The Bubble (UK TV series)
| The Bubble | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Created by | Armoza Formats |
| Presented by | David Mitchell |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 6 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Hat Trick Productions |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Original release | 19 February – 26 March 2010 |
| External links | |
| Website | www |
The Bubble is a British television quiz show hosted by David Mitchell, and made for the BBC by Hat Trick Productions. Each week, three comedians were tasked to differentiate real news stories from fake ones, after four days of isolation in 'The Bubble', a remote country house. A first series was broadcast on BBC Two from 19 February 2010, running for six episodes. A second series was planned but later abandoned due to Mitchell's commitments to the Channel 4 series 10 O'Clock Live.
In the show, three different contestants are placed in 'The Bubble', a place of isolation without access to the news. 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.
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:
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.
The show was produced for the BBC by Hat Trick Productions, 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, Miranda Hart and Frank Skinner as contestants. Episodes were filmed the day before broadcast, airing in the 10 pm slot on Friday nights (except Ep.5).
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