''The Pilot Show'' is a British TV comedy show written and created by

Paul Garner Paul Albert "Mousie" Garner (July 31, 1909 – August 8, 2004) was an American actor. Garner earned his nickname by assuming the role of a shy, simpering jokester. He was one of the last actors still doing shtick from vaudeville, and has ...

. Commissioned by E4 and subsequently airing on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

in 2004, the show duped celebrities and members of the public into appearing on what they believed were pilots for real TV shows. Over 30,000 British men applied to be on a new reality show called 'Lapdance Island' only to discover that it was in fact a hoax for ''The Pilot Show''. The show featured Paul Garner,

Sharon Horgan Sharon Lorencia Horgan (born 13 July 1970) is an Irish actress, writer, director, comedian and producer who co-wrote and starred in the comedy series '' Pulling'' (2006–2009) and ''Catastrophe'' (2015–2019). She also created the HBO comedy ...

Marc Wootton Marc James Wootton (born 8 February 1975) is an English actor, comedian and writer, best known for his role as Mr Poppy in the ''Nativity!'' film series. Wootton has also appeared in ''High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman'', ''La La Land'', ''Nig ...

Robin Ince Robin Ince (born 20 February 1969) is an English comedian, actor and writer, known for presenting the BBC radio show ''The Infinite Monkey Cage'' with physicist Brian Cox (physicist), Brian Cox, and his stand-up comedy career. Education After ...

, Rob Rouse and Steve Oram. It was produced by

Damon Beesley Damon Beesley (born 1971) is an English writer and television producer, best known for his work on British comedy ''The Inbetweeners'' and New Zealand comedy ''Flight of the Conchords''. He often works alongside his writing partner Iain Morris. I ...

and made for E4 by Ealing Studios. ''The Pilot Show'' went on to be remade for American television.

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...

in New York commissioned a 16-part series that first aired in May 2005. The show, renamed ''BSTV'', was exec produced by Garner alongside Rob Moore from Ealing Studios and Jim Biederman for VH1. Garner and

were the only British cast members to feature in the U.S. remake.

External links

* British comedy television shows 2004 British television series debuts E4 comedy {{UK-tv-prog-stub