Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Brand new panel show Hypothetical will air on Dave in 2019

25/07/2018

Josh Widdicombe

Wednesday 25 July 2018 UKTVs award-winning comedy channel Dave has commissioned brand new panel show Hypothetical (8x60). The innovative new format will be hosted by Josh Widdicombe and James Acaster.

Produced by Hat Trick Productions, this new show will test two teams of comedians on their ability to deal with a series of ridiculous Hypothetical scenarios:

You have to live in a motorway services for a year, how do you cope?

You have to take a selfie with Nicolas Cage within 48 hours or you die - how do you do it?

Youve been booked for the Royal Variety Performance with an hour to spare - you cant do comedy - what do you do?

Each hypothetical will be posed by Josh while James job is to enforce ridiculous rules and score the guests attempts at dealing with them. None of the guests see the hypotheticals beforehand and Josh and James take great delight in throwing them curveballs as the show progresses - its a proper comedic work-out.

Josh Widdicombe said,

I have spent the last decade of my life annoying other comics with these questions in cars and dressing rooms so I am delighted Dave have allowed me to claim that I was in fact researching a show and not just wasting everyones time. More to the point I cannot wait to work alongside the man who makes me laugh more than anyone else in comedy. I just hope this goes better than our 2009 Edinburgh show (one star, Three Weeks magazine).

James Acaster said,

The only thing that isnt hypothetical about Hypothetical is how awesome its going to be. Its the show Josh was born to host and the show I was adopted into in order to help out with. The guests are top notch, the questions are first class and answers are guaranteed to be craaaazzzzzzyyyyy!!!!!

__

Every hypothetical results in a hugely entertaining discussion (with plenty of play-at-home fun on offer), as well as in-studio stunts, hilarious archive, location VTs and even the odd celebrity cameo.

The series has been ordered by Richard Watsham, UKTVs director of commissioning and Steve North, genre general manager for entertainment and comedy, for comedy channel Dave, overseen by channel director Luke Hales. Hypothetical is commissioned by UKTV commissioning editor, Joe McVey who will also executive produce alongside Stu Mather at Hat Trick Productions. Sophie Le Good will produce.

Joe McVey said,

When I was pitched Hypothetical my first thought was Seriously, no-ones given Josh Widdicombe his own comedy ents show on TV before?. Its therefore a real testament to Dave that hes come to us and obviously we bit his hand off. And as its being produced by Stu Mather we bit his other hand off. Fortunately, hes assisted by James Acaster so a lack of hands shouldnt be a problem.

Luke Hales added:

We are really happy to be welcoming Josh and James to the channel as they are perfectly suited to Daves brand of smart wit. We loved the format when it landed on our desks - in a world of semi-scripted panel shows it really stood out from the pack and felt fresh and different. The format forces improvisation and you get to see the comics thinking on their feet and making it up as they go along. Its really fun, really funny and very smart.

Hat Trick Productions Stu Mather said,

We were thrilled when Josh brought this to us at Hat Trick. Developing the show from its initial stages (a Whatsapp conversation) to now (an 8-part series, airing on the home of comedy entertainment) has been an absolute joy. The show is relentlessly funny, hugely inventive and, most importantly, fun. The fact that its hosted by two fantastic comedians at the top of their game is the icing on the cake. I cant wait for the public to see it and play along

Jimmy Mulville, managing director of Hat Trick Productions adds,

Dave is the perfect home for this really funny and fresh take on the panel show. Josh and James are the perfect combo to host and the format is their perfect vehicle. Did I mention how perfect the show is?

Hypothetical joins a growing list of UKTV Original shows coming to Dave, including Judge Romesh later this month plus John Robins Beat the Internet and the return of award-winning Taskmaster in the Autumn. Line of Duty star Daniel Mays has recently been added to the cast in the upcoming recommission of Porters, on Dave in 2019. Hypothetical is a brand new UKTV Original on Dave, a channel which is no longer available to Virgin Media viewers. Viewers will be able to watch it on Freeview, Sky, BT, Talk Talk and TV Player.

Audience tickets are available now from www.sroaudiences.com

__

For more information please contact;

Ben Duncan, Publicist, UKTV

Kerry Goode, Head of Network Comms, UKTV

About Dave

@davechannel

Sky 155, Freeview 17, BT & TalkTalk 17, Freesat 160 On demand on Sky and UKTV Play Since bursting onto TV sets in 2007, Dave has been putting in hours at the gym and is now a beefed-up powerhouse of brand new and original commissions from some of the biggest stars and production companies in entertainment. Romesh Ranganthan, Jon Richardson and YouTube sensation Yianni Charalambous are just some of the latest additions to the channels ever-increasing slate.

Whether its innovative comedy entertainment like the BAFTA and Emmy-nominated Taskmaster, Unspun with Matt Forde, and Dara o Briains Go 8 Bit or scripted sitcoms including the worldwide hit Red Dwarf, Zapped, and Porters, Daves guaranteed to work your funny bone like never before.

