Space Cadets: How A British Reality Show Convinced Contestants They Were In Space

[EPISODE 136] Space Cadets: How A British Reality Show Convinced Contestants They Were In Space

Adam Cox (2): [00:00:00] Near space. That's not a thing though. Is it?

Kyle Risi (2): Neither is the Space Tourism Academy of Russia. In fact, this was all part of a wild plot for a brand new reality TV show promising to pull off the wildest TV hoaxes ever made.

Kyle Risi: with the aim of Sending the first group of British tourists into orbit around the earth .

Adam Cox: Did they manage to pull it off?

Kyle Risi (2): to these contestants. it Felt completely real even when they were blasted off into space.

Adam Cox: but still, how do you fake GForce and weightlessness

Kyle Risi (2): you could have literally told them that The gravity generators were being run by hamsters on running wheels and they would've still believed it.

Adam Cox: I know they're not looking for dumb people, but I think they kind of are a little bit

Kyle Risi (2): there are journalists and photographers from all over the world there to meet them, they tell them that even the queen is following their mission.

Adam Cox: Wow.

Kyle Risi (2): After they get into orbit, the cadets are like, that was really smooth. It was almost like driving a car.

Kyle Risi: And The pilots are like, [00:01:00] that's a very big compliment. Thank you.

Welcome to the Compendium and Assembly of Fascinating things, a weekly variety podcasts that gives you just enough information to stand your ground at any social gathering.

Adam Cox: We explore stories from the darker corners of true crime, the hidden gems of history, and the jaw dropping deeds of extraordinary people.

I'm Kyle Reese, your Ring master for this week's episode. And I'm Adam Cox, the audience clap control manager for this week.

Kyle Risi: Is this like on an episode of Friends when the audience has to applause and there's a sign that comes [00:02:00] up and you hold up a board.

Adam Cox: No, mine's more about like the decibels of the clapping. So one, make sure like noise pollution. Mm-hmm. And two, it doesn't scare off the elephants

Kyle Risi: because they're really sensitive at this moment in time. There's a lot of mice running around. Exactly.

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Adam Cox: And for as little as $3 a month, you'll become a fellow freak of the show.

Kyle Risi: That's just like one pound a week.

Adam Cox: It's less than that now. Less than one pound a week. Yeah. And you can unlock our entire back catalog, including classic episodes that we always forget to remember such as,

Kyle Risi: oh God, what? Now we've got the Turpen family one is pretty damn good. Oh, was that the French family? No, that's gone in the night. That's the DuPont family. Oh yeah. That was good. This is the massive child abuse case that [00:03:00] kind of came to light where those people were holding those kids captive for like years in

Adam Cox: cages, right?

Kyle Risi: Not necessarily in cages. I think they were just chaining 'em to their beds, and then one of the brave daughters decided to escape. That was a brilliant episode. Actually. Maybe we should dig some of these episodes out and actually redo them again.

What? And better. And better. Yeah. With better sound effects, you

Adam Cox: know, maybe pew, pew,

Kyle Risi: and of course, as a special thank you, all of our certified free team members now receive an exclusive compendium key chain, which is, I just cannot believe how popular these things are with the amount of dms that we get. I don't think you guys have even seen the key chain. If you pop over to Patreon, you can actually see an image of what the key chain looks like. It's pretty damn cool.

But send us a DM with your address. We'll send one out to you in the post. But we do this in batches every quarter because we just have so many. And also we have to really deal with the tariffs, especially in America so I have to really make sure I do it in bulk because I can get a little bit of a discount. But as always, when you get your key chain, [00:04:00] we can always be dangling right near your. Crotch. Mm Oh, you said that with a bit of gusto today. A bit of schmoozing in the eyes. You know what, schmoozing in the eyes. Yeah.

You like, you got your real serious, kind of like that little serious thing that you got going on sometimes. You know, you got crotch. Crotch. Yeah.

Adam Cox: Yeah. I was trying to find another, word for crotch, but I think I was getting confused with other words.

Kyle Risi: We did have a few freaks that sent in a couple translations, but I forgot to write 'em down this week. I'll get 'em out for next week. We can do a double whammy. Yeah. Okay.

Adam Cox: And lastly, guys, please follow us on your favorite podcast app and leave us a review. Your support helps others find us and keeps these amazing stories coming.

Kyle Risi: Adam. That's enough of the housekeeping because today on the compendium, we're diving into an assembly of gullibility ambition and a hunger to believe.

Adam Cox: Hmm. Yeah. I've got nothing.

Kyle Risi: Any clue like gullibility ambition, a hunger to believe what? What does that tell you? What do you think's going on? [00:05:00]

Adam Cox: That someone wants to believe in something because they've got ambition? Yes. You're like, well done. So good at this

Kyle Risi: today, Adam, I'm gonna be telling you about an incredible event that happened in 2005 right here in the UK when an ambitious new space program was launched with the aim of sending the first group of British tourists into orbit around the earth you heard this before?

Adam Cox: Mm, no. No, never heard of this whatsoever.

Kyle Risi: It's a big part of British history and you've not heard about this. I.

Adam Cox: No, it didn't happen. What is this?

Kyle Risi: So the so-called Space Tourism Academy of Russia, or Star for short, was an elite training camp that was going to be used as the base to put a handful of ordinary people through weeks of grueling cosmonaut training, where at the end, four of them would be selected to be blasted off into near space where they would spend the [00:06:00] next five days circling the earth, becoming the first British civilians in history to do so.

Adam Cox (2): Near space. That's not actual space though. Is it?

Kyle Risi: Very observant, Mr. Cox, because it turns out. That's not even a thing neither is the Space Tourism Academy of Russia.

In fact, there was no space program at all.

Kyle Risi (2): This was all part of a wild plot for a brand new reality TV show called Space Cadets

promising to pull

off one of the wildest TV hoaxes ever made.

Adam Cox: Did they manage to pull it off? Did people believe they were going into Near Space?

Kyle Risi (2): Unbelievably, Adam,

Kyle Risi: they pulled this off,

Kyle Risi (2): to these contestants.

Star

felt completely real even when they were blasted off into space.

Kyle Risi: At first, they didn't even know what they were applying for . This remember is peak two thousands, reality tv. The people applying for these shows were only interested in becoming famous.

None of them had even thought about going into space up until this moment. It wasn't until the [00:07:00] semi-finalists were selected that they found out that they were actually getting this opportunity to go into space and that's when they all went, yeah, I really, really want this.

Adam Cox: So what did they think they were applying for then?

Well, they thought they were applying for a TV show called Thrill Seekers, and that's all the information they heard. They knew That the show was an endemol show. They are the people that are responsible for massive shows. Like big Brother.

Kyle Risi: Exactly. So when they signed up, the whole plot of the actual show was kept highly secretive, and 20 years later, the show is pretty much all but been forgotten, hence why you've not even heard of this.

Adam Cox: I mean, the fact it's 20 years ago. I can't believe 2005 was 20 years ago.

Kyle Risi: I know it's sickening very recently, the show was actually posted on YouTube, which is how I spent most of my weekend when you were off gallivanting with your mom and dad. That's what I was doing, watching this, watching this, and I'll tell you what, I do not regret it. One thing I did find interesting though, is that we know today reality TV gets a real bad rap. Especially because obviously over [00:08:00] the years it's been hammered for its lack of care towards its contestants. to the point that we've seen instances where people have had their entire lives ruined. Right. Reputations completely destroyed. And sadly, the extreme is some have even taken their lives because of it.

Yeah. They didn't have the welfare that they, do now, because people were happy to let women, use a bowl on herself. Yeah. Kinga. Ooh. she's never gonna be allowed to forget that, right?

Adam Cox: I mean, it's 20 years on, but since that probably happened, we still talking. That's the only, only thing we can remember.

Kyle Risi: Damn. So when this television show aired, this was kind of sort of the wild West of reality tv, but Space Cadets really emphasized consistent welfare at the time, which is incredible. Way more than shows do today, which is ironic since the entire premise of the show was to fool people, body and soul, that they were going into space.

And think about that for a second, right? You've been handpicked, you've been strapped into a space shuttle, blasted off into orbit, only to find out that you've never actually left the ground. Going to space is [00:09:00] huge. Not many people get that opportunity. So you can imagine that if you don't pick the right people who can see the funny side of this, you could really break someone.

Adam Cox: Yeah, someone could get quite angry and aggressive. I'm guessing.

Kyle Risi: They could go on a literal rampage.

Adam Cox: Yeah,

Kyle Risi: They had to make sure that 100% these contestants could handle it. And in my opinion, they did a relatively good job considering the time that this show actually had. And it largely worked. Some people on reflection were a little bit disappointed, but mostly everyone was fine.

So, Adam, today on the Compendium, I'm gonna tell you about. Space Cadets, the insane lengths the producers went to. In order to pull this off, I'll tell you about how they selected their astronauts, how they convinced them that they had been flown to Russia, when in fact. They were just an Ipswich in Suffolk

Adam Cox: and it That's, that is disappointing. I know. Not that there's anything wrong with Ipswich before I get any flack.

Kyle Risi: I'll also tell you about their training, which was just serious enough to be believable, but silly enough for it [00:10:00] still be really entertaining television.

And finally, I'll tell you about how they tricked four lucky finalists into believing they were actually in space.

Adam Cox: I'm intrigued to how they pulled this off. I mean it like 20 years ago maybe people were more naive. You didn't have the same kind of level of social media, but still, how do you fake going to Russia or even going into the space with the whole GForce and weightlessness thing? How do they do that?

Kyle Risi: Exactly. Because that's gonna be the biggest giveaway, right? You're gonna be in space. I'm not floating around, I'm just feet firmly on the ground. In the shuttle,

Adam Cox: are they gonna say like, oh, we've got like a new device. That basically means that we can offset gravity.

