''The Bubble'' is a British television

quiz show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, sh ...

hosted by David Mitchell, and made for the

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Hat Trick Productions Hat Trick Productions is an independent British production company that produces television and radio programmes, mainly specialising in comedy, based in London. History Hat Trick Productions was founded in 1986 by Rory McGrath, Jimmy Mulville ...

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Concept

Contestant Frank Skinner speculated that the name of the show comes from the sterile isolation regime employed in so-called boy in the bubble medical cases. Once released, the contestants must then spot real news stories that have occurred while they were isolated, from fake ones created for the show. The Bubble format was devised in Israel by Armoza Formats, and had already been broadcast in Israel, Poland, Denmark and Sweden. Already successful in those countries, the British version was the first to use celebrities as contestants, and was being aimed at a high-brow audience similar to that for the quiz show '' QI''. A Dutch version also airs on BNN, hosted by Patrick Lodiers.

Format

At the start of each episode, the three contestants are brought straight from The Bubble to the studio. In front of a studio audience they then compete against each other for points, as Mitchell presents them with both real and fake stories. The format varied across the series, but the three rounds that appeared in every programme were: * A news clips round, where three clips from news programmes were shown; one was real, and two had been faked for the programme using contributions from actors and journalists such as

Quentin Letts Quentin Richard Stephen Letts (born 6 February 1963) is an English journalist and theatre critic. He has written for ''The Daily Telegraph'', ''Daily Mail'', ''Mail on Sunday'', and '' The Oldie''. On 26 February 2019, it was announced that Let ...

. This round would sometimes be repeated later on in the show using shorter clips and a voiceover from Mitchell instead of the original newsreader. * A newspaper headlines round, where three newspaper articles were shown; again, only one had genuinely appeared in newspapers, whilst the others had been mocked up. * The final buzzer round, where Mitchell read out assorted news stories and the contestants had to buzz in and guess whether they were true or not. In the first two rounds, correctly guessing the real story was rewarded with a point; in the final round, an incorrect guess resulted in a point being deducted. Two rounds appeared only in the first episode of the first series: one where the contestants were shown a piece of video footage and had to guess why it was relevant to the news from three options, and another where Mitchell described a picture that had appeared in the newspapers and the contestants had to guess why said picture had appeared in the news.

Production

The show was produced for the BBC by

, who produce the long-running BBC news quiz show '' Have I Got News for You''. A pilot was filmed in February 2009 but was not broadcast. The pilot episode featured

Katy Brand Katherine Frances Brand (born 1979), known as Katy Brand, is an English actress, comedian and writer, known for her ITV2 series ''Katy Brand's Big Ass Show'' and for Comedy Lab ''Slap'' on Channel 4. Early life and education Brand was born in ...

Miranda Hart Miranda Katherine Hart Dyke (born 14 December 1972) is an English actress and writer. Following drama training at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, Hart began writing material for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and making appearances in va ...

and

Frank Skinner Christopher Graham Collins (born 28 January 1957), professionally known as Frank Skinner, is an English comedian, actor, presenter and writer. At the 2001 British Comedy Awards, he was named Best Comedy Entertainment Personality. His televisio ...

as contestants. Episodes were filmed the day before broadcast, airing in the 10 pm slot on Friday nights (except Ep.5). According to Skinner, for the British version of the show The Bubble was a large and remote

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somewhere in the

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, in which the contestants lived with two of the production team for their period of isolation, being prevented from wandering away from the house, with their mobile phones confiscated, and denied access to newspapers, radio, television or the internet. Both

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since conti ...

and

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assisted in filming fake stories for the show, but despite BBC presenters having taken part in a clip for the pilot,

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

subsequently refused to allow its presenters to work with the show, allowing only archive material to be used. A BBC spokesman said "We are sure The Bubble on BBC Two will be extremely funny but BBC journalists will leave it to the comedians to do the comedy," while critics of the decision pointed out that several of its presenters had taken part in other fictional shows before, and described it as a "sense of humour failure". The BBC boycott was featured as one of the news stories in the first episode, with nobody picking it as the real story. According to Mitchell speaking in January 2011, both he and the BBC were keen to film a second series; however, he later chose to work on '' 10 O'Clock Live'' for

, whose 15-week live run clashed with the period the BBC intended to film the second series of ''The Bubble''. Repeats of the series began airing on

Dave Dave may refer to: Film, television, and theater * ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film * Dave (TV channel), a digital television channel in the ...

in January 2011.

List of episodes

* ''Winners in bold'' ;notes * Episode 5 aired a day early due to

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* Sue Perkins swapped weeks with Andy Hamilton due to an injuryTwitter / David Mitchell: Now in the Bubble are @Sar ...
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References

External links