Would I Lie to You? (game show)

This article is about the British game show. For the Australian game show, see Would I Lie to You? (Australian game show). For the American game show, see Would I Lie to You? (American game show).

Would I Lie to You? (abbreviated as WILTY) is a British comedy game show aired on BBC One, made by Zeppotron for the BBC. It was first broadcast on 16 June 2007, starring David Mitchell and Lee Mack as team captains. The show was originally presented by Angus Deayton, and since 2009 has been hosted by Rob Brydon.

Would I Lie to You?
Genre	Comedy Panel game
Created by	Peter Holmes
Directed by	Barbara Wiltshire (2007–2008, 2011–) David Coyle (2009–2010)
Presented by	Angus Deayton Rob Brydon
Starring	David Mitchell Lee Mack
Voices of	David de Keyser Paul Ridley
Opening theme	"Bar Fight" by Craig Joiner, Andrew Welsford, Mervyn Goldsworthy
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	16
No. of episodes	150 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Peter Holmes Ruth Phillips Gilly Hall (2011–)
Producers	Andrew Westwell (2007–2008) Derek McLean (2007–2009) Fiona McDermott (2009–2010) Rachel Ablett (2011–) Kate Staples (2011) Stephanie McIntosh (2012–)
Production locations	The Fountain Studios (2007) BBC Television Centre (2008) Pinewood Studios (2009–21, 2023) Elstree Studios (2022)^[1]
Editors	Steve Andrews (2007–2008) Tim Ellison (2007–2008) Bex Murray (2007–2008) Steve Nayler (2009–) Tom Munden (2011–)
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	Zeppotron
Original release
Network	BBC One ITV (2021 one-off special)
Release	16 June 2007 (2007-06-16) – present

Background

The show was presented by Angus Deayton in 2007 and 2008, with Rob Brydon (who had appeared as a guest panellist in the second series) taking over as host in 2009.^[2] The team captains are comedians David Mitchell and Lee Mack. As revealed by Lee Mack on Alan Carr: Chatty Man on 19 September 2014, Alan Carr was a team captain in the pilot but subsequently turned down an offer to appear on later shows. For each show, two celebrity guests join each of the team captains. The teams compete as each player reveals unusual facts and embarrassing personal tales for the evaluation of the opposing team. Some of these are true, some are not, and it is the panellists' task to decide which is which.

The first series was recorded at Fountain Studios in Wembley during March and April 2007 and aired at 21:55 between 16 June and 28 July 2007 on BBC One (missing a week for coverage of the Concert for Diana memorial event). Filming for the second series took place between 15 November and 18 December 2007. The second series was filmed at BBC Television Centre in White City, West London, because Fountain Studios were being used for The X Factor. The second series aired at 21:00 between 11 July 2008 and 29 August 2008 on BBC One, and contained eight shows, an increase of two from series one. A compilation episode featuring some previously unaired material was aired on 19 September 2008 at 21:30 on BBC One.^[3]

Filming of a third series of eight episodes took place at Pinewood Studios during March and April 2009, and was broadcast between 10 August 2009 and 29 September 2009 on BBC One at 22:35. A compilation episode was also recorded. The airdate was 17 December 2009, due to the addition of Match of the Day to the BBC One schedule. Filming of a fourth series of eight episodes took place at Pinewood Studios again during April and May 2010, and was broadcast between 23 July 2010 and 10 September 2010 on BBC One at 22:35. The compilation episode aired on 17 September 2010. The fifth series was filmed during March 2011 and started airing from 9 September at 21:30.^[4]

The sixth series of the show was recorded in March 2012 and began its broadcast on 13 April 2012.^[5] This series was aired in a pre-watershed slot, at 20:30, for the first time.^[6] Series 16 aired on Fridays at 20:00.

Format

Rounds

In all rounds, the scoring system is the same: teams gain a point for correctly guessing whether a statement is true or not, but if they guess incorrectly the opposing team gets a point. Each episode running time is 30 minutes, so some questions are edited out prior to airing. In addition, the comic format allows each team member to question and joke with the opposing team. Hence, each episode has differing total scoring points reflecting the varying number of questions asked and answered.

During series one through series five, it was impossible for viewers to follow the scores until they were read out at the end of each round, as some questions were edited out, and the final scores reflected the total questions played while filming each episode (not reflecting the final edits for the 30 minute running time). However, starting with series six on, the scores were re-recorded to reflect what had made the aired edits and not the whole filmed recording.