Well, we're gonna get into all of that today. And honestly, the lengths that these producers went to is just insane. And honestly, it genuinely looks authentic, especially as a TV audience member who is in the know. That is the premise of the show is that we know from the very beginning that this is all fake.

There are very clear moments where you're like, nobody would ever fall [00:11:00] for this. But when everything around you is screaming that this is real, it's really easy to overlook some of the discrepancies in what's around you?

But Adam, let's get into it, shall we?

Let's do it.

Kyle Risi: So the whole aim of the show was simple. Convinced nine contestants that everything they were seeing and feeling was real. The show ran over 10 consecutive nights in December, 2005. If at any point during the show. Any of their contestants expose the hoax before the final. The show was to be immediately pulled and Channel four would instead play old reruns of Jamie Oliver's school dinners. You literally see the tapes lined up in a break glass emergency box in the studio in the background.

Adam Cox: Oh

Kyle Risi: really? Yeah. Just ready, like, oh, are they gonna foil us?

Adam Cox: Oh, do we need to rerun Jamie Oliver's school dinners. So you're saying like mid show, if someone goes, hang on a minute, this is fake. Mm-hmm. Then they, 'cause is it live? Then? It's not live.

But can you imagine, like you say you are a viewer and you are watching this and you've got eight episodes in, you think, oh, they're gonna do it, and [00:12:00] then they just pull it. Like, you kind of wanna see the outcome though, right?

Kyle Risi: I think what they would've done is been like, okay, great. You fooled us. Ah, okay. Bring everyone out. They have a studio there set up mm-hmm. Ready to go with the host . But yeah, that was the reality. I think that from the very beginning, they knew that they would pretty much get through to the end. They would manage to convince him.

Adam Cox: Mm-hmm.

Kyle Risi: So I think it's kind of more of a gimmick,

so I'm gonna tell you a bit about the show. First. It was actually dreamt up by comedy writers, Ben Cordell, and believe it or not, Adam, Richard Osmond. Yes. Really? Yeah. That Richard Osmond, long before he become a bestselling crime novelist, he was doing this.

Adam Cox: No way. I do feel like this was a time when they were really adventurous with tv. Mm-hmm. It wasn't just throwing people in a villa or whatever it is. Exactly.

Kyle Risi: They were still very much experimenting everything now is very much safe, isn't it? Yeah. So Ben Cordal said the idea came to him from one of his favorite films, Capricorn One. Have you ever heard of that film before? No. So basically. It's about a fake mission to land on Mars. Which actually starts Jack Geller from friends.

Adam Cox: Really?

Kyle Risi: Yeah. I've never seen him in anything else. I don't think. Uh, he is in like Oceans [00:13:00] 11. Oh, of course he is. Yeah. Yeah. He's one of the Grifters, isn't he? Yeah.

So. Ben and Richard basically wanted to do something similar except rather than faking a Mars landing, they initially wanted to actually fake a moon landing, but it quickly became apparent that this would be virtually impossible and way more expensive.

So instead they decided to settle on tricking contestants into believing they were orbiting Earth. And if you watch the show on YouTube, it is pure 2005 nostalgia. It aired at the height of kind of e four's glory days. So that's obviously Channel Four's, edgier sibling channel, more catering for kind of the younger generation.

It was back when Freeview was just taken off. So do you remember when the signal would often glitch when you had your Freeview box and there'd be, those pixelated, magenta and green lime squares all over the screen?

Adam Cox: Yeah, I do remember that because Freeview was like, if you didn't have Sky, you only had like four or five channels. And then you got free view, which you pay a one off fee and then you get instant access to like 50.

Kyle Risi: I don't think you [00:14:00] even pay anything. I think you just buy the box.

Adam Cox: Oh, that's what I meant. Yeah. You buy the box and then you get all these extra channels.

Kyle Risi: Exactly. It was before kind of TVs came with a baked in basically.

Yeah. So when you watch it on YouTube and you see that that's basically what's going on. It's just a signal dropping in kind of 2005 era.

So in order to pull this off, producers first had to find contestants, some might say, dumb enough to fall for this. They basically place an ad in the paper that read.

Are you missing out on life's great experiences? Is the British public missing out on you and the word you is all undermined reading this, you're not sure if it's an invite to join Cols? Basically,

Adam Cox: yeah. I mean I've never seen these kind of ads in any, no, I've

Kyle Risi: never seen them. Like I would totally apply for them if I'd seen them because back then this was kind of before the incident was really as big as it is today, right?

Adam Cox: Yeah. How'd you get people? How'd you scout people out? Yeah. And that was how you did that really? People had to audition or, yeah, it had to be burn a newspaper, I guess.

Kyle Risi: So it said that you needed to have the personality to win over a nation. [00:15:00] You needed the determination to succeed and more balls than you can ever imagine. Remember at this point, you have no idea what you're applying for.

So, Adam, hearing that, are you applying, do you have more balls than you've ever imagined?

Adam Cox: I've got so many balls. Um, I think you have to think a lot of yourself in a way. 'cause like, oh yeah, I can win over a nation.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. Things though, when you are young, you have, you just have that confidence, that naive confidence as

Adam Cox: if like, yeah, why not?

Kyle Risi: Let's do this. I personally would've been disqualified straight away. 'cause famously I only have one ball.

So once the applicants had applied, the producers started the process of whittling them down.

The first people who were cut were anyone who might potentially see through the entire illusion. They basically cut anyone with a scientific or military background. And also obviously anyone with an interest in space. Part of the process included asking people if they could name more than four Star Trek or Star Wars characters,

Adam Cox: Because that would be a [00:16:00] signal.

Kyle Risi: really, I think it's because then you probably have an understanding of what it's like to potentially be in space, they're just basically looking for anyone who has an awareness of space, but doesn't really have a clue.

Adam Cox: I see. Okay.

Kyle Risi: If they've showed any kind of interest in that in any way, immediately eliminated,

Adam Cox: they'd be like, that's not what happened on Star Trek. Yeah,

Kyle Risi: exactly. Once that was done, they moved on to the psychological profiling rounds. What do you think they're looking for at this point?

Adam Cox: Well you mentioned at the beginning that they have to be gullible. So I'm guessing people that really don't question things.

Kyle Risi: So gullibility was definitely a factor. A lot of viewers actually thought that they were looking for people with low intelligence, but actually they wanted people who were intelligent, but also both creative and curious. But the biggest thing that they were looking for was susceptible people likely to basically believe a hoax.

The types who basically enjoyed practical jokes, who were willing to go along with the group. Or someone who would believe something if it was presented with authority.

Adam Cox: I see. And also, you mentioned about going along with the [00:17:00] groups. Yes. They're not gonna be someone that's gonna challenge it. They will try and keep the peace or keep what the common consensus is.

Kyle Risi: Exactly. So in that situation, I think you'd probably be quite qualified. 'cause you're too much of a people pleaser. Shut up. You should

Adam Cox: just be like, you'd be like, I'm not pleasing you right now.

Kyle Risi: That's true. now. I think obviously, an elements of this was also finding people who would be entertaining on screen offer all they are making a TV show at the end of the day. But that's not to say idiots didn't slip through the net. You could be creative and susceptible, but you could also be dumb as shit.

One of the very first tests that they did was the dot test where candidates were presented with a series of random dots on a piece of card. They were told that some of them contained faces in reality, none of them did.

Adam Cox: So dots on a card? Yes. Like polka dots?

Kyle Risi: polka dots on a card. Different colors. So they were showing these cards. Some said that they saw nothing at all immediately eliminated.

Mm-hmm. a lot of people did see something. People saw. Boy George's face. A woman said she saw a woman's reproductive system. Okay. Another guy thought he saw a hot dog with fries. But my absolute [00:18:00] favorite is one woman said, I see a skull on a lampshade. Um, wearing a cowboy hat.

Adam Cox: So it's very specific. I feel like she's just trying to think up an answer. I

Kyle Risi: think so that's the thing though, because at the same time they have no idea what the premise of the show is. So it's difficult to know what parts of your personality to kind of like emphasize or kind of what crazy shit to say. Yeah. Because you maybe trying to impress 'em, so a lot of it is bullshit.

Adam Cox: I want, yeah, I was gonna say like, did that woman actually generally believe that, or it just sounds suss? You probably could've got away with it. I can see Jesus. And then that would've worked.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, probably.

So. Next the contestants had to do the eyeball test where they were presented with a fishbowl, filled with rubber eyeballs and asked to guess how many they thought were inside of it.

Adam Cox: Okay.

Kyle Risi: Once they had their guesses, they were then presented with the whiteboard to write down their own answer. But on the whiteboard were also the supposed guesses of the other contestants, but the other people's guesses were really inflated in terms of numbers. So for example, you'd look in the fishbowl, you'd estimate maybe there's maybe a hundred [00:19:00] eyeballs in there. They would then show you the whiteboard and then the other guesses would be like 2,143 or whatever.

Adam Cox: Yeah. I imagine how that would, I think I would probably fall for that.

Kyle Risi: Exactly. This is the kind of going along with the group aspect, right? So at that point, you could decide to either change your answer before writing it down, or you could stick with it.

Some people looked at the guesses on the whiteboard, then looked back at the fishbowl, they were like, there's no way there's 2,143 eyeballs in that bowl. And so they would write down their original guests.

Adam Cox: Mm-hmm.

Kyle Risi: Immediately eliminated.

Adam Cox: Right. Okay.

Kyle Risi: The ones who changed their guests were the ones who moved onto the next round. They were, exactly who the producers were looking for, in spite of what their sensors were telling them, were willing to disregard that and go along with the crowd, essentially.

But there were some absolute spectacular failures in this process as well, one woman when asked how many eyeballs were in the bowl, she simply responded. A bowl of rubber eyeballs.

Adam Cox: That's not a number.

