Space Cadets: The Most Expensive Hoax in Television History Channel (2021)

Space Cadets (Channel 4 UK) was the biggest & most expensive hoax in television history. A £4.5m stunt to convince three members of the public they were orbiting the Earth in a Russian spacecraft...when they were actually in a state-of-the-art Hollywood simulator for five days.

Filmed by Channel 4 in 2005 and hosted by Johnny Vaughan, Space Cadets claimed to be the biggest and most expensive prank in television history.

An out-of-this-world reality television stunt that required completely transforming an ex-US Air Force base in England (Bentwaters Parks) into a fictitious Russian space base. State of the art engineering, simulator (Brick Price's WonderWorks) and sound design (Dean Andre) straight from the world of Hollywood. Derren Brown style social engineering. And an army of actors trained to improvise for almost every eventuality.

But the most surprising thing of all was that *it actually worked*. In December 2005, Space Cadets Billy, Keri, Paul and actor Charlie Skelton genuinely believed they were astronauts, 200km above the Earth's surface on a Russian space shuttle called Earth Orbiter One. Until the Big Reveal...

So how did they do it? This is the story of the Space Cadets on Channel 4.