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Keri the butt of TV joke
Dec 7 2005
A college administrator from Birmingham is among nine contestants who could end up the butt of the biggest TV joke in history.
Keri Hassett, aged 25, will appear on a new Channel 4 show Space Cadets, which is attempting to fool the participants into believing that they have been blasted into space.
They are being told they are set to visit the final frontier as space tourists. Unbeknown to them, their shuttle will be a Hollywood creation, made originally for the film Space Cowboys.
The producers must also persuade them that the disused UK base where they are being "trained" for space, is actually Russia's Space Tourism Agency.
The ages of the contestants, who come from London, Glasgow, Kent, Birmingham, Bristol and South Wales, range from 19 to 28.
The contestants have been picked for their suggestibility - and many of the chosen group express a belief in UFOs.
Some of them are pranksters themselves, and TV executives will be hoping that they will see the funny side when the show ends. Space Cadets, hosted by Johnny Vaughan, begins at 9pm tonight.
