The Goes Wrong Show, fictitiously known as Play of the Week, is a British comedy series, developed by British theatre company Mischief Theatre, produced by Mischief Screen and Big Talk Productions in association with Lionsgate UK, and features the stage show ensemble's performers.
The show premiered on 23 December 2019 on BBC One. The plays featured in the show are performed by the fictitious Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society. It was announced in 2020 that the BBC had renewed the show for a second series. Following a Christmas special in 2020, the second series began on 27 September 2021.
Series 1[]
The Spirit of Christmas (aired 23 Dec 2019)[]
Our players present the story of Santa and his elves attempting to bring happiness to a sad little girl and her constantly fighting parents. Can the magical toy machine restore her Christmas cheer? Or perhaps Mr Snowman and his enchanting dance? We’ll never know, as a surly Santa indulges in too much Christmas sherry and contrives to ruin everything. Crackers explode, an elf is trapped in a confined space, and the toy machine attempts to eat the snowman alive. Also, there are songs, and these don’t go well.
The Pilot (Not the Pilot) (aired 3 Jan 2020)[]
This week Cornley have chosen to put on a Second World War drama, rarely performed because of its historical inaccuracy and poor research. Director Chris plays Rufus Heal, a dashing pilot reduced to a desk job cracking German codes in a top secret Allied facility after losing his leg. He is assisted by uptight Englishwoman Valerie Sky and French codebreaker Camille LeClaire, under the watchful eye of Wing Commander Randolph Wycombe. They also find a part suitable for Dennis’s dubious skills - a telegraph machine. Will they crack the code and unmask the spy in their midst in time to win the Vietnam war? Sadly for our gang, many disasters await - Rufus’s ‘lost’ leg won’t behave itself, Camille’s grasp of French is sub-par, Hitler spends more time on set than planned, and Annie is forced to play the dastardly Wing Commander after Chris’s father fails to show up. And the telegraph machine takes on a life of its own.
A Trial to Watch (aired 10 Jan 2020)[]
A legal drama this week for our intrepid performers, with Dennis taking on a lead role due to a conversation with his grandmother that turned out to be legally binding. He plays unscrupulous defence lawyer Karl McKennon, taking on his ex-wife Becky Sandhurst as he defends an ex-cop accused of murdering his brother. Cornley Dramatic Society’s designers have excelled themselves, constructing a number of split sets that are wheeled in and out to create the locations described in the brutal cross examinations that take place in their meticulously recreated courtroom. Sadly, this turns out to be a terrible idea: sets are mismatched, wheeled off and on at life-threatening speeds, and the courtroom itself is a quarter the size it should have been.
The Lodge (aired 17 Jan 2020)[]
Our gang present a 1960s-set horror this week, as the mysterious Albert Fortenoy welcomes a young family to his crumbling old house. What is the secret behind the death of Albert’s late wife Vera? Who is the creepy vicar’s daughter playing outside? A number of clever theatrical horror devices are used to create a creepy atmosphere and plenty of jump scares, and every single one manages to go horribly wrong. Worse, the designers have taken ‘crumbling’ to heart and the cast contrive to fall off, out of and through everything. A stairlift develops a life-threatening mind of its own, a talking deer head fails to understand its cues, and entire rooms seem to go missing. To cap it all, the play has been running short in rehearsals, and the only solution they can find involves adjectives.
Harper's Locket (aired 24 Jan 2020)[]
This week the gang turn their attentions to a period romance, a classic tale of family, duty and love across the class divide. A beautiful set has been built to replicate a grand country home, soon to be rocked by a literal and metaphorical storm. Sadly, the literal storm involves a water effect that threatens to flood the set, though that’s the least of their worries, as a horse turns out to be more of a danger to body parts than expected, gunshot effects occur seemingly at random and a ceiling fan threatens to decapitate a table of diners. Oh, and a cat gets stuck in a piano.
90 Degrees (aired 31 Jan 2020)[]
This week’s show is a family saga of lust and betrayal set in the American Deep South, as the children of Herb Burgess, the head of Burgess Fine Tea, gather to plan the division of the business after their father’s incipient demise. The show’s title refers to the heat in Tennessee, but a designer error means that one of the sets has been built at a literal ninety degrees to the vertical. Too expensive to rebuild, our gang decide to turn the cameras on their side and pretend that everything’s normal. Gravity, however, has other ideas, and when even getting in and out of chairs is potentially limb-threatening, you know things aren’t going well. That’s not the only problem, however, as a remote-controlled dog falls victim to a spat between Chris and Robert, rogue jack-in-a-boxes crop up on set, and Herb’s bedroom has somehow ended up upside down.
Christmas Special[]
The Nativity (aired 22 Dec 2020)[]
As ever, all soon descends into chaos; an ingenious pop-up book set proves a physical danger to both cast and crew, the Angel Gabriel develops a firework obsession, the actors inside a donkey have a terrible falling out resulting in unnecessary nudity and there is much more fire than anyone anticipated. Oh, and the baby Jesus is eaten by a sheep. In between, the greatest story ever told is told.
Series 2[]
Summer Once Again (aired 27 Sep 2021)[]
A coup in the ranks means that Robert is in charge of this week's show, and he is not going to accept the usual shambolic standards as they present a Downton-esque family saga.
The Most Lamentable... (aired 4 Oct 2021)[]
Chris Bean returns to the leadership of the Cornley Drama Society and puts on a production of a little-known play by Shakespeare. Colin Shakespeare, that is. Sadly his attempts to bring culture to the masses are thwarted by self-raising drawbridges, flammable props and an unfortunate meeting of a power cable and a metal suit of armour. Robert doesn't take his relegation to a non-speaking part lying down either, attempting to infiltrate every scene with his 'relevant trumpeter.' And there's a battle scene for the ages, where none of the stops have been pulled out.
There Is No Escape (aired 11 Oct 2021)[]
An American prison break drama is this week’s offering from the Cornley Drama Society, full of intrigue, excitement and double-cross. It’s also full of errors, as the cast struggle to escape from the set, their costumes and a phone box. There’s a bizarre talking bird, a flying system which operates at random and a prosthetic chin with a life of its own. And Robert’s terrified niece Lucy Grove makes her debut, with predictable disaster. It doesn’t help that none of the cast understand the plot.
The Cornley Drama Festival Part 1 (aired 25 Oct 2021)[]
It's a different sort of show this week, as Chris asks each cast member to put on their own performance in order to head off a coup. Robert’s acting disasterclass kicks things off, resulting in injuries both mental and physical. Max misunderstands what a kitchen sink drama is in a mercifully short music interlude. Vanessa attempts to cure her lack of spontaneity by putting on Whose Line... style improv and fails. And Chris attempts to bring culture to the masses by performing an understandably long-forgotten ballet.
The Cornley Drama Festival Part 2 (aired 1 Nov 2021)[]
Continuing last-week's Disaster Festival, the Cornley Drama Society put on four more performances. An audio drama is a thinly disguised Marks and Spencer voiceover audition for Sandra. Dennis performs the world’s least interesting play, Annie stages a 70s farce that’s been long-forgotten for moral and ethical reasons, and Jonathan puts on a triumphