''Faking It'' is a

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

show that aired on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

from 18 September 2000 to 26 December 2006. It was revived on 5 in 2025. Devised by Stephen Lambert, the programme's original concept was "a modern-day '' Pygmalion''", referring to the

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

play in which flower girl

Eliza Doolittle Eliza Doolittle is a fictional character and the protagonist in George Bernard Shaw's play '' Pygmalion'' (1913) and its 1956 musical adaptation, ''My Fair Lady''. Eliza (from Lisson Grove, London) is a Cockney flower seller, who comes to Prof ...

is trained to appear like an

aristocrat The aristocracy (''from Greek'' ''ἀριστοκρατία'' ''aristokratía'', "rule of the best"; ''Latin: aristocratia'') is historically associated with a "hereditary" or a "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the ...

Format

The programme shared much with earlier British TV shows such as '' In at the Deep End'' and ''Jobs For The Boys''/''Girls'', and the children's show ''Bring It On'', all of which featured TV presenters or other celebrities learning other trades, but ''Faking It'' was the first that successfully used members of the public in the role. Its basic format was that a member of the public lived with and trained with an expert for four weeks and then took part in a contest against experienced participants in whatever activity they have learned. A panel of expert judges then gave their verdict on which participant was the "faker". Ostensibly, success meant fooling a majority of the judges, though there was no prize for success and the real point of the show was the experience that the fakers received over the course of the month's filming.

Transmissions

External links

* * * * {{UKGameshow, Faking_It 2000 British television series debuts 2000s British reality television series 2020s British reality television series British English-language television shows Channel 4 reality television shows Channel 5 (British TV channel) reality television shows Television series by Banijay British television series revived after cancellation