She is going to miss him terribly, like we all will.”
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Gilbey suffered traumatic injuries to his head and torso and died at the scene in Shoeburyness.
An inquest was opened last week but suspended after a request from police pending a criminal investigation.
A man in his 40s from the Witham area of Essex was previously arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter
He was later released under investigation.
Entertainment
Bestselling author CJ Sansom dies days before Disney adaption of his Shardlake series airs
Author CJ Sansom, who created the character of Matthew Shardlake, has died at the age of 71, his publisher has announced.
Sansom first introduced readers to Shardlake – a lawyer who solves crimes while navigating the religious reforms and political intrigue of Tudor England – in the 2003 book Dissolution.
The Scottish writer released six further novels featuring Shardlake, as well as two standalone historical novels, Winter In Madrid and Dominion.
His works have just been adapted into the series Shardlake, which features The Innocents star Arthur Hughes as the main character and Game Of Thrones actor Sean Bean as Thomas Cromwell.
The first season of the Tudor murder mystery series is set to be released by Disney+ on Wednesday.
Sansom was described as one of Britain’s best historical novelists. Pic: Pan Macmillian/PA
Announcing his death on Monday, publishers Pan Macmillan wrote in a statement: “It is with immense sadness that Pan Macmillan announces the death of CJ Sansom.”
“‘It is an extraordinarily strange coincidence that Chris has died only a handful of days before a new generation of fans will meet Matthew Shardlake, Barak and Guy and co for the first time through,” his agent, Antony Topping, said.
“This is also a moment for which Chris’s established fans have been waiting a long time.
“Chris was so proud of all the work and determination that went into bringing the novels to our television screens, which I hope will bring an entirely new audience to the books and which will maybe also inspire some old fans to return to their favourite CJ Sansom novels.”
Sansom’s long-time editor and publisher, Maria Rejt, added that he was working on a new Shardlake book but his “worsening health made progress painfully slow”.
Arthur Hughes as protagonist Matthew Shardlake. Pic: Disney+ UK
She described the author as an “intensely private person” who took immense pleasure in the public’s enthusiastic response to his novels.
“I shall miss him hugely, not only as a wonderfully talented writer who gave joy to millions, but as a dear friend of enormous compassion and integrity,” Ms Rejt said.
Shardlake featured as the protagonist in a total of seven of Sansom’s novels. Dissolution was dramatised once before by BBC Radio 4 in 2012.
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Sean Bean stars in the new series based off Sansom’s debut novel. Pic: Disney+ UK
With more than three million copies of his novels in print, Sansom was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award in 2022 for his outstanding contribution to the genre.
Born in Edinburgh in 1952, Sansom attended Birmingham University where he studied an undergraduate degree and PhD in history.
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He worked as a solicitor before becoming a full-time writer where he was able to combine his passion for history and law securing him as one of Britain’s bestselling historical novelists.
Sansom was also a signatory to an 2014 open letter advocating that Scotland should remain in the UK.
The author also donated £161,000 to the Better Together campaign, according to published accounts.
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