A former English teacher with little TV experience has had a pilot of a hi-tech Saturday night gameshow commissioned by BBC1 – after learning about the industry from a training course run by the corporation.
Less than a year ago George Hutton, 24, was teaching English and living in Madrid. Now he is close to having a prime-time programme air on the BBC's flagship channel after it ordered a pilot of a show called Cloned.
The show, which uses CGI technology and visual effects commonly used in the movie industry, involves a team of four contestants trying to work out which of an identical lineup of computer-generated clones is a real person.
The contestants will be set a variety of tasks and challenges that they must solve to identify the small differences between the clones and the real celebrity in the lineup.
"Cloned is an exciting new format which pushes the boundaries of production and gameshow mechanics," said the BBC's executive editor for entertainment commissioning, Karl Warner.
The BBC says that while the pilot is not destined for broadcast at this stage it will nevertheless be evaluated by the BBC1 controller, Danny Cohen, with the very real possibility that it might be commissioned as a series for the channel.
BBC1 is in need of a new gameshow format after Don't Scare the Hare – which featured a robotic hare and voiceover by Miranda Hart – failed to catch on with viewers and was swiftly cancelled.
Last year Hutton was a "bit bored" with his life in Spain and applied for a place on a six-month BBC trainee programme called Future Formats. The BBC received 700 applicants for the initiative, which aimed to give the eight that were chosen skills to pitch entertainment show ideas.
"I'm so pleased that BBC Entertainment's first Future Formats has resulted in this pilot," said the head of Future Formats, Kate Phillips. "Nearly all the students are now working as development researchers both in and outside the BBC."
Cloned is being developed by BBC Entertainment. It will be produced by Nick Johns and executive produced by Derek McLean, the creative director of BBC Entertainment & Events.
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