Daves also committed to bringing live sport back to free-to-air and has an ongoing deal to show fights from David Hayes Hayemaker Ringstar venture. Theres also Red Bull Soapbox, Cop Car Workshop, Sin City Motors and a whole host of much loved programming, all shot with Daves unique personality thats led to the channel reaching 20million adults a month.

About UKTV

UKTV is a commercial broadcaster reaching nearly 40m viewers
LINK: https://corporate.uktv.co.uk/news/article/josh-widdicombe-and-james-ac...
See more stories from uktv

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

29/08/2026

SSL to introduce O-Series V2.0

Odyssey & Oracle console software update incoming With a second console now joining their O-Series, SSL have announced the upcoming launch of O-Series V2.0,...

29/08/2026

Scripps Hires NBCU Sales Veteran Jen Carfley

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/08/2026

Comcast's Universal Ads Taps Tracer to Upgrade Operations

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/08/2026

PlayBox Technology to Showcase the Future of Media Orches...

PlayBox Technology is heading to IBC2026 with a clear message: the future of broadcast and streaming is not about replacing everything it is about making what...

29/08/2026

Berklee Announces Fall 2026 Signature Series

Berklee Announces Fall 2026 Signature Series This years concerts feature MonoNeon, Brandon Woody, Marcus Gilmore, and Caroline Davis, alongside Berklee Asia R...

28/08/2026

CBS L.A. Runs Two Hot Control Rooms, Dual Broadcasts for Rams-Chargers Preseason Game

KCBS takes the Chargers side, KCAL takes the Rams - with feeds out to 18 partner...

28/08/2026

Buddy Turns Childhood Comfort into Midnight Terror

(L-R) Topher Grace, Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Casper Kelly, and Keegan-Michael Key pose with the character Buddy at the Buddy Premiere during the 2026 S...

28/08/2026

IK Multimedia announce Sinphonica Maestosa Strings

The Italian orchestra, reimagined IK Multimedia have announced the upcoming launch of Sinphonica, a new family of Italian orchestral instruments designed f...

28/08/2026

Voxis from CEDAR Audio

Voice-isolation plug-in boasts sub-10ms latency Launched in 2025, CEDAR Audio's Icons range was created with the aim of bringing the company's renow...

28/08/2026

Charter Takes Scripps to Court Over Carriage of Las Vegas' KMCC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

Backlight Expands Creative Operations Platform with AI-p...

Global media technology company Backlight will showcase its latest innovations across Iconik and Wildmoka live video creation and distribution at IBC2026 (booth...

28/08/2026

Emergent Brings Its AI-Enhanced Content Production Platfo...

Emergent, a developer of browser-based, AI-enhanced content production tools, will present its complete AI-enhanced content production platform at IBC2026, exhi...

28/08/2026

Joseph Bell Announces VFX & Animation World Atlas 2026

Joseph Bell Announces VFX & Animation World Atlas 2026 Joseph Bell August 28, 2026 1 Comment Joseph Bell's Visual Effects & Animation World Atlas ...

28/08/2026

Paris-Troyes en Champagne Goes Live on France.tv with AVEO

Paris-Troyes en Champagne Goes Live on France.tv with AVEO Brie Clayton August 28, 2026 0 Comments Regional audiovisual company builds broadcastgrade ...

28/08/2026

DHD to Introduce its Third-Generation Audio Mixing Console at IBC 2026

DHD to Introduce its Third-Generation Audio Mixing Console at IBC 2026 Brie Clayton August 28, 2026 0 Comments DHD.audio has chosen IBC 2026 as the la...

28/08/2026

Grass Valley AMPP Provides an All-Encompassing Approach t...

Encompass Digital Media and Grass Valley are expanding their collaboration with the launch of Altitude Playout Plus, a software-defined channel origination plat...

28/08/2026

Yospace releases new Ad Presentation solution

Yospace, the trusted leader in Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI), has announced the release of its Ad Presentation solution, which enables broadcasters to apply non-li...

28/08/2026

TSL Showcases Reduced Complexity for Control and Monitori...

TSL Showcases Reduced Complexity for Control & Monitoring Across IP Workflows at IBC2026 New TSL Hummingbird capabilities including Dante control routing, toge...

28/08/2026

Lutz Rathmann to Become CEO of Riedel Communications

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

Spectrum Offers Lower-Income Internet Customers Free Amazon Prime

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

FCC Exempts Public Access Channels from Closed Captioning

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

Elon Musk's X Launches NFL Gametime on X

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

GlobalM and Lamhas Partner to Expand Managed IP Broadcast...

GlobalM and Lamhas Satellite Services today announced a new agreement that will see GlobalMs GMX technology deployed as part of Lamhas expanding managed IP broa...

28/08/2026

Boland Communications Introduces SMPTE ST 2110 Option for...

Integrated 25GbE Connectivity Delivers UHD Video Directly to Up to Two Monitors, Eliminates External Gateways, and Supports SMPTE ST 2022-7 Network-Path Protect...

28/08/2026

JT-DMF Invites IBC2026 Attendees to Help Shape the Future...

Interactive Ask Me Anything sessions will connect broadcasters and technology providers with the experts developing a practical, interoperable roadmap for sof...

28/08/2026

TAG Video Systems Cuts Live Production Latency Below Two...

At IBC2026, TAG will show sub-2-frame latency and 800 Gbps of aggregate scale for uncompressed ST 2110 monitoring in software, live MXL interoperability with pa...

28/08/2026

SportsBox BHVs Ultra-Compact 4K Remote Switcher Moves fro...

SportsBox, BHV's Ultra-Compact 4K Remote Switcher, Moves from Development to Production at IBC 2026 SportsBox brings flexibility without compromise to high...

28/08/2026

Riedel Evolves Leadership and Global Go-to-Market Organiz...

Lutz Rathmann named CEO of Riedel Communications Anthony Zuyderhoff to lead unified customer-facing organization as CCO Riedel Communications is strengthenin...

28/08/2026

Scripps Research establishes endowed fund honoring institute president and CEO Pete Schultz

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research has established the Pete Schultz Fund for Innovati...

28/08/2026

Chemists develop simpler method to make molecular building block for drug development

LA JOLLA, CA-Chemical structures called cyclopropanols are among the most useful...

28/08/2026

Sky Secures Approval for Major Livingston Campus Investment, Reinforcing Long-Term Commitment to Scotland

Friday 28 August 2026 Sky Secures Approval for Major Livingston Campus Investme...

27/08/2026

ESPN Adds College Football Saturdays to Disney+ This Fall

ESPN and Disney are launching College Football Saturdays, adding two college football games per week to Disney for U.S. subscribers as part of their existing ...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: Zixi to Showcase Live Video Platform and Broadcaster v19

Zixi will exhibit at IBC2026 (Hall 5, Stand 5.A76, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), demonstrating the Zixi Platform and the latest release of Zixi Broadcaster, ...

27/08/2026

NDI Surpasses 1.2 Million Hardware Nodes as IBC2026 Showcase Expands

NDI has announced that its ecosystem has surpassed 1.2 million NDI-enabled hardware nodes worldwide, spanning products from more than 200 hardware brands across...

27/08/2026

Clear-Com FreeSpeak Cell Trialed During Rio Carnival Before Commercial Launch

Clear-Com conducted a pre-launch field trial of FreeSpeak Cell during Carnival 2026 in Rio de Janeiro, in partnership with Brazilian systems integrator Savana C...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: BVH SportsBox Remote Mixer Becomes Reality

BHV returns to IBC 2026 with an important milestone for its own SportsBox: the broadcast industry's smallest remote vision mixer and format processor has mo...

27/08/2026

TOGETHXR and Snapchat Announce Second Snap the Gap Athlete Cohort

TOGETHXR and Snapchat have announced the second cohort of their Snap the Gap content creator program, welcoming nine athletes as Snap Stars. The program provide...

27/08/2026

CNBC UK Selects MediaKind Beam for Live News Infrastructure

MediaKind has announced that CNBC UK has selected Beam to modernize its contribution and distribution infrastructure for live broadcast operations. The deployme...

27/08/2026

Monitor Engineer Chris Dwight Deploys Sennheiser Spectera on Puscifer and A Perfect Circle Tours

Monitor engineer Chris Dwight has deployed Sennheiser's Spectera wideband bi...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: Telestream Expands UP Platform

Telestream has announced an expansion of its UP cloud-native platform, adding capabilities for orchestrating Telestream services, third-party technologies, and ...

27/08/2026

Swerve TV Signs Multi-Year Partnership with GLORY Kickboxing

Swerve TV has signed a multi-year partnership with GLORY Kickboxing, bringing live GLORY events and library programming to Swerve Combat, Swerve TV's free a...

27/08/2026

AFP and Dalet Integrate AFP Content Into Dalet Flex Newsroom Workflow

Dalet has announced a new integrated content experience with Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Dalet Flex, designed to bring AFP's editorial metadata into the p...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: Grass Valley to Demonstrate Integrated Live Production Environment

Grass Valley will demonstrate an integrated live production environment at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), combining K-Frame, Maverik X, ...

27/08/2026

NWSL and Roku Expand Partnership with Sunday Night Streaming Package

The National Women's Soccer League and Roku have announced an expanded partnership, with the Roku Sports Channel becoming the exclusive streaming home of ei...

27/08/2026

Fubo Adds ACC Network Extra and SEC Network+ to Streaming Service

FuboTV has announced the launch of ACC Network Extra (ACCNX) and SEC Network (SECN ) on the Fubo streaming service at no additional cost to subscribers with En...

27/08/2026

Moment Branding: Using Sound to Create More Powerful Fan Experiences

Sports marketers have entered the experiential age. Today, sports teams, leagues, and venues are increasingly using immersive interactions and real world events...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: MultiDyne to Debut MDoG-8800 12G Fiber Transport Module

MultiDyne will introduce the MDoG-8800 at IBC2026 (Stand 11.C12, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), extending its openGear portfolio with a high-density fiber tra...