Kyle Risi: She was out [00:20:00] another woman when showed the fishbowl immediately tries to grab one, but the fish tank has a very obvious lid on it. So her hand kind of just slams into their lid and you hear like a clunk. The instructor was like, you don't need to touch the eyeballs, but she tries again. So she lifts the lid up. She puts her hand in and the instructor is like, you do not need to touch the eyeballs. So it takes her kind of forever to register what he's actually saying. She's out. I dunno. She seems

Adam Cox: dumb enough, like she could go along. I know they're not looking for dumb people, but I think they kind of are a little bit

Kyle Risi: like, what was she anticipating? Like, yes, very good. You pass, well done. You're going straight to space. Like seriously, some of these people are the stupidest people in the world.

So the next test was to check if any of the contestants were claustrophobic, because remember, if successful you were going to be living in a very confined space on what they believed was a space shuttle. a lot of people say they aren't claustrophobic, but until you in that situation, you don't actually know.

And the last thing that they want is for you to be in space and for a producer to kind of have to step out one of the side panels and rescue a contestant who's freaking out. Right? Like it'll destroy the entire [00:21:00] illusion for everyone. Yeah.

The producers had to test for both restrictive and confinement claustrophobia.

For the restrictive test. They had contestants wear a sleeping bag and a pair of blackout goggles and basically they just had to lie on the floor for 20 minutes and the idea was to kind of simulate the cramped hot conditions of the physical space suit that they were wearing. I see everyone pretty much passes this test, so most went through

The next test though, was the confinement claustrophobia test. It was important that this test be completely unexpected and that the contestants don't think that it's an actual test. So To do this. They basically trapped them in a real lift, on the way to kind of lunch or whatever.

And they're all like crammed in the lift, I guess. Yes, that's right. Or like in small groups, like 10 people at a time or whatever.

I'm not sure if any of them eventually recognized that this was a test when they were in there. I don't think so, because everything up until this point had been kind of testing their abilities.

This didn't seem to be like an ability test. They were just essentially just stuck in a lift. Mm-hmm.

The psychologists were watching for anyone who seemed to become [00:22:00] agitated. If they did, then they were immediately eliminated inside the lift with the contestants were three actors. They. Essentially integral to the entire hoax. With one of them making it actually into the final shuttle.

They were there basically to keep the show moving to model kind of the behavior of the producers. And if any of the contestants asked any questions or voice any doubts, they would subtly steer them back on track.

But also the most important thing is that no one knows at this point that these people are actors. They all think they're the proper contestants.

Adam Cox: They're like moles, I guess.

Kyle Risi: Exactly. They are essentially moles.

So in the lift you kind of see them making kind of eyes to the camera, giving them knowing looks. And so they start messing around making other contestants inside the lift to kind of feel uncomfortable on instruction of the actual producers. And basically they're just there to help test their reactions.

Mm-hmm. And most contestants are completely fine, but some start obviously sweating. They're shifting, they're clearly uneasy. If they did any of those things completely eliminated.

Kyle Risi (2): So the next test, the contestants were [00:23:00] given blackout goggles where they were asked to dance in a group with no music. So you've got the situation where you've got these people just flailing around, many of them doing kind of these weird, even sexual dancers.

I had no idea how sexual dancing in the early two thousands actually was. There's lots of

Kyle Risi: kind of like

Kyle Risi (2): body rolling and grinding especially the boys. What is that about?

Adam Cox: I don't remember doing that.

Kyle Risi: I, yeah, you'll definitely recognize this as a period of time when the dancing was just too suggestive and too sexual.

And what do people do now? I don't know. Just not that

Adam Cox: I think they probably do. No, I think it's still pretty sexual.

Kyle Risi: Too much. It was just, it was just creepy. It just too much. TV felt slight. Yeah.

So at this point, what producers are looking for is anyone who's willing to play along and kind of be a good sport about it. They were measuring basically embarrassment levels and to really amplify this, what they did is one by one they'd instruct individuals to remove their goggles and then stand aside leaving the others just dancing on their own.

Eventually, when there's just one person left, they'd ask 'em to [00:24:00] remove their goggles and the idea was to see which contestants just laughed it off or which ones were left feeling mortified. And a lot of them visibly crumbled with embarrassment, so they were eliminated.

Adam Cox: Like you, you dancing is terrible. Yeah. Who are you trying to hump?

Kyle Risi: You should just see some of the reactions when they take off the goggles. Some of 'em were visibly mortified

Adam Cox: and did they know that people were looking at them then? I guess they didn't.

Kyle Risi: They did when they took their goggles off because everyone was standing around kind of like I see. Watching them.

So it is nice that they were doing this because they wanted to see if people could see the joke within this, it's probably for insurance purposes, they don't really want contestants who would eventually go on a full rampage at the final. Do you know what I mean? Like be I was, yeah.

Adam Cox: Go or attacking people like I was a lie to and all this sort of stuff and sue them. Exactly. Yeah.

Kyle Risi: And obviously while all these tests were going on, the show was explaining kind of the assessments. we at home obviously know that this is a hoax. The contestants themselves have no idea what the actual show is actually about.

Adam Cox: What kind of contract did they have to sign before they go into this? Because I imagine they would've had to sign something probably [00:25:00] just

Kyle Risi: one line. I sign away all my rights. You can do whatever you want. To me,

Adam Cox: it must have been worded in a way that they didn't even read maybe.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, possibly.

But the point is they didn't know what the show is about. And I think that's what makes this really interesting, because like I said earlier, these people obviously are applying for a TV show. They want to make a good impression. Naturally, you want to emphasize the aspects of your personality that you think producers are searchable.

But in this case, they have no idea. Even the crew didn't know what the premise of the show was and to really throw people off, all these auditions were carried out under the guise that everyone is applying for different fake TV shows that they had kind of like posted. As for, so if someone asks like, oh, what are you auditioning for? Someone might be like, oh, come fool around my boyfriend. Or, oh, big Brother Six or whatever . ah, okay. So they don't know what to emphasize.

They don't know what the producers are looking for. Interesting. The entire budget for the show, $5 million, Adam, relative to the time, that is huge. Remember that's 2005 money.

Adam Cox: Yeah.

Kyle Risi: And honestly, they really do pull out all the stops to make this hoax work. But like I said at the very beginning, for all the scrutiny that reality TV shows have [00:26:00] gotten for the lack of care towards contestants, they really put emphasis on it. Here they really, really did not want to humiliate anyone. So in a way they're kind of like the good guys of peak reality tv.

Adam Cox: I think it's a little bit different though because here they are deliberately misleading these contestants.

Mm-hmm And that is the purpose of the show. So they probably are taking extra care. If you go on to Big Brother at the time or some of these other shows. I guess as you're put into all different sort of circumstances, you kind of know you're gonna be filmed 24 7, you are kind of provoked to act this way or that way. Mm-hmm. But at the end of the day, that's you making that choice to act that way.

Kyle Risi: True. I guess so. But at the same time they're also making a TV show and I guess for Big Brother as an example, they're looking to create situations that are gonna be entertaining to an audience and conflict.

Adam Cox: Yeah,

Kyle Risi: exactly.

And the final edit is to make it as entertaining as possible. But I guess the premise of this show is, can we pull off this hoax? They don't really have an interest in humiliating anyone, so they're not really gonna go off and like cut something in order to make someone look really, [00:27:00] really bad.

Do you know what I mean?

Adam Cox: Yeah. I feel like it's a slightly different motivation with this show. Yeah.

Kyle Risi: Because it's because of the format, I guess.

But one of the things that they did do was have each of the contestants write down a friend or a relative that they just trusted completely. What they didn't know was that if they qualified for the semi-finals, the producers would then visit that person and they would be the one to make the final decision on whether or not that contestant proceeded to the final selection.

Interesting.

Yeah. So they would visit them, they would explain everything. They would tell them obviously that this is all fake, and then ask, should this person be included? Will they be able to cope if this is all revealed as a hoax?

Adam Cox: 'Cause I reckon some people would be like, oh, they'll find this hilarious. They'll love it. And other people like don't do that to them. Or they're like, actually I wanna get my own back. You stole my, yes,

Kyle Risi: same thing applies, and it's your mom.

So next was the set, which was just insane. Adam, like I said, they had a ton of money to throw at this. And remember this is [00:28:00] 2005 money, but it wasn't infinite, so they couldn't actually afford a real Russian space facility. Right. Instead, they used a US Air Force base in Brent Water Park in Ipswich, which is Suffolk.

It had previously been used by the USA between 1951 and 1993, but by 2005 it was completely abandoned, but it still had barracks and a huge amount of space, basically just to get everything set up.

The first thing they did was replace every single light switch and power socket with Russian style outlets.

Adam Cox: Makes sense. I mean, I dunno what kind of outlet it is, but you wanna make sure it looks like it's mm-hmm. Abroad, right.

Kyle Risi: Anything that they could find with English written on, it was replaced with the Russian. At one point, they even found a brass tap on the side of a wall with the word off emboss on it. They literally just had to file that down.

Adam Cox: I love how much detail they put into this. Yeah.

Kyle Risi: They thought about everything. They hired a bunch of people to painstakingly scour every single inch of the facility for any British litter that might kind of give away that they weren't actually in England. I'm talking like crisp packets, Coke cans, fag [00:29:00] packets, cigarette butts, anything.

Kyle Risi (2): Mm-hmm. Anything they could find that would just be recognizable as English stuff. But the thing is though, if I was told I was in Russia and I saw a Walker's Crisp packet, I would be like, oh look, they have Walker's Crisps here. It genuinely would not cross my mind that this was a hoax.

Adam Cox: So you'd have been good for this show then,

Kyle Risi: but do you understand what I mean?

I see. 'cause you go to different countries, you go, oh look, they've got Twix here.

Adam Cox: Yeah, I guess so. But then if you look on the back and you just see English print and no Russian, you'd go, that seems a bit suss. And if something else, maybe you'd conned onto something else, that didn't make sense, but you didn't think too much of it. But then you see the quiz packet, so like chaining. Yeah. So I guess you just, you don't want any kind of seeded doubt at this point?

