Zara McDermott’s new three-part BBC documentary, Thailand: The Dark Side of Paradise, examines why thousands of young British tourists travel to Thailand and how some are drawn into the country’s commercial sex industry, including accounts of men paying for sexual services for as little as £23 a night.
In the second episode, McDermott travels from Bangkok to Pattaya — often called a focal point for Thailand’s nightlife and sex trade — to meet British content creators, tourists and sex workers and to document how online material and local scenes feed one another. The programme, produced by South Shore Productions and streaming on BBC iPlayer, combines interviews and on-the-ground reporting to present competing narratives about the industry.
McDermott, 28, said the series seeks to reconcile Thailand’s "idyllic beaches" with what she described as a seedy underbelly of drugs and cheap sex. She told the BBC her previous work on violence against women helped her hold "difficult and emotional conversations with sex workers," adding that she wanted those women to "feel completely seen and heard."
The documentary follows the presenter as she enters Pattaya’s Soi 6 district, which she describes on camera as a red-light area "on steroids." There she meets a 30-year-old British YouTuber who goes by Mac, who has lived in Pattaya for two years and creates online guides to the local nightlife and sex industry. McDermott’s crew was later stopped and escorted off the street after bar owners objected to filming; Mac told the crew they were a "distraction" and that bar owners had asked them to stop.
Mac, who the documentary says has over 60,000 followers on his channel, appears on camera defending his content. He tells McDermott that the videos draw British men who spend money in local bars and that, in his view, the activity helps the local economy. He is also shown with his Thai partner, identified in the programme as Panida, who uses the nickname Beverly Hills in his online content.
The series also follows young British men drawn to Pattaya after watching online videos. A 23-year-old chef from Manchester, identified as Loukas in the programme, told McDermott he travelled to Thailand after seeing social media posts and spent an eight-week backpacking trip in search of nightlife. He described paying 1,000 baht — about £23 at the time of filming — to take a worker out of a bar for the night and later paying more for sexual services. He said the attention from sex workers felt "very, very flattering" and that he would not behave the same way in the United Kingdom.
Loukas suggested that some tourists are encouraged into longer-term financial arrangements after returning home, saying bar workers try to "hook" customers into sending money to support them. The documentary cites a figure that roughly 60,000 workers are employed in the local sex trade.
Sex workers interviewed for the series tell markedly different stories. One woman, identified in the programme as Annie (name changed), said she turned to sex work after personal and family upheavals and in hopes of meeting a foreign partner who could offer a different life. She recounted being promised financial support by a foreign customer who later fathered a child with a Thai woman in England, an experience she said left her devastated.
McDermott frames these accounts alongside conversations with men who view relationships with Thai partners as part of a fantasy of traditional gender roles. When McDermott challenged Mac on camera about selling a "fantasy" that ignores exploitation, he responded that his videos simply promote a lifestyle and bring business to the bars.
The programme situates those personal stories within wider concerns about tourism, online influence and the vulnerabilities of sex workers. McDermott asks why some British men act differently abroad, saying in the documentary: "They can come over and live by an entirely different set of rules, and they quite like it." She also highlights how content creators can normalise and advertise aspects of the sex trade to overseas audiences.
Thailand has long attracted tourists for its beaches and nightlife, and commercial sex, while illegal in many forms, remains a visible part of some destinations’ economies. The documentary does not offer legal analysis but focuses on firsthand accounts and observation to depict how the industry is experienced by those who work in it and those who consume it.
Thailand: The Dark Side of Paradise joins a series of BBC documentaries produced by McDermott that have explored social issues and violence against women. The three-part series opened in Bangkok before moving to party islands and Pattaya and is available on BBC iPlayer.