Space Cadets A New Reality Programme

16 November, 2005 by The_Boss

Channel 4 is attempting to make TV history in December by visiting the final frontier – blasting a lucky team of starry-eyed applicants into space. The hand-picked group will undergo intensive training in Russia before being flown 100 kilometres up into Near Space. Here, they will spend up to five days orbiting the Earth, conducting experiments and quite literally watching the world go by… or will they?

Unbeknown to them, they won’t be in space at all...

They won’t even be in Russia. They’ll actually be in a disused military base at a secret location somewhere in the UK, as Johnny Vaughan presents Space Cadets… possibly the most audacious, complicated and ambitious practical joke in television history.

Over ten consecutive nights, Channel 4 and E4 will follow this group of adventure-seeking applicants, from the rigorous selection process, exhaustive training programme to the mission itself, in a TV event that’s out-of-this-world… and yet nothing of the sort.

But as things get stranger and stranger, will the space cadets cotton on that not everything is as it should be. Will things even get that far, or will they quickly figure out that the Space Tourism Agency of Russia is a little closer to the local ASDA than they’d been led to believe?

Angela Jain, Commissioning Editor, Factual Entertainment, says:
“We’ve taken a big risk with Space Cadets, and we don’t know who will have the last laugh - but we’re hoping it’s going to be a really entertaining and unique event in the schedule - a real treat in the run-up to Christmas.“

Johnny Vaughan will host nightly shows on Channel 4, catching up on the latest goings on at STAR. Over on E4, daily streaming will feature action as it happens, while Alex Zane goes behind-the-scenes at Ground Control in Space Cadets: The Satellite Show at 10.00pm.