Gogglebox is a British reality television series created by Stephen Lambert, Tania Alexander and Tim Harcourt, and broadcast on Channel 4. The series documents families and groups of friends around the United Kingdom who are filmed for their observations and reactions to the previous week's television from their own homes. The first series launched on 7 March 2013, and the show returned for its twenty-second series on 8 September 2023. The show was narrated by Caroline Aherne from its launch until her death in July 2016, after which Craig Cash took over.
The show has won numerous awards. In 2014 and 2022, it won a BAFTA in the Reality & Constructed Factual category. From 2015 to 2018, in 2021, 2022 and 2023, it won a National Television Award. The success of Gogglebox spawned three spin-off series, including a version featuring children (Gogglesprogs), a version featuring 16 to 24-year-olds as they watch online content (Vlogglebox) and a version featuring celebrities (Celebrity Gogglebox).
History
The show was created by Stephen Lambert, Tania Alexander, and Tim Harcourt. Lambert is a media executive who is also responsible for the Channel 4 television shows Wife Swap, Faking It, Undercover Boss, and The Secret Millionaire. Alexander was Director of Factual Entertainment at Lambert's independent production company Studio Lambert, who said the idea was for Gogglebox to be a mix of the ITV comedy show Harry Hill's TV Burp, which looked back at the previous week's television, and the BBC sitcom The Royle Family, which centres around a television-fixated family, but with real, ordinary people. Harcourt, a Creative Director for Studio Lambert, had the original idea for Gogglebox while watching the 2011 London riots, and along with Alexander, devised the format for the show. They wondered what people talked about while watching the news, and came up with the idea of cutting between people watching the same TV shows. Farah Golant, the boss of All3Media, said: "But the show isn't really about TV. The show is about people's lives, their relationships, their living rooms and the way children and parents talk about TV [...] That's quite priceless. It captures a cultural response to something that's happening in the world.
The concept of Gogglebox was criticised before the show aired; Alexander recalled people thinking Channel 4 had run out of ideas, but credited the network's head of factual David Glover as the one who recognised the show's potential and subsequently ordered Alexander to produce a proof of concept tape. The show's team set about casting, and it was during this period they signed on Leon and June Bernicoff. Alexander described the original reel as "a little rough around the edges, gosh it was actually really rough", and thought the script was "God awful" which was read by a narrator whose tone of voice was incompatible. Despite this, Glover felt strongly towards the concept and gave the green-light for a mini-series. The first series consisted of four episodes, the first of which aired on 7 March 2013. The show was a success, and a second series of 13 episodes began in September 2013.
In November 2020, Alexander left Gogglebox after seven years to pursue a fresh challenge. She was replaced by Studio Lambert's deputy creative director, Mike Cotton, alongside Gogglebox executive producer Leon Campbell.
Production
The people cast on Gogglebox were found by the show, and the producers do not advertise for participants. Lambert said this approach is key to the show's success as it results in more likeable people and the audience can get to know the cast over time. From the beginning, Alexander did not want to feature people who wanted to be on television, and sought individuals "that had the ability to make us laugh very naturally and that's quite hard." One of the methods used to find participants is termed "street casting", whereby the show's team looked in everyday public places; Leon and June were found in a bridge club, and Stephen and Chris were found in a hair salon. In later series, members of the show's production team visited random houses and held up a card that contained something, such as a picture of the British Prime Minister or a Daily Mail headline, and noted how quick the person responded and any funny, interesting, or insightful comments they had. The show has also found participants through recommendations, which was how the Siddiqui family and couple Giles and Mary were found.