C4 announces spoof space reality show

Channel 4 has announced plans for a new reality series being billed as the "most audacious, complicated and ambitious practical joke in TV history".

Space Cadets, hosted by Johnny Vaughan, will follow a group of "thrill-seeking" members of the public as they undergo intensive space training on a military base in Russia. Four of the lineup will then be selected for the trip of a lifetime - a flight into space.

Unbeknownst to them, however, the whole process is a sham. The Russian military camp is actually a disused army base somewhere in the UK and the five-day voyage into space will be acheived by cutting-edge Imax technology. One of the final four contestants will actually be an actor, planted to stor the pot and paper over any cracks in the tale.

As the trip goes on, things will get stranger and stranger for the clueless cadets.

Vaughan will present live update shows, every night at 9pm on Channel 4 from Wednesday, December 7 until the voyage ends and the hoax is revealed ten days later. Alex Zane will front Space Cadets: The Satellite Show each night at 10pm on E4, where live streaming will feature from December 11.

"We've taken a big risk with Space Cadets, and we don't know who will have the last laugh," said Angela Jain, commissioner of factual entertainment at C4. "But we're hoping it's going to be a really entertaining and unique event in the schedule - a real treat in the run-up to Christmas."