What's The Facts. Jason Lewis. Copyright: Transparent Television
What's The Facts

What's The Facts

  • TV comedy
  • ITV2
  • 2016
  • 1 pilot

Faux-factual clip show pilot offering the audience 'facts' so surreal they could even be true. Presented by Jason Lewis.

Press clippings

It's six degrees of surreal separation in this faux-factual pilot fronted by Jason Lewis. What's The Facts (see what they did there?) is out to prove that everyone and everything is connected. A big premise, but Lewis and his investigators aim to do it in six steps. Is a line-dancing club in Suffolk linked to Little Mix? And what does Princess Diana's wedding dress have in common with Willy Wonka? Not strictly truth-based, but still entertaining.

Hannah Verdier, The Guardian, 4th November 2016

What's The Facts? sets out to be a different sort of mockumentary - not the hidden-camera type that's so prevalent but a spoof of more tabloidy popular factual shows in which comedian Jason Lewis tries to draw links with all sorts of odd things. It's a real mash-up - a stream of consciousness mixing surreal observations with odd real-life clips from the news and the nether reaches of the internet. There are some sketches in there too, but they're taken from YouTube, not generated by this show's writers.

Clip shows are ten-a-penny of course, and this may be an attempt to do something different with the format. But it doesn't essentially change what it is - while the random nature of the narrative makes it hard to invest since so little of it makes sense. It doesn't add much to the footage anyway. You'd probably be better off disappearing down your own YouTube hole for half an hour.

Steve Bennett, Chortle, 1st November 2016

ITV2 orders new comedies featuring diverse talent

ITV2 has ordered four new comedy pilots featuring black, Asian, and minority ethnic talent: Sorry, I Didn't Know; All About The McKenzies; Dropperz; What's The Facts.

British Comedy Guide, 13th October 2016

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