'Space Cadets' could be "most expensive flop ever"

Channel 4's commissioning editor Angela Jain has admitted that new hoax reality series Space Cadets could fall flat on its face.

The new show, in which a group of contestants are fooled into thinking they are in outer space, is airing live on the channel for ten consecutive nights from Wednesday.

If the sham is exposed before the series ends its run, however, the network will have to resort to a roster of back-up shows to fill the gap.

"This is a massively elaborate practical joke, so if we don't pull this off, the last laugh will be on us," said Jain. "[But] it's a risky, entertainment show - it's exactly what Channel 4 should be doing."

The series is thought to have cost at least £5 million, incorporating huge technological and production costs to pull off the prank. "Of course it is expensive," added Jain. "This is a massive, one-off television event. It's a huge practical joke and we're trying to approximate a spacecraft and some sense of being in space. But it's totally in line with the scale and the ambition of the programme: it's a risky entertainment show, and so the cost reflects that."