Kyle Risi: I guess so, yeah. So in isolation, maybe not, but if there's other things then yeah, I get it.

But basically, often they pick up all the trash. They then go around deliberately scattering Russian, rubbish everywhere. So if they did find anything, it would be Russian.

Adam Cox: That's so clever. It is so smart. I would never think to do that, but yeah, it makes sense.

Kyle Risi (2): So next, the producers, they visit, an aircraft dismantling yard in Chelmsford, [00:30:00] in Essex. This place basically supplies a film industry with all sorts of props. It's where actually a lot of the props for the James Bond films came from. Actually, when they're there, they pick out a bunch of old control panels, jet parts, missiles. They even found an old injector seat they take off all the English text and replace it with Russian. They then source a bunch of furniture that you'd expect to find an old military base like posters, mugs, flags, you name it. No expense is sped.

Then they send a team to fly out to Russia to do a grocery shop. They had to, of course, stock up the base with Russian products, soft drinks, toilet trees, bin bags, soap anything that they would need throughout the training process. They even brought Russian cigarettes for the crew members who smoked. So the only fag butts that would be lying around would be Russian fag butts.

Makes sense.

Next, they visited Russian outdoor markets where they managed to find a ton of military memorabilia, including badges and helmets. They found a few Russian space suits, and once they had all of this, they just flew all back to Ipswich.

They even hired a squad of [00:31:00] Russian speaking actors to all play soldiers and guards on the actual military base. So while you're in a lecture throughout the entire base. There's just like tons of Russian soldiers with dogs and uniforms speaking Russian, and they're just going about doing their business just to blend into the background.

Adam Cox: What a fun acting job.

Kyle Risi: It's like a proper Truman show, isn't it? Yeah. you're not in the scene, but you're in the distance, but you still, you still still play apart extra. Yeah, it's weird. But of course the whole hoax hinged on one thing. They needed a space shuttle and it needed to be believable.

So what they did is they assembled a team of Hollywood set builders and sound engineers to construct a shuttle simulator in a warehouse. When it was finished, they installed a massive wraparound screen that kind of projected, moving footage of the earth. This way, if you looked out the windows of the simulator, it would genuinely seem like you were in orbit.

Adam Cox: I'm trying to picture how realistic that was, you used to look back at technology or movies from 20 years ago, and at the time you used to think, oh, [00:32:00] amazing. Special effects. Yeah. But now you watch it and you're like, it looks like a cartoon.

Kyle Risi: It does look really impressive. No one questions it.

Adam Cox: So how do they get into this spaceship then? They couldn't have walked up outside into a spaceship. I'm gonna explain all that in a minute. Okay.

Kyle Risi: So while All this was going on, the participants who were left were sent on 10 days of physical training, ENC Cumbia, where they did abseiling hiking. At one point they had to jump for a bridge into kind of frigid water. Remember this is December. Mm-hmm. And the aim was to kind of see if they were willing to conquer their fears. Three of the participants, like I said, they were act as disguise as contestants. They were guaranteed to make it through to Russia.

One of them was a guy called Charlie Skelton and his cover story, so that he's a poet. Okay. And I dunno if they really thought this through. When they're on the train going to Cumbia, they're all kind of getting to know each other. One of the real contestants, and I think his name is Billy, he asks him if he can recite a poem right there on the [00:33:00] spot.

Adam Cox: One role as an actor. Come on now, your backstory. And

Kyle Risi: Charlie

Adam Cox: is like, oh, fuck.

Kyle Risi: And then amazingly on the spot, he goes, I saw a pebble on the beach. It reminded me of you. Or was it the dog behind scratching its shit into the cold sand? That's it. That is it. And then he just slowly turns his head away and the conversation was over and Billy is like, what the fuck? It's like

Adam Cox: this guy is Shakespeare

Kyle Risi: at this point. What's left is just basically the most suggestible people alive, but also they're all reality TV wannabes. So they're also really intense, really big personalities.

This is also day one of training, by the way, and Charlie is like, I, I don't think I can live with these people much longer, really, because day one, because they're just so intense. Yeah.

Finally, after a few weeks, all the psychological and kind of physical tests are done and the producers handpick their semifinalists who are going to become space cadets.

Kyle Risi (2): They [00:34:00] are really briefly, a guy called Andrew Carter. He's 19. He's a student from London. You've got Sarah Jane, Cass, she's 19. A media student from Kent. You've got Cheryl Ry, 23 year receptionist from Glasgow, Paul French. He's one of my favorites, 26. He's a plaster from Bristol. You've got Kerry Hassett, 25, a college administrator from Birmingham, Billy Jackson, 25, a recruitment consultant from Kent. You've got Ryan McBride, 28. He's an electrician. Louise Nesbit 23. She's a teacher. She like, they do an interview with her at the very end of this like 18 years later to find out like how this has affected her she's one of the exceptions. It has kind of affected her. She's a little bit gutted.

And then you've got Astrid Roberts 19 and she is a call center. And remember alongside them are three planted actors, Charlie Skelton, Rainey Doe and Steve Hester. And like I said, their entire job is to just reinforce the illusion and deflect any suspicion, whether doubts kind of arise.

So in total there are [00:35:00] 12 space cadets, only four of which including one actor, would eventually be selected to go into warts.

Adam Cox: I guess it's maybe easier to pull off that part of it with less people.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. Like and but also for realism effect, right? You don't get like a team of 20 people going up into space.

Adam Cox: That's also true. I've also noticed that they're all pretty much, I think in their twenties.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, that's the thing though. Like, do you remember that stage when we were watching, X Factor when we realized. God, we would be of the age where we would be in the mature category.

Adam Cox: The over 20 fives. Yeah. Yeah. That was a sad, I think I even did a Facebook update status on that at that point. When I used do that thinking, oh my God, I'm so old over the hill. God be 25 again.

Kyle Risi: So basically they gather all the Space Cadets at Bing Hill Airfield in London in the middle of the night, dead of winter. And this is where they're actually gonna meet the show's host for the very first time. And it is none other than Johnny Warn. Oh, okay. Do you remember him? I do. Yeah. He was very [00:36:00] often doing shows with, is it Sarah Cox,

Adam Cox: Denise Van out, Denise Van out. They did Big Breakfast Together. That's it. And they've done other shows, I think since he's on the radio. I think still now.

Kyle Risi: But I don't think he does television anymore. Oh. This is one of the shows that caused him to quit. He was like, yeah, I'm done. Really?

Adam Cox: Yeah. Because of, okay,

Kyle Risi: tell me more.

It's not purely because of the show, it's just because he could kind of sense where television was heading. Even in 2005, it was obvious reality TV was kind of tipping heavily towards spectacle over people. Mm-hmm. And it's just not something that he really kind of liked.

So they're all out on the tarmac. Johnny kind of like leans in. He lowers his voice, and then he reveals that they weren't just contestants on some late night channel four experiment. Instead they had all been chosen to compete to become one of the very first UK space tourists and for the cadets, this is basically the very first time that this is spelled out to them, . And they all go absolutely ballistic. They're screaming, they're hugging, they're, tears streaming down, they're bouncing on the spot.

And then Johnny tells them they're, right [00:37:00] now, they'd all be flying off to Russia where they would be spending the next three weeks in training. And then four of them would be chosen for a five day space mission. And I don't know how I'd feel about that. Like, yeah, it's a great prospect to be going to space and being selected, but you're leaving right now.

Adam Cox: Do they get an opportunity to like back out, I guess at this point?

Kyle Risi: Yeah. So he goes through and like, Hey Billy, do you wanna go to space? And he's like, hell yeah, but even still, I wanna speak to my mom and dad about it. Remember only 15 years earlier was the challenger space shuttle disaster, right?

Adam Cox: Yeah. I guess they don't have a lot of time. They have to make a split decision.

Kyle Risi: I dunno if I would, I'd be too, I would want to do it and I'd probably go, yes, I'll do it. And I'll think about the logistics later on.

Adam Cox: Yeah.

Kyle Risi: But then again, like I said, they all get so swept up in this, they just don't even notice.

Adam Cox: Yeah, I guess so. It sounds like you've been chosen and there's a chance, right? So you probably think, well, I'll try my luck. See how far I get.

Kyle Risi: But at this point, they're all thrilled. Charlie Skelton, one of the actors, was interviewed by The Guardian, like 18 years after this, and he said that the contestants [00:38:00] were utterly hyper and literally in a state of extraordinary elation. That's how he put it. He says that they all thought in that moment that their lives were all gonna change forever. He said that some of 'em were saying, I'm gonna be friends with Tom Cruise.

Adam Cox: I mean, I dunno, the link, how, how did he, bit of a stretch.

Kyle Risi: Maybe 2005. He was a like, I don't know, big thing. I don't know.

He does say that he felt really bad for them because obviously he knows this is all not real. Mm-hmm. He said that it was like taking a bunch of kids to meet Santa, only to reveal that he didn't actually exist. Wow. Which a, why would you do that anyway? That's really cool. That's really cool. So the Space Cadets, they are told that they are flying to crimps in Russia right now, and they all bore this private jet. It takes off. In reality, what's happening is they're being flown a hundred miles west to LID in Kent, which is another airfield.

Adam Cox: Okay. So they go there first? I thought they go into Suffolk.

Kyle Risi: Uh, once they get to lid, they're then gonna get a helicopter ride to Suffolk.

Adam Cox: Right. So they, how do they manage to think that they've gone to [00:39:00] Rush? I mean, once you're in the air, you don't really know. You kind of look out and you go, oh, okay, we've left the uk. Then you next see some land. And you think that's wherever, right?

Yeah. It's twisting and turning in the sky. But then to get a helicopter and not recognize the English countryside.

Kyle Risi: First of all, this is all done in the middle of the night. Right.

Adam Cox: Ah, okay.

Kyle Risi: They also make sure to take everyone's watches away. So I'm not sure how they explain that one. But then also in the sky.

