Space Cadets

Space Cadets sounds, in the remit, like one of the cruelest practical jokes ever. Channel 4 has told a group of people that they are taking them to Russia to train up to become the first British space tourists and that they will be going into space at the end of a 3-week training regime. They're filming this and showing how they trick these people.

However, it's actually shaping up to be highly entertaining. They went through the selection process, how they chose suggestible, creative individuals (as opposed to idiots). They've planted 3 actors in the group of 12 in order to help the joke along. They've also gone through an elaborate scheme to make a disused airbase near Ipswich look like a Russian military base. The actors meant to be staffing the base have rehearsed endlessly and they've been very very thorough.

So far, we've been treated to a night of learning how they set the joke up and how they chose the finalists and then their arrival on the base and how they established their credibility, etc. It's been highly entertaining and the participants, while they are a bit gullible, don't seem as immediately annoying as the usual Big Brother or Popstars or whatever contestants.

I'd be really bothered by the fact that they've got these people's hopes up about actually going into space, they're putting them through their paces and they will be embarassed and really gutted when they find out it's all a ruse. (But it will be funny. I hope they're not too embarassed). I say I would be bothered, except they've been to the families of each person and the families are perfectly happy to let it unfold. So there you go.

Anyway, I can't believe I'm saying this, but this program is recommended.