Current rounds

• "Home Truths": Panellists read out a statement about themselves. The opposing team has to decide whether it is true or false by asking the panellist questions. The first series used all six panellists; from the second series onwards, the round tended to focus on the four guests. In series two a 'possessions' element was introduced, in which the panellist takes an item out of a box and reads a statement from a card, and has to convince the opposing team that the possession genuinely belongs to them.
• "This is My...": A guest comes onto the set and is introduced by first name, but remains standing in silence as the round continues. Panellists on one team tell the opposing team about their relationship to the guest; only one account out of three told is genuine, and the opposing team has to work out which it is. At the end of the round, the guest reveals their true identity, and which of the panellists they have a genuine relationship with. On at least two occasions the guest has been a dog, which led on one occasion David Mitchell complaining tongue-in-cheek that doing so "rather spoiled the nature of the game".
• "Quick-Fire Lies": The second questioning round, with the panellists chosen at random. In earlier series, the panellists were ostensibly under a time limit although no on-screen indicator of the time limit was ever present. The notion of a time limit was eventually dropped in the later series, making the round identical to "Home Truths" in practice. This round usually features – but is not exclusive to – Mitchell and Mack. From the fourth series onwards, Brydon also became an occasional participant, with both teams questioning him at once.

Former rounds

• "Ring of Truth": A celebrity fact is read out by the host, and each team has to reach a joint decision on whether it is true or false. This round was generally edited out of the fourth series; as of series five, it is no longer being played.
• "Telly Tales": Clips from a TV show are shown, a statement is read out about the show by a member of one team and the other team has to guess whether it is true or false. This round was only played in the first series.

Cast

 

Actor Angus Deayton hosted the first two series.

 

Comedian and actor Rob Brydon has hosted every episode from Series 3 onwards.

 

Comedian and frequent panel show guest David Mitchell has appeared as a team captain in every episode.

 

Comedian and Not Going Out star Lee Mack is the other regular team captain on the show.

Guest appearances

The following have all appeared multiple times as one of the guest panelists on the show, including any as-yet unbroadcast episodes of Series 17. This does not include the 2011 Comic Relief special.

11 appearances Bob Mortimer 10 appearances Jo Brand Richard Osman 9 appearances Rhod Gilbert 8 appearances Claudia Winkleman 7 appearances Gabby Logan Jason Manford 6 appearances Miles Jupp Henning Wehn 5 appearances Greg Davies^[a] Miranda Hart Alex Jones Stephen Mangan Chris McCausland Sarah Millican

4 appearances Frankie Boyle Jimmy Carr Mel Giedroyc Dara Ó Briain Sara Pascoe Jon Richardson Josh Widdicombe 3 appearances James Acaster Clare Balding Charlie Brooker Victoria Coren Mitchell Hugh Dennis Russell Howard Joe Lycett Romesh Ranganathan Jack Whitehall

a. ^{^} Including an appearance where he substituted for Lee Mack as captain

Ratings

The first show of Series 1 had 3.8 million viewers, a 19% audience share at the time it was broadcast.^[7]

The first show of Series 2 had 3 million viewers and a 14% audience share.^[8] Later episodes indicated ratings of 2.7 - 3.2 million,^[9][10][11] with the final show of the series getting 3.3 million viewers and a 15% audience share.^[12]

The first show of Series 3 had 2.8 million viewers, the lowest number for a series opener so far; however, this equated to a 17% audience share.^[13] The final show attracted only 2.5 million viewers, but with a 19% audience share overall.^[14]

The first show of series 4 had 3.12 million viewers and a 19.7% audience share, the best performance for a series opener since series 1.^[15]

The series 5 premiere had the show's highest ratings to date, with 4 million viewers and a 17.2% audience share.^[16]

Series 6 began with an audience share of 14.9% and peak viewing figures of 3.53 million.^[17] These figures were above the seventh series figures of 2.83 million / 12.8% audience share,^[18] although these rose to 3.17 million by the end of the series with a 14.7% share.^[19]

Awards and nominations

Ceremony	Year	Award	Nominated work	Result
British Comedy Guide Awards	2010	Best TV Panel Show	WILTY?	Nominated^[20]
	2011			Won^[21]
	2013			Won^[22]
		Comedy of the Year		Won ^[23]
	2014	Best TV Panel Show		Won^[24]
	2015			Won^[25]
	2016			Nominated^[26]
	2017			Won^[27]
	2018			Won^[28]
	2019			Won^[29]
	2020			Won^[30]
British Comedy Awards	2010	Best Comedy Panel Show		Won^[31]
	2011			Nominated^[32]
	2013			Won^[33]
	2014			Won^[34]
	2022	Best Comedy Entertainment Series		Nominated^[35]
	2023	Best Comedy Panel Show		Nominated^[36]
		Outstanding Male Comedy Entertainment Performance	Lee Mack	Won^[36]
British Academy Television Awards	2014	Best Comedy Entertainment Programme	WILTY?	Nominated^[37]
	2015			Nominated^[38]
	2016			Nominated^[39]
	2018			Nominated^[40]
	2019			Nominated^[41]
	2023			Pending^[42]
	2019	Best Entertainment Performance	David Mitchell	Nominated^[41]
			Lee Mack	Won^[41]
	2020			Nominated^[43]
	2021		David Mitchell	Nominated^[44]