They just make sure that the plane carefully and very slowly it just looped back and forth over the North Sea for four hours,

Adam Cox: It must have been the most boring flight for the pilots. But then to do that, because back then you wouldn't have had, smartphones. Mm-hmm. So I guess they would've had to take them off them, because usually you go to another country, it tells you, obviously, to be fair, I didn't see anyone with their mobile phone. Okay. Yeah. So they have to take their watches and. Phones. I guess

Kyle Risi: that's it. And while nobody suspected a thing, there was some disbelief that could have potentially been interpreted as maybe like, oh, this isn't real. Because one girl wonders with her mate, whether or not this might all be fake because the way she puts it is like, this is just too good to be true. But I put it down [00:40:00] to that like it's a disbelief thing rather than this isn't happening or this is fake. It's more like, this is too good to be true.

Adam Cox: But wouldn't the producers like clocked onto that and go get rid of her?

Kyle Risi: But other than that, they're also giddy that nobody seriously questioned what was happening. They were literally on a plane. So why would there be any doubts? Right. You don't expect there to be another deception underneath that.

Adam Cox: Yeah.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. Eventually they land in lid. Everyone thinks that they're in Vlo, grad in Russia. Nobody questions. What the time is there or why none of them would have any jet lag or anything.

Adam Cox: I guess there's only four hours though. And if it's at nighttime,

Kyle Risi: but let's say you took off at, let's say midnight.

Adam Cox: Mm-hmm.

Kyle Risi: It'd be like four in the morning.

Adam Cox: Mm-hmm.

Kyle Risi: Plus it'll be four hours into the future. So it surely it would be almost daytime, but to them it's not.

Adam Cox: Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah. The, the daylight would've shifted or whatever. Yeah, exactly.

Kyle Risi: But none of them question it,

Adam Cox: I don't know. You are probably just, you know, when you go on holiday anyway, you are, is all exciting and so therefore maybe you don't think about that. You still have that adrenaline

Kyle Risi: going.

Mm-hmm. So from there, they're all transferred by helicopter to the [00:41:00] RAF base in Suffolk, now branded, obviously star onboard, they're greeted by a very intimidating Russian soldier who calls out all the names one by one, and then orders them onto a waiting bus. Outside Ryan is the last space cadet left. He isn't on the list, so the soldier demands his passport with his hand stretched out.

Ryan misunderstands this and goes to shake his hand, and the soldier is not amused. Ryan is forced, obviously. Then wait while they do some checks with his comrades. There's a ton of aggressive Russian back and forth before the soldier comes back in and just orders him off their helicopter into the bus. So it seems very genuine, right? You've got this really intimidating Russian soldiers come on, starts barking orders at you, why would you not believe it?

Adam Cox: I guess this is staged, obviously, and so this perhaps helps them to believe where they are. Mm-hmm. One 'cause obviously they're Russian and two, if someone's barking orders or there's kind of a tense situation. Yeah. And you probably just play along with it or do whatever.

Kyle Risi: So from there, they're all driven through various checkpoints and gates complete with guards holding leached rot, violet, the base is [00:42:00] flooded with spotlights. There's fog. It all looks really, really authentic. Eventually they reach the barracks where they'll be staying, and none of them question that they hunt in Russia. It's pretty amazing that they managed to pull this off, up to this point.

Adam Cox: Yeah, I'd love to see what this place looked like.

Kyle Risi: Again, watch the show. Even if you just skim through it on YouTube, it's pretty incredible. Most of the setup is done in episode one.

On their first proper day, they start with a lecture by their mission commander. This is a guy called James Campbell. He's an actor. Producers have him really lean into kind of this stereotype of this really posh, boring British commander complete with a fake handlebar mustache. They also have him speak Adam Pain fairly slow. His lectures are just mind-numbingly boring.

And so To kick off, the cadets are introduced to the mission where they have to rehearse star's motto, which when translated from Russian is, it's not rocket science, but none of them know this.

Adam Cox: Right. Okay.

Kyle Risi: Then they have to kind of sit through a lesson with him where they have to learn all the different roles of the control. [00:43:00] Mission specialists. Each one comes with its own acronym. For example, they have to learn about the role of the, navigation, aeronautics control and specialist, whose acronym is knackers, which is 90 slang for, uh, testicles.

Yeah. None of them twig. And it's because everything has been delivered in this really serious tone, in this very serious looking environment that they've all just been swept up in it all, you know, to the point that none of them see any of this piss taking, and there's a lot of piss taking in this.

Even Charlie Skelton, like who knows, this is all fake. He forgets that he's an actor. At one point he raises his hand and asks a genuine question about Planet X or whatever, and the commander doesn't actually know how to answer the question. So for a minute he stumbles and he's like, that's not only the script.

Yeah. But he say that the last minute without anyone noticing. They do also have a a di room in the barracks as well where the cadets can go and share their thoughts, just like on Big Brother. And Ryan says like he didn't anticipate how serious the lectures were going to be, [00:44:00] but this was the kick up the arts we all needed to take this seriously.

Adam Cox: Yeah, I guess so. Like before, it's been kind of fun and games, isn't it really? Are they learning about real stuff?

Kyle Risi: No. 80% of what they're being taught is real.

Adam Cox: Mm-hmm.

Kyle Risi: But 20% is just bullshit. Yeah. Fair And staking, one of the biggest hurdles, of course, of putting this whole thing off was the matter of zero gravity in space, which as you might imagine, isn't something that you can easily fake in a warehouse outside of Ipswich. So what do you think the solution was?

Adam Cox: I think they come up with some lame excuse to go, oh, we've got this this futuristic or Russian technology that kind of

Kyle Risi: very, very good. Yes, the producers had deliberately selected very suggestible people, so they hold this entire lecture hosted by world class aerospace genius, a guy called Brick Price. In reality, he's a Hollywood set designer, brick presents, blueprints, charts showing kind of the shuttle system, he sounds very authoritative, and he tells them that they aren't actually going into [00:45:00] outer space. They're actually going into near space where he says that the gravity is about 30% less that of Earth

on top of that, the shuttle's, gravity generators on board will then balance out the missing kind of gravity by up to 90%. So they might feel slightly lighter, but otherwise wouldn't really notice. And they're gonna be suggestful people, right? So they're gonna be up in space and go like, do you know what? I do feel lighter. I can, I can feel a little bit, I feel lightheaded.

They completely buy it. You just see them all just scrambling, taking notes. They're like looking really serious and like, oh yeah, this, this is serious stuff. We've gotta take notes, man. Charlie says in the diary room,

Kyle Risi (2): you could have literally told them that the gravity generators were being run by hamsters on running wheels and they would've still believed it.

Adam Cox: I mean, at this point, if everything has felt real. And also like sci-fi stuff, you perhaps would've gone, oh yeah, maybe this is true now. Maybe it is possible.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. There is a close call, when Brick Price nearly exposes the whole thing.

He's in the middle of explaining how the artificial gravity system was inspired by the [00:46:00] 2001 A Space Odyssey movie. Mm-hmm. He actually drops in that the film was shot in Hollywood. Another lecturer jumps in and goes, actually, no, it was filmed in the United Kingdom.

And Rick pauses for a second and he says, that's right. Most of the film was filmed here, wasn't it? Oh, right. So again, he doesn't say that they're not in Russia. But he's insinuating that they are. Oh, by it was filmed here.

Adam Cox: Oh, and they don't pick up on that. They

Kyle Risi: don't pick Not a single cadet. No. They're just taking notes.

It's, yeah. Late, like two hours later, they're like going through their notes and going, oh, hang on a minute.

Adam Cox: That's interesting. It's amazing how far through this they're able to take this stunt. Because if one of the actors or whoever is in this messes up on day one or day two that could have blown this whole thing open, there wouldn't have been a show.

Kyle Risi: Well, I mean, we need to have that close call with Charlie Skelton when he like asked a genuine question that James Campbell cannot answer.

Adam Cox: Yeah. Yeah.

Kyle Risi: But still this, this

Adam Cox: is a blatant, like, shit, shit, we've let it slip where we are.

Kyle Risi: So after the lectures, they're all treated to a surprise party [00:47:00] where the aim is to get to know some of the people that they'll be joining them on the mission. Right? So this includes obviously the commanders and the pilots because there's going to be alcohol involved. Producers don't wanna risk anyone stumbling or saying anything. They basically shouldn't. Mm-hmm. So they tell them that and they, they kind of dress it up as this is just about getting to know each other. Any talk of the mission is completely banned. This is just about relaxing.

Adam Cox: So someone gonna come in there and go like, Hey, you're talking about the mission. Stop it.

Kyle Risi: Well. It goes out the window immediately. As soon as the party starts, they're all drunk. The girls start flirting with the pilots. Everyone's talking about the mission. At one point Paul says to the commander, that's James Campbell. Don't take this the wrong way, but you look like a glorified travel agent.

And James is like, oh shit. Is he, he's just an actor. He might be. Yeah. I think at one point he goes, yeah, I I, I could be I in another life. I could be.

Adam Cox: So what you should always do, I guess it's you always say yes, don't you? With this improv?

Kyle Risi: Yes. But the production team does [00:48:00] run into a bit of a problem later that night because Charlie Skelton accidentally kicks Steve. He's another one of the actors, uhhuh, he kicks him and he flicks his toenail off. There's blood everywhere at him. Why does he flicked his toenail off? I think it's just a freak accident,

ew. Basically this means that Steve can't do any of the physical training. it's tricky for the producers because if he can't do any of the physical training, then they can't justify him potentially being selected as part of the four to go up into the space shuttle later on without it looking really suspicious or suss.

Mm-hmm. So basically, he is a dead weight just hanging around. But conveniently by night fall, Steve starts being violently sick with gastro. So I'm not sure if this was an excuse they got him to fake, having gastro so they could get rid of him, or whether or not this was genuine.

