Johnny Vaughan presented Space Cadets on Channel 4. Three gullible individuals, Keri Hassett, Paul French and Billy Jackson were fooled they were cosmonauts in space!

Channel 4 spent £5 million on Space Cadets. Nine British dupes applied to the fictional Space Tourism Agency of Russia, STAR, located not in Russia but in East Anglia.

Charlie and three right charlies, Paul, Keri and Billy, were selected for the five day voyage in a mock-up spacecraft in a field in Suffolk. Check out their progress live on E4.

Charlie will compose fine poetry during the "low-earth orbit" to remind the intrepid travellers of their journey.

Weightlessness

Mission Commander James Campbell: "One thing that may surprise you - it may even disappoint you - but it makes our life easier - is that you are unlikely to experience weightlessness.

"On this mission you will be skirting the earth's atmosphere, high enough to reach orbit, but still within the reach of earth's gravitational pull.

"Full training and acclimatization to the zero-gravity environment takes 12 months - which we haven't got."

The 12 space cadets included three moles designated as actors by Channel 4. The other nine were selected after psychological tests to select the suggestible ones easiest to fool.

After they were introduced to Johnny Vaughan as the TV presenter who was covering their space flight they were clearly rather easy to fool. They surrendered their watches in scenes not televised and boarded a plane with its blinds down.