Gogglebox boss offers insight into how they choose cast for Channel 4 show

23 August 2023 , 15:01

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Gogglebox boss offers insight into how they choose cast for Channel 4 show

The makers of hit series Gogglebox have revealed they sign up people who DON'T want to appear on the show - as they make better TV.

After a decade on Channel 4, the makers of the award-winning show say they are now inundated with requests from members of the public to be on the series where families watch and comment on the biggest telly moments. But Leon Campbell, executive producer from makers Studio Lambert, insisted they prefer people that need to be persuaded to take part.

He said: "I suppose the first thing is, we never normally want anyone who wants to be on the show. That's kind of almost fundamental for us, because we get that a lot. And often that doesn't quite work. We always trying to convince people to do the show. We're also looking for people who want to be on not just for one episode because we may want them for decades.

"Hopefully, there's lots of layers and lots of things going to happen to them and we're going to grow to know and love and care about them and be entertained. So we don't look for people traditionally. We do a lot of street casting. A lot of it is the way people speak, the rhythm of someone's interaction with somebody else.

Gogglebox stars Pete Sandiford and Sophie Sandiford at the Edinburgh TV Festival today (Stuart Wallace/REX/Shutterstock for Edinburgh TV Festival)

"And often what happens is you might find one person you think is quite funny or interesting, but you think 'who will they work well with?', that's kind of a challenge. Hopefully it is fresh and it can sit alongside everyone else on the show."

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Referring to some of the famous faces on the show, he added: "Jenny Newby was first found a Beverley races. Initially she was going to film with her husband but he backed out, and then with her daughter and on the day of filming and she backed out and she said I have got a friend who might do it. And they came in and did a test and that was Lee Riley and it went quite well. Shirley Griffiths was found in a charity shop in Wales and the Malones, Julie worked on the reception of a dance studio."

Channel 4 Commissioning editor Ian Dunkley said: "We don't cast stereotypes. We are looking for people with natural wit who have a relationship with whoever they are filming with. It is a genuinely diverse cast, it isn't box ticking, it just reflects the nation."

Revealing the secrets of the show and how it is made, Campbell explained they film with up five families a night from Friday to Tuesday for around five hours each night, with the show then edited just in time to go out on Friday nights. Campbell added: "We have 25 shoots and we edit from Saturday to Wednesday and we do that every week.

Leon Campbell revealed how the show is made at the festival (Stuart Wallace/REX/Shutterstock for Edinburgh TV Festival)

"The conclusion is a version on Thursday and we record the Voiceover Friday morning with Craig[Cash] at 8am and that gets put on the show. The show goes out at 9pm on a Friday and we have already started making the next one. It is a well oiled machine. We have an archive team whose job is forward planning looking ahead to narrow down to the 8,9 or 10 things we show our families."

When the show is being filmed none of the production team are in the room with the families. Since covid they have not even been in the house and work from production vans outside. The producer has a mic to speak and prompt the families. They sometimes also have to explain what is coming up as they watch edited versions of the shows they watch.

Dunkerley said: "It is the easiest job in the world for me, I see the content on Thursday afternoon with a Channel 4 lawyer to make sure we aren't going to p*** anybody off in terms of causing legal issues."

Gogglebox began in March 2013 and was narrated by Caroline Aherne from its launch until her death in July 2016, after which Craig Cash took over. He records his VoiceOver in an understairs cupboard at home at 8am on Fridays. The show has won numerous awards including two Baftas and six National TV Awards.

Asked why it had been such a success in an Edinburgh TV session called Gogglebox: The First Ten Years, Dunkerley added: "Gogglebox is one of those genuinely unique programmes, there is no other show like Gogglebox. Everyone can relate to sitting in front of the telly screaming at TV because it is so appalling or screaming at each other. The other thing is it reinvents itself every week because it is topical."

Mark Jefferies