I think it was genuine because he's really anxious about having to sleep on the top bunk. Mm-hmm. And you definitely don't wanna be the person sleeping on the bottom bunk. No, you do not. With someone with the gastro.

So in the middle of the night, a producer comes in, they obviously explain the situation. They said that they need to [00:49:00] move him to protect the other kind of cadets because gastro can be contagious. And they said they're gonna take him for treatment. So he is away from the others. A day later they make the excuse that because he had missed so much training, they just decided that he should probably go home.

Okay. What part of me makes me think that this was planned.

Adam Cox: But you would've thought they would've just revealed that to the audience, right? If they would gonna like try and set this up properly so why would they go to the lengths to say that you had gastro?

Kyle Risi: Yeah. I don't know. What they tell the audience is that he's gone home because of the gastro. They do say that he is Miss Lo training, but they say the thing that made them move him was the gastro.

Adam Cox: Interesting.

Kyle Risi: To me it just seemed like they need an excuse to get rid of him because they couldn't justify him being selected as one of the four.

Adam Cox: Yeah.

Kyle Risi: So basically right now there are just two actors left. That's Charlie and Rainey. The next day, the lecture's all about space history, where they talk about the very first dog in space named Laia. She basically tragically dies in an accident and she kind of burns up as it's coming back into orbit.

This part of the story is [00:50:00] very true. It's also very, very sad. A few of the cadets are crying as they're listening to this. The lecturer then tells them that Laia story inspired a really famous song in Russia in her honor, and was called A Million Miles from Home.

So everyone is still deeply upset and he decides to play the song Adam. It's a full on nineties techno track,

and so throughout the song, everyone is really down in the dumps. Um, some of the girls are crying. They can't get past the fact that this really upbeat song has been playing. Charlie cannot contain himself. He, you just seem like just trying to struggle to stop himself from

Adam Cox: laughing. I mean, it almost sounds a bit insensitive, but then I guess as Just try and see if people believe this. Right.

Kyle Risi: it's true. Really? Yeah. Yeah. The song exists and it was inspired by this dog, but it just so happens to be a techno nineties track. That's, I thought this

Adam Cox: show made this up. That's hilarious.

Kyle Risi: They're then told that Russia's first cosmonaut to successfully orbit and return to Earth was a monkey called [00:51:00] Minsky. And that to honor the monkey, they had named the city of Minsk after her. That's a lie, right? That's not true at all. Yeah, that's part of the bullshit. They then wheel out a glass cabinet with Minsky stuffed body wearing a space suit, and they're all told that they need to pay their respects to it every single day.

He says in Russia, we do not take these things lightly. And he checks every day that they have a lecture with him. He's like, has everyone paid their respects to, and there's this like, Musk, yes sir, in this glass cabinet with this like staunch face going, ah, this is awful.

Adam Cox: That's hilarious.

Kyle Risi: So every lecture is just filled with all these bonkers kind of things that the producers are using to see how far they can push them before anyone basically questions it.

Kyle Risi (2): Next They're bringing the cadets to try on their space suits, which they've gotten from the Russian market. They've told that they need to wear a state-of-the-art installation suit underneath, right? Mm-hmm. It's so like a white body stocking, it's like $20,000 . In reality, it's a white morph suit that they bought from a fetish website before 99.

They then have them practice kind of very technical stretches, [00:52:00] wearing these morph suits to kind of help with the kind of body flow and muscle weakness in space. All the stretches are sexual. There's a lot of thrusting, there's a lot of groaning. Nobody questions it. They're all really tuned into helping each other with their technique as well.

Adam Cox: I need to see this. Uh,

Kyle Risi: next, they have them all try on their pressurization suits, in reality, they're just chemical suits that they're bought on eBay, which are then fitted with leaf blowers so they can blow air into it. So they'll kind of blow up like Mr. Blobby, like a, a marshmallow. they all have to practice kind of their communication gestures. Things like, my hole is blocked. And then they have to kind of do this gesture where they're kind of like doing a sex gesture.

Adam Cox: So this is why they couldn't have anyone that watched Star Trek or whatever because they'd go, that's not what happens. Yeah.

Kyle Risi: After this came the vocal communication training where they had to all practice describing emergencies to the ground control team.

So imagine it like this, this is Earth orbit one two crimps. I see. The shuttle does not have a phalange like that kind of thing, right? Yeah. So after you practice that, [00:53:00] the idea that the professor will hold up a board with an illustration on it, which I then have to subscribe to the ground control.

So they're like, this is earth orbit one, two crimps. I see a monkey. And the professor's like, is that it? And she adds, I see a monkey wearing a waistcoat and a fez, and he's like, good.

It's really serious. Well, well done, well done. He also holds up a sign with the words, do not say anything written on it. Charlie just sits there. He doesn't know what to say and then he realize obviously that that's not right. So he says, this is earth orbit one to crimps.

I see a lecturer holding a board that says, do not say anything. Lecturer is like, nice, so serious. Where's this testing as well. I've not just, can they see an emergency and can they report it back effectively to ground control, basically?

Adam Cox: Right. Okay. Yeah,

Kyle Risi: this just goes on and on and eventually they complete their training.

They take their final exam, which is followed up by a graduation ceremony. Everyone has given like a cute little [00:54:00] certificate. There's a commemorative badge that goes with it, and they're all like, wow. I bet no one in the world has one of these. In reality, they bought it from a Russian flea market.

They tell all the cadets that the final cadets going into space will be selected tomorrow, and the ceremony is then capped off with a poem read out by one of the pilots about courage and endeavor.

Adam Cox: Is it in Russian?

Kyle Risi: It's in Russian. And the reality is that this is just the recipe for Toad in the hole. All the cadets are already moved.

Adam Cox: Amazing.

Kyle Risi: And so even though no one really calls out any of this bullshit, there are some questions that do spring up. One of 'em says, I honestly think that this is just a social experiment to see kind of like how we react, but luckily, and this is the purpose of Charlie and Rainey, they make up some bullshit. Like this is how it's supposed to be. Exactly.

Adam Cox: Yeah. This is how they do it in Russia.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. But there is one thing that someone says that there's just [00:55:00] no way that you can kind of add a reassurance to it. 'cause one of them says, I just thought it would be colder in Russia. Like, it just feels like England out there. He says, and so all rainy can say is like, yeah, I know what you mean. And moves The conversation along. I think

Adam Cox: that's the thing, like if you like argue that point too much, then it probably stands out more.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, exactly. But inside she's like, fuck.

the thing is though, all their senses, were telling them that this is real, but subconsciously their brains were working against them this becomes apparent when one of the girls has captured sleep talking. She goes, you are not foreign. You are not foreign. You're not foreign.

Adam Cox: So subconsciously she knew something is going on. I guess maybe they didn't want to like say anything. 'cause like you say, they go along with the crowd. Yes. And maybe they're like, oh well they didn't know for sure about whether this was fake or real. And they're just there for the experience. They're on TV at the end of the day.

Kyle Risi: Yes, probably. So they're all kind of like waiting for the final selection to take place. Mm-hmm. They all really wanted [00:56:00] Adam, they really want this. Probably one of the most standout moments for me is when Charlie is keen to redeem himself after his awful scratching it shit into the Cold Sand poem,

Adam Cox: right?

Kyle Risi: Charlie writes a poem about the Russian billionaire who apparently founded the space program. His name is, uh, Sergey Bbo. I think that's how you pronounce his name. Like there's a big poster of him in kind of their dorm area. He gathers everyone around to listen, and he goes, net net.

Sergey Bos boss clumps a wizard fist upon the supper table. Net, net, net. His eyes blaze like Skylab and his tiny wife wipes pickled cabbage from her face. Sergey speaks by the 63 moons of Jupiter, four of which were visible by Galileo.

It shall never happen outside the Russian squawks over the still warm body of its mate. Sergey crosses himself in a manner, of a [00:57:00] Crimea nun, his tiny old wife Cowers behind the Cabbage Pot.

This, I swear, shrieked Sergei, their poor French will never go to space. What Paul French is one of the other cadets, and he really, really wants this,

but I think he's redeemed himself.

Adam Cox: I mean, really. The

Kyle Risi: thing is though, if you are not a poet, don't even try. Don't try, just go like, yeah, I'm not working.

Adam Cox: Yeah, I like that. He thought this was gonna redeem himself as well. It's like he'd been so gutted since that moment in time going, I'm not a good actor.

I need to prove myself.

Kyle Risi: So finally they select the final four. They're all like, I hope it's you, but really they hope it's themselves. Yeah, of course. In the end, they select Charlie the actor, 26-year-old, plus Paul French. He does get a spot in spite of Charlie's poem,

25-year-old receptionist, Kerry, and finally 25-year-old recruitment consultants. Billy joining them will be two pilots, Alex Hughes and Drew Levy. Also. Both of them are [00:58:00] actors and so this is it. Producers now really need to solidify this illusion.

They take the finalists to visit ground control where they are going to meet for the very first time. The people that we send them up into space, again, they're all actors working away in this control room, and when they see it, it now feels real, right? They've gone to the control room, they've seen everyone work in away, there's blinking lights everywhere, computers everywhere. They get to meet the chief kind of like control person, and it's really believable,

Adam Cox: I guess if there is like 20 or 30 actors in this room or whatever.

Yeah.

Kyle Risi: Or working away.

Adam Cox: Yeah. Yeah.

Kyle Risi: They also on the way strategically drive past a hanger where they get a glimpse of the shuttle poking out of the entrance to this hanger. Mm-hmm. Complete with fake smoke lighting effects. In reality, is literally just the nose or the shuttle that they made, and there's just nothing behind it.

But either way, seeing this just poking out to them is like, okay, this is kind of quas any lingering doubts that they might have.

Next the [00:59:00] producer stage, a press conference,

Kyle Risi (2): there are journalists and photographers from all over the world there to meet

them,

Kyle Risi: right? Mm-hmm. they ask them about their training, how they're feeding one reporter, ask them whether or not they were planning on having sex in space.

