Taking The Mimic!

Rory Bremner, Alexander Armstrong and Debra Stephenson on their fun new panel show…

- Victoria Wilson

It’s hard to imagine Donald Trump, mary Berry and adele in the same room – but that’s exactly what you can expect (well, kind of…) from ITV’s new Sunday-night high-energy panel show, The Imitation Game.

Each week, the show – hosted by Alexander Armstrong – sees team captains and impressionists Rory Bremner and Debra Stephenson work alongside another top mimic in a series of fast-paced challenges.

Both teams go head-to-head as they re-enact iconic movie scenes, revoice news footage, sing songs as you’ve never heard them before, and put unlikely words into the mouths of famous faces.

TV Times caught up with Xander, 48, Rory, 57, and Debra, 46, to find out more…

How would you describe the imitation game?

Rory: People enjoy impressions and they enjoy panel shows, so we’re putting those two things together. With impression shows, you either have the Who Do You Do or Copy Cats-type format from the 70s and 80s, which now feels slightly dated, or sketch shows, which both Debra and I have done, that are expensive and very intensive to make. This is a whole new format.