International broadcasts

The show airs on ABC TV in Australia and TVNZ 2 in New Zealand and began screening on BBC UKTV in Australia and New Zealand from November 2014. It is available to stream on BritBox in the US and Canada.

Merchandise

• A DVD of the complete fourth series was released in September 2011.^[45]
• A board game based on the show was released in 2012.^[46][47]
• A DVD of the complete fifth series was released in October 2012.^[48]
• A DVD of the complete sixth series was released in October 2013.^[49]
• A book based on the series, Would I Lie to You? Presents the 100 Most Popular Lies of All Time, was published in October 2015. The publishers, Faber and Faber, have also ordered a second book.^[50]
• Series 4 to 7 were released individually on DVD in Australia across July and August 2015.

Episodes

Main article: List of Would I Lie to You? episodes

The coloured backgrounds denote the result of each of the series:

  David won the series.

  Lee won the series.

  The series ended in a draw.

Series

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	16 June 2007	28 July 2007	6
2	11 July 2008	29 August 2008	8
3	10 August 2009	28 September 2009	8
4	23 July 2010	10 September 2010	8
5	9 September 2011	28 October 2011	8
6	13 April 2012	22 June 2012	8
7	3 May 2013	28 June 2013	8
8	12 September 2014	8 January 2015	8
9	31 July 2015	13 January 2016	8
10	2 September 2016	21 October 2016	8
11	20 November 2017	19 January 2018	8
12	12 October 2018	18 January 2019	8
13	18 October 2019	7 February 2020	9
14	8 January 2021	1 March 2021	9
15	7 January 2022	4 March 2022	9
16	6 January 2023	31 March 2023	9
17	29 December 2023	TBC	9

Specials

Date	Entitle
19 September 2008	The Best & Unseen Bits of Series 2
17 December 2009	The Best & Unseen Bits of Series 3
17 September 2010	The Unseen Bits of Series 4
5 March 2011	24 Hour Panel People Comic Relief Special
25 November 2011	The Unseen Bits of Series 5
29 June 2012	The Unseen Bits of Series 6
6 September 2013	The Unseen Bits of Series 7
23 December 2013	Christmas Special
22 December 2014	Christmas Special
18 February 2015	The Unseen Bits of Series 8
24 December 2015	Christmas Special
27 January 2016	The Unseen Bits of Series 9
28 October 2016	The Unseen Bits of Series 10
18 November 2016	Children in Need: Children's Special
19 December 2016	Christmas Special
18 December 2017	Christmas Special
24 January 2018	The Unseen Bits of Series 11
24 December 2018	Christmas Special
24 January 2019	The Unseen Bits of Series 12
31 January 2019	The Best Bits of Series 12
26 December 2019	Christmas Special
14 February 2020	The Unseen Bits of Series 13
21 February 2020	More Unseen Bits of Series 13
24 December 2020	Christmas Special
8 March 2021	The Unseen Bits of Series 14
16 April 2021	The Best Bits of Series 14
20 December 2021	Christmas Special
1 April 2022	The Unseen Bits of Series 15
3 June 2022	The Best Bits of Series 15
30 December 2022	Christmas Special
7 April 2023	The Unseen Bits of Series 16
14 April 2023	More Unseen Bits of Series 16
22 December 2023	Christmas Special

Appearances in other media

An additional 10-minute feature, entitled "Mam, Would I Lie To You?" was broadcast on the ITV show Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway on 13 March 2021. This edition was hosted by Ant and Dec and featured a team of Lee Mack, Stephen Mulhern and Michelle Visage playing two rounds of a slightly altered "This is My..." where the panellists had to guess which of the three children was the child of an audience member by the story given. Zeppotron and the BBC were thanked in the programme's credits for use of the WILTY brand and format.