Kerry says, well, as the only girl. Hopefully not. Wrong answer, Kerry. They also ask if any of them have had sex with a sex worker or a member of the EastEnders cost. Why? I dunno, that was the same question. Okay.

Not separate, the same one.

Kyle Risi (2): By the

end of it, they're all really convinced that they're going to be world famous.

Kyle Risi: They're like, oh my God. I'm gonna meet Oprah. I'm gonna be friends with Tom Cruise. That this solidifies it for them in a big way.

Adam Cox: Wow.

Kyle Risi: On the day of the launch, Adam, they're all transported to the entrance of the shuttle.

They basically walk up these ramps through these kind of like tunnels that they've kind of created that lead up to a hatch, which opens up [01:00:00] into the shuttle. Mm-hmm. It's just a simulator basically. After they're in, they're all strapped into the seats. This is one of the biggest giveaways that I just don't understand.

' cause rather than taken off vertically like a rocket, they're all kind of taking their seats horizontally. Like they're in a car. Nobody explains why. And none of the cadets ever question this at all.

So in the shuttle, there are windows at the front of the cockpit. So this is for them to be able to see kind of like space in orbit.

But as they're getting ready for the cadets to board the shuttle, a moth is spotted in the studio where the projector is. Oh no. And so suddenly there's gonna be potentially a 30 foot moth shadow kind of projected across the Sahara. It's an alien. Yeah. So, so they have to improvise and they say for safety reasons, the shutters have to stay closed, during kind of liftoff.

Again, no one questions this. It's like, well that's not like the movies. Yeah. It's weird. Finally, everything's ready. The shuttle kinda rumbles to [01:01:00] life. The countdown begins 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. Are you keeping the suspense? 3, 2, 1, lift off. Nothing happens. Okay. The simulator's, hydraulics fail. They stall at that moment in time.

The pilots like they glance at each other and they're like, oh, now what? Then the simulator immediately jolts. It starts to shutter. There's a motion, and then they scramble. They go, 3, 2, 1, quick go now. And it lives off. No one says a word. The pilots are thinking, woo. Saved it. Yeah.

Adam Cox: Part me wonder how much of these missteps is also planted into the show to create the drama people were watching?

Kyle Risi: No, this hydraulics failure was definitely a misstep.

Adam Cox: And

Kyle Risi: then

Adam Cox: what about the moth? Because I feel like. It wouldn't have looked believable anyway. Or maybe it would, but did they use that as an excuse to then not show it?

Kyle Risi: I think [01:02:00] so because because otherwise they're gonna have to fake physically lifting off.

Adam Cox: Exactly. And that's why I think they always intended to have those things shut.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, I think so.

Adam Cox: See, I would've gone onto this thing away sooner.

Kyle Risi: Uh, but it is wild they've had a failed launch. If this was real, it would've been right. Everyone off. There's been a malfunction. We'll try again in three weeks. Mm-hmm. That's the reality, right? Yeah. But no, instead of just like, oh, it's working now. Blast off. We're fine. Don't worry about it.

It's all safe.

I have to say that the launch going up into orbit is very underwhelming. Like the hydraulics. Basically all they do is just kind of like shake the shuttle. It's rocking back and forth for a bit.

Kyle Risi (2): After they get into orbit, the cadets are like,

Kyle Risi: wow,

Kyle Risi (2): that was really smooth. It was almost like driving a car.

Kyle Risi: And

Kyle Risi (2): the pilots are like, that's a very big compliment. Thank you.

Adam Cox: I mean, yeah, go with it. Always say yes, and that's what you have to do. Right?

Kyle Risi: Just [01:03:00] magical.

Adam Cox: I mean like I know they've got this whole excuse for the gravity, but I would've thought they would've expected more GForce.

Kyle Risi: Exactly. There's no crushing GForce, no sense of being rocketed skyward. It's just meh. But amazingly they believe it. I don't know if it's everything else around them kind of adding to the context of it all. I don't know.

Adam Cox: And also like, who knows what the movies do to make something look, I dunno, you know, they add sound effects and things that aren't real. So maybe they're like, well actually maybe it is a bit more underwhelming than it

Kyle Risi: really is. Possibly. Yes. Yeah. Eventually the producers, apparently they catch them moth, and now is the time to kind of finally open up the shutters. All the cadets stand by, basically there's a cockpit and then there's like a grated cage wall that prevents 'em from stepping too close to the windows to be able to then see kind of the surrounding sets.

Mm-hmm. Basically. The shutters open and there it is. The earth and Adam, it genuinely looks impressive on a 2005 TV screen basically. . The cadets say that it felt really [01:04:00] profound.

Even Charlie said like, for a moment, he forgot that this was all fake. Wow. So that says to me, this is impressive. Mm-hmm. They spend the next five days in the small shuttle, the producers make sure they have a bunch of things to do. But during the downtime they start obviously having doubts, mostly that, they don't feel like they're in space. Remember, there's no gravity there either, right? Mm-hmm. They, that's been explained away. So if you were a producer, what would you do at this point? To get them back on track?

Adam Cox: You just track them with something, right?

Kyle Risi: You think just distract them.

Adam Cox: Yeah. Shiny ball.

Kyle Risi: You need to do something, to kind of reassure them that they are in space.

Adam Cox: Does something go wrong?

Kyle Risi: No. Much simpler than you think. Basically,

Kyle Risi (2): they play them a video message from the hosts of this morning who tell them that everyone is rooting for them and that even the queen is following their mission.

Kyle Risi: And that's it. Adam, that really affirms to them that they're actually in space. They're like, oh my God, the queen is watching us.

Adam Cox: So all they did was get Richard and Judy on, which it probably was at that point,

Kyle Risi: I think it was Fern Britain and Philip Schofield at the [01:05:00] time. Oh, okay.

Adam Cox: Even still just get those people on yeah. I guess again, there's no reason to doubt that maybe at that point. Yeah. Mental, isn't

Kyle Risi: it? So on the final day, they're all told that they're actually gonna get a chance to do a space walk and actually leave the shuttle. In reality, this is actually the big reveal. So they're all put on their spacesuits. They enter into this tiny little pod that's kind of supposed to decompress, rize them or something, or whatever. I don't know.

Charlie isn't going with him. 'cause technically he's an actor, right? Mm-hmm. He's not part of this.

So the producers there, they need an excuse for why he is not joining them. They tell them he's got Worms. Worms. No. The best excuse they could come up with was that he had worms. Where would he have got worms from? I dunno. The cadets say believe him. In fact, they probably still believe it to this day that no, no one lies about worms.

Adam Cox: Yeah. Charlie was an actor.

Kyle Risi: So there's a screen inside the pod it comes on. It's Johnny Vaughn. He [01:06:00] says they all did really well. And then he plays them their journey so far as they normally do, like on Big Brother, right? Mm-hmm. Plays this big montage of all the cadets kind of raising their suspicions throughout the show. The final shots at the end of this montage is a live stream from outside of the simulator really? And that's when the penny drops for them

Straight away, the pot opens and there they are. They're in the studio. There's all their friends and family waiting for everyone's cheering. And this was probably the most critical moment for the producers because they have no idea how these cadets are going to react.

Oh, to the point that they even had a doctor and a psychologist standing by just in case any of them couldn't cope and just went on a rampage and a security and everything. Yeah, probably.

But in the end, all three of them handle it really well. They are a little bit disappointed. They are embarrassed. The producers were massively relieved though, because they didn't really want to humiliate anyone.

They genuinely wanted them to see kind of the funny side. And I guess as you said, it's because the premise [01:07:00] of the show was different, right? It was about pulling off this hoax and not like creating entertainment. And then during their final interview, they all said that they'd all been really convinced, like certain aspects did feel a little bit strange, but they didn't really have a frame of reference for them. Mm-hmm. So it was just really easy for 'em to kind of just dismiss it.

But probably they said the most convincing part of it all was that they truly believed that they were in Russia.

'cause Johnny asked them like, where are you right now? And they're like, in Russia. And they're like, no, you're in Ipswich. And they're like, what? They just kind of believe it.

Adam Cox: I mean everything up until that point, I guess it was a lot easier to influence them. The space part was always gonna be the most difficult. Yeah,

Kyle Risi: I guess so. so all nine of the contestants, even the ones that weren't selected, were told that as a prize they'd all be given a real trip to actual Russia, where they'd go to visit a real training facility where they'd all get to experience real weightlessness flight.

On top of that, they each get five grand as well. The three who went into space, got an extra 5,000 pounds for each day that they were in the simulator. So they got like [01:08:00] 25,000 each.

Adam Cox: Oh, wow. So a little bit of prize money, which is good. . It's interesting. I don't think like this show would've aged well now. Like, no, go to Russia. No thanks.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, no,

Adam Cox: definitely not today.

Kyle Risi: And so now it's been like 20 years since all this happened. The Guardian ran a piece to kind of catch up with them all to see kind of how they've all been affected and where they are now.

Louise told the Guardian that she was actually really desperate to be chosen, and when she didn't make the final four, she was absolutely crushed. So it might not have come across that way on television. Mm-hmm. But she was devastated. She said that she had to take her socks off to wipe her tears from her face.

Oh

Adam Cox: God. There's that much, that many tears.

Kyle Risi: But straighter socks,

Adam Cox: not like a sleeve, not get a tissue. She went straight for the socks. That's hilarious. When were the other contestants told then?

Kyle Risi: So they were told, when the others went off to the shuttle, they were all gathered into a room and they were told, they like, where do you think you are?

They're like, well, Russia. And they're like, no, you're in Ipswich. And I think in hindsight some they were like, oh, this didn't make sense. That didn't [01:09:00] make sense. But yeah, they largely all believed it. Mm-hmm. What made Louise feel better was the idea that the producers were looking for the four people who most likely would've been duped by the simulator. So to her this meant that she was too smart to believe that she was not in space. So that made her feel better.

Adam Cox: I

Kyle Risi: mean, and she's the teacher, by the way.

Adam Cox: I mean, I guess that's the thing though, right? The final people had to be the most susceptible,

Kyle Risi: I guess so. But I thought it was all down, like your training and stuff.

Adam Cox: I think there probably more tests trying to work out who is,

Kyle Risi: but this is how she came to terms with all fine. Basically. The show got a bit of criticism in The Guardian because in those 20 years, reality tv, as we discussed at the top of the show, has come under real scrutiny for its lack of care.

The journalists who wrote the article, Laura Martin, wrote. Yes, there have been cruel TV shows, but there's something about the psychological manipulation concept that doesn't sit right with me. With reality TV finally forced to examine its duty of [01:10:00] care in recent years. It's highly unlikely a series would ever be commissioned like this today.

And it's still unclear who the series was actually for. Two things I agree with that. Like this probably wouldn't be made today just because of the, the degree and also the stigma that comes with kind of selecting kind of candidates.

But also who was the show for? Like who was the joke on, right? Was it the contestants, was it Charlie and the other actors to see if they could kind of like steer people? Or was it on the viewer? Like it serves you right for watching reality tv, that kind of thing. Do you know what I mean?

Adam Cox: I think it's just event tv, like Channel four has done a number of these kind of personal stress tests, all that sort of stuff. There's a thing about people where they weren't allowed to sleep, uh, at one point.

Oh God.

Kyle Risi: Yeah.

Adam Cox: And so, I don't know. I just feel like in some ways it is a spectacle. It's almost like a big budget spectacle on tv. And I dunno, I don't feel like it had bad intentions, but in hindsight it's not. Right. Yeah. I mean, [01:11:00] now all TV is, is basically any show where you get to stab someone in the back that's pretty much like Yeah. The traitors, which, that's kind of the theme now. Maybe they're proved the concept

Kyle Risi: They know what works well. Yeah. But this is all probably part of the experimental kind of concept phase of like, well, what makes a good reality TV show?

Mm-hmm. That's why we had such a variety back then. Yeah. But nowadays, as you said. Stabbing people in the back.

Adam Cox: Yeah. Which, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed that.

Kyle Risi: But even Johnny Vaughn, he questioned at one point whether or not the joke was actually on him. all the contestants were all in on it to try and trick him,

Adam Cox: I guess. Yeah. That's another way of looking at it, right? Yeah. Like do you think actually we'd put you as the presenter of a show like this?

Kyle Risi: Yeah. He said that in the end there was just something about the show that just didn't sit right with him. He says that he found quite grubby, and this is actually where he says this was one of the last times that he ever worked in television because of it. He explained that since he started back in 1993, there'd always been kind of a real sense of love for the viewer, but Space Cadets felt like the start of that age of contempt for the audience.

He [01:12:00] doesn't say he regrets doing it, but he does say that through his involvement he was able to make the show kinder than what it might have been. cause he says like it was because of him that they all got prize money and they all got kind of an opportunity to actually go to a real training facility.

Oh really? The producers didn't wanna do that, but he forced them to do it.

Adam Cox: That's a really nice thing because almost you do wanna reward them. It isn't like, ah, we've fool you and now go back to do the rest of your lives. Exactly. I guess then they can at least portray it as a game show in a way.

Kyle Risi: And there was a bunch of other things that apparently he pushed back on that the producers wanted to do, but he was just adamant that he didn't want any of the contestants to be humiliated or even have their reputations damaged by this. Mm-hmm. Louise, for example, remember she's a teacher. And one of the things that she said is that she would do anything as long as it didn't make her look like an idiot in front of her students. And Johnny Vaughn made sure of that.

Adam Cox: I think that's a really good thing because we talk about Big Brother where you go on there and you know, whatever you do, you know, like that's your choice to [01:13:00] do some of those things. Yeah. You might be provoked or whatever. Here we don't wanna see people arguing or getting into a fight because they're being manipulated deliberately. That is, yeah. Really underhand. Yes. Without 'em knowing what's going on.

Kyle Risi: You wanna be a good sport about these types of things, right?

Adam Cox: Yeah.

Kyle Risi: Charlie says that after the show, it took him ages to shake off the feeling that he wasn't inside his own Truman show. He would wake up in the middle of the night and be convinced that there were cameras in the room.

Adam Cox: I mean, he had been living this for like weeks, right?

Kyle Risi: Yeah, yeah. Louise said that before the show, she'd always thought that she saw the best in people, but afterwards she started second guessing everyone becoming a lot more negative, and she says that was a shame because to her that was a really nice quality to have.

Mm-hmm. In her personality. So yeah, that is genuinely sad, I guess. Like it did negatively affect her, especially after all these years. She looks back on it, not too fondly, but not with contempt or hate or regret, but yeah, it did affect her. 'cause this is a big thing being told you're gonna go to space, right?

Mm-hmm. She also said that she was [01:14:00] grateful that it all happened in 2005, just before the rise of social media, because of that, the world just quickly forgot about this until now because in the last couple years it's been posted onto YouTube.

Adam Cox: cause you can go back to your normal life and not be, I don't know, hassled. Yeah. And get like people death threats and your dms because you're so stupid. How did you not see that? You stupid bitch.

Kyle Risi: Exactly. Well, I mean I hopefully no one calls her a bitch.

Adam Cox: No. But that's the kind of hate mail people get for going on these shows. Yeah. That wasn't me saying that she was that, but

Kyle Risi: True. And Adam, that is the story of Space Cadets, the British Space program that sent four lucky civilians. Into a space simulator.

Adam Cox: Wow. I really don't remember that at all, but maybe if I watched the show, it would jog my memory.

Kyle Risi: It feels very familiar to Big Brother.

Adam Cox: Yeah.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. Like the studio setting, outside kind of, they, they're record at the barracks. Mm-hmm. They have to whisper because they're just behind that wall. Someone's in the toilet. They're like, oh, you gotta be quiet. It's,

Adam Cox: yeah. I mean, did any other country try and do something like this?

Kyle Risi: I have no idea. Actually, I didn't check.

Adam Cox: No, it just, it feels like it's one of those things that they would end [01:15:00] up selling to other countries, but then actually it's, but it's 5 million, right? Yeah.

Kyle Risi: It's expensive.

Adam Cox: Yeah.

Kyle Risi: So if you guys wanna watch the action firsthand, all 10 episodes are available on YouTube, and I definitely think it's worth the watch.

Kyle Risi (2): Mm-hmm. Even if, just to see how elaborate the setup was. If you don't have much time, just commit to the first episode. That's where a lot of the action happens, about the setup and how they fooled them, by far the motion press apart though is the process of building the base in Suffolk and the lengths that they went to make it convincing, like replacing the plug outlets, but also how resourceful they had to be.

There's definitely a sense of it being a ice movie 100%. Wow. Have to kind of get everything set up and like rub this down and like install this and quick put a desk in here. it just felt like a ice movie

Adam Cox: I imagine. Putting the actual people and potentially whether it's actually ethical or not that issue to aside, to actually work on this as a production. . Must have been really fun and creative and trying to think of how are we gonna make this look realistic? That's what's quite impressive I think, about this.

Kyle Risi: And I think [01:16:00] because of that effort, this is what gives you the willingness from the contestants to believe. Mm-hmm.

I think if any of them hadn't wanted to believe, I think they would've foiled this. Right. Hence why they put so much effort into the psychological kind of testing and evaluations and stuff in the selection process, but with the prospect of going into space, you sort of want it to be true as well. Do you know what I mean?

Because remember, none of them found out that they were going to space until they were on that tarmac. Mm-hmm. I think once you've been given that prospect, you wanted to be real, because that's like the ultimate prize, you know what I mean?

Adam Cox: Yeah.

Kyle Risi: But it is just one of those shows that hits the perfect spot between absurdity and funness.

Yeah. It's done really well, and I know it's gotten a lot of shit over the years in the fallout of reality TV as a genre. But after watching this, I honestly don't think that any of the contestants have anything to feel embarrassed or ashamed about, this show is definitely tender compared to kinda what came afterward, especially in like the latest series of Big Brother where they literally go out to instigate full out arguments and assaults and things that

Adam Cox: Exactly. They [01:17:00] spent 5 million pounds on trying to fool people and they did fool people. And so it, that's a huge elaborate stunt. So I don't think people should feel bad. They shouldn't feel bad at all. No.

Kyle Risi: And nobody looked terrible in that. No.

Adam Cox: It's it, hopefully people take it in the good faith that maybe it was supposed to be done.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. I like the touch that your family members were involved as well. Should this person go in? Mm-hmm. And I think that softens the blow a lot because when you find out that it's not real and you find out, well, actually my mum gave 'em the all clear, that would make me feel better she believed that I could handle this, I can handle this.

Adam Cox: yeah, again, it's done with good intent.

Kyle Risi: Unless your mom's a bitch, in which case she is not getting

Adam Cox: a Christmas present

Kyle Risi: So yeah. Any last words? Should we, run the outro for this week?

Adam Cox: Let's run the outro.

Kyle Risi: And that brings us to the end of another fascinating foray into the compendium and assembly of fascinating things. We hope you enjoy the ride as much as we did,

Adam Cox: and if today's episode sparks your curiosity, then please do us a favor and follow [01:18:00] us on your favorite podcast app. It truly makes a world of difference and helps more people like you discover the show

Kyle Risi: and for our dedicated freaks out there. Don't forget the next week's episode is already waiting for you on our Patreon. And as always, it is free to access.

Adam Cox: And if you want even more, then join our certified freaks tier to unlock the entire archive, delve into exclusive content and get a sneak peek at what's coming next.

Kyle Risi: We drop new episodes every Tuesday. And until then, remember, the easiest illusions to believe are the ones we desperately want to be true.

See you next time.

Adam Cox: See you. [01:19:00]