The Goes Wrong Show is a British comedy series developed by Mischief Theatre, which began broadcasting on BBC One on 23 December 2019. It was announced in 2020 that the BBC has renewed the show for a second series.
History
The Play That Goes Wrong is a 2015 play by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields of Mischief Theatre. It received strong critical and audience acclaim. A television series, using the same writers and cast, was released in 2019 as The Goes Wrong Show. It consisted of six half hour episodes, which aired on BBC One between 23 December 2019 and 31 January 2020. Each episode had a different theme, including a period romance, spy thriller, a deep south melodrama and a Christmas fable. In addition to the writers, the show also stars regular Mischief performers including Charlie Russell, Bryony Corrigan, Dave Hearn and Nancy Zamit.
#GoesWrongAlong
On 3 April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mischief Theatre began a watch-along of the episodes of the show on Twitter, beginning with "90 Degrees". The watchalongs started at 7pm.
The Goes Wrong Show was announced by the BBC on 22 February 2019. The show was commissioned by BBC’s Controller of Comedy Commissioning, Shane Allen, and Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content. In one of the episodes, the cast are filmed upside down. Each episode of the first series was recorded in the Dock10 Studios in Salford, Greater Manchester.
Episodes
Reception
The first series received generally positive reviews. Radio Times' Huw Fullerton said that "The Goes Wrong Show... is actually the laugh-out-loud new project from the Mischief Theatre company". Tim Dowling from The Guardian praised the show's farce and the amount of behind-the-scenes effort that went into making it work. Ian D. Hall of Liverpool Sound and Vision named A Trial To Watch "one of the finest examples of farce to to television in years". Another positive review for the opening episode came from Michael Hogan's review in The Telegraph. He said "This old-fashioned, family-friendly comedy trod the line between seasonal cheer and black humour with aplomb. It was like Mrs Brown’s Boys but funny." When reviewing the Christmas episode, Steve Bennett from Chortle said "while every mistake here is, of course, meticulously planned, they are pulled off with enough flair, commitment and occasional ingenuity to break all but the most cynical of viewers to laughter." The show received a five-star review from Suzi Feay of the Financial Times, who said, "This stuff has to be directed and performed with pinpoint accuracy if it’s to succeed. Fortunately, it’s perfectly, deliberately, terrible.” In a negative review, Lottie Young of the Evening Standard called the first episode "embarrassingly bad" and argued that "the formula is more fossilised than old-fashioned." Rupert Hawksley from i News said that "theatre does not always translate well to television" and noted the script as being "dreadful". Following the success of the first series, the BBC commissioned a second series, which is scheduled to air later in 2020.
DVD release
The Goes Wrong Show had a DVD release for its first series on 10 February 2020.
