You Won't Believe This

Current revision as of 01:47, 27 December 2023

Synopsis

Update of the Tell the Truth concept, with contestants attempting to spot the one person out of four whose tall tale is true. The new idea in the mix is that the storytellers have their claims challenged not only by the contestants but also by actual police interrogators.

Four people make an outlandish claim. One of them is telling the truth, the other three are lying through their teeth. A contestant tries to work out which person is telling the truth - they work with host Ellie Taylor to discern the facts from the fibs.

But the player doesn't directly question the claimants. That job falls to a pair of retired police officers – Danni Brooke is joined by either George Rhoden or Craig Stevens. These interrogators bring all the skills of their past job, and hope to use them to winkle out the truth-teller. Our player is able to suggest questions for the interrogators, that's as much input as they get.

In effect, the player is like us at home – they watch someone being questioned through a television screen, perhaps shouting out the obvious question they'd like answered. Unlike us at home, the player's shouting might get answered.

You Won't Believe This has a grimy, industrial aesthetic. The action takes place in a dark hall, only partly filled by a glass-walled interrogation space. Contestants wait in silence on uncomfortable chairs. Ellie Taylor makes light of this atmosphere, cutting through with some sharp one-liners and picking up on the absurd claims. Some argue this heightens the atmosphere, Ellie draws attention to just how artificial the whole thing is. "Relax, it's not real life, it's only a game show."

If you're not playing along, you're not going to get much from this show. It's all talking heads and conversation, spiced up with Ellie's remarks. The claims are interesting, but not riveting in the way we might get on Would I Lie to You?. It's all "I was on stage and it gave way beneath me" and "I saved my twin brother from an advancing bear". Bland and plausible seems to be the way to go.

After all the questions have been asked, and everyone's been interviewed, the player has a decision to make. Who is telling the truth? Get the right person, and our player wins £5000. Pick a fibber, and they keep the £5000 all to themself. And that's literally the game: half-an-hour of interviews and discussion leads up to a single decision point.

You Won't Believe This is a 10pm show, dark and edgy and brooding, it's a show they could only show deep after dark. Two separate games take up the television hour. As much as we love Ellie Taylor, as much as we admire the storytelling and ambience, we can't help but feel "is this it?" You Won't Believe This is barely satisfactory, neither detailed enough to draw us in nor fast-moving enough to maintain interest.

Theme music

Toby Knowles, credited for "Music"

Inventor

Developed by Laura Gibson, Charlie Bennett, Rory Coupe, Florence Grimshaw.

Web links

Channel 4 programme page

See also

Weaver's Week review and comparison with Tell the Truth, a similar 1980s show.

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