International versions

• A New Zealand version of the show, presented by broadcaster Paul Henry, and featuring team captains Jesse Mulligan and Jon Bridges, began airing on TV3 in 2012.^[51] It followed the Rob Brydon era UK format very closely but was short lived.
• The Czech version of this show was to be broadcast from January 2013 on ČT, a public television broadcaster.^[52]
• The Malaysian version, Betul ke Bohong (English: Truth or Lie) is presented by AC Mizal and airs on Astro Warna.
• A Swedish version, Tror du jag ljuger?, presented by Anna Mannheimer with team captains Johan Glans and Fredrik Lindström.
• The Icelandic version, Satt eða logið? (English: Truth or lie?) first aired 2017 on Stöð 2. Originally presented by Logi Bergmann Eiðsson who was succeeded by Benedikt Valsson in the second season,^[53] team captains are Auðunn Blöndal and Katla Margét Þorgeirsdóttir.^[54]
• The Slovak version, Klamal by som ti?, presented by singer/actor Filip Tůma and featuring Petra Polnišová and Zuzana Šebová, actresses, as team captains, began airing in March 2019 on Markíza.^[55]
• A Dutch version called Sterke verhalen (English: Tall Tales) was broadcast by BNNVARA.
• An Australian version of the show began broadcasting on Network 10 on 28 February 2022.^[56] It is presented by Chrissie Swan, with Chris Taylor and Frank Woodley as team captains.^[57][58] Taylor was replaced by Charlie Pickering in the second season.^[59]
• An American version of the show premiered on The CW on April 9, 2022.^[60][61] Aasif Mandvi hosts this version, with Matt Walsh and Sabrina Jalees serving as the team captains. The American version of the show only lasted for one season.

See also

• Call My Bluff had a similar format, choosing the truth between three word definitions rather than personal stories
• Would You Believe? (game show), 1970s Australian TV series with a similar format
• To Tell the Truth, American TV panel show

References

1. "Pre-registration for WOULD I LIE TO YOU? from SRO Audiences". Sroaudiences.com. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
2. Parker, Robin (11 March 2009). "Brydon to host BBC1 quiz". Broadcastnow. Retrieved 11 March 2009.
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6. "Would we lie to you? The show's returning". chortle.co.uk.
7. Tryhorn, Chris. (18 June 2007)."Tiswas does the business". The Guardian.
8. Plunkett, John. (14 July 2008). "TV ratings: Over a million cheer on Five's Superstars". The Guardian.
9. Holmwood, Leigh. (21 July 2008). "TV ratings: 3.6m see Belinda get Big Brother boot". The Guardian.
10. Holmwood, Leigh. (4 August 2008). "BBC2's Tudors bow to Big Brother". The Guardian.
11. Holmwood, Leigh. (18 August 2008.) "TV ratings: Poirot retains power over 4m viewers". The Guardian.
12. Plunkett, John. (1 September 2008.) "TV ratings: Superstars final watched by 900,000". The Guardian.
13. Holmwood, Leigh. (11 August 2009.) "TV ratings: On Tour with the Queen sets out with 1.7m". The Guardian.
14. Holmwood, Leigh. (29 September 2009.) "TV ratings: Channel Five's FlashForward debuts with 3.2m". The Guardian.
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29. Guide, British Comedy. "Comedy.co.uk Awards 2019 results". British Comedy Guide.
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31. "Miranda leads winners at British Comedy Awards 2010". British Comedy Guide. 23 January 2011.
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35. "Winners unveiled at National Comedy Awards for Stand Up To Cancer | Channel 4". Channel 4.
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40. "Bafta TV Awards 2018: All the nominees and winners". BBC News. 4 April 2018.
41. "Bafta TV awards 2019: full list of winners". The Guardian. 12 May 2019.
42. Ritman, Alex (22 March 2023). "BAFTA TV Awards: 'This is Going to Hurt,' 'The Responder' Lead Pack of Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. from the original on 22 March 2023. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
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45. "Would I Lie To You - Series 4 [DVD]". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
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50. "Book Trade Announcements - Faber Acquire 2 Books From The Team Behind Would I Lie To You?". booktrade.info.
51. "New shows coming to TV3 in 2012 - Shows - TV3". tv3.co.nz.
52. "Copak bych vám lhal?". Česká televize.
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55. "Klamal by som ti | Televízia Markíza". klamalbysomti.markiza.sk. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
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60. The CW Network (15 March 2022). "Would I Lie To You? | Elf Launch | Season Trailer". YouTube. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
61. Baysinger, Tim (8 March 2021). "The CW to Adapt British TV Series 'Would I Lie to You' and 'Killer Camp'". TheWrap.

External links

• Would I Lie to You? at BBC Online  
• Would I Lie to You? at IMDb  
• Would I Lie to You? at British Comedy Guide
• Would I Lie to You? at epguides.com
• Would I Lie to You? at UKGameshows.com
• Zeppotron Website - Show Details
• Digital Spy - Angus Deayton Returns To The BBC
• Endemol UK Announces show details