7 secrets from the set... Michael McIntyre's The Wheel

Michael McIntyre and executive producer Dan Baldwin (inset) take TV Times behind the scenes of their smash-hit BBC1 game show..

MICHAEL McINTYRE’S THE WHEEL

LAST ONE SATURDAY / BBC1 / 8.30PM / ENTERTAINMENT

1 Prototype in the garden!

As fans of the Saturday-night smash hit will know, the titular Wheel is a thing of beauty. But during the development process, the team found a budget-friendly way to test how the show would work.

‘In the very begin ‘In the very beginning, Michael McIntyre and myself went to designer Patrick Doherty’s house and we recreated a life-size replica of The Wheel out of garden chairs, chalk and plant pots,’ recalls executive producer Dan Baldwin, 45.

‘We then ran around the garden to simulate The Wheel spinning! One month later, the actual Wheel was then carefully created and built in the studio – it weighs over 2.5 tonnes! It really is so much fun to sit on.’

2 Controlled by a ‘supercomputer’

Michael, 44, came up with the idea for the show while in the bath! But as host and co-creator, he worried they might have made the show too difficult to win…

‘The game only works if it’s completely random, and that’s why it frightens me,’ he explains.

‘I was saying to the producers: “What if most of the shows have no winners? It’s a disaster!” It’s the same thing on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? – what if everybody just gets a grand?

It is what it is, you’ve just got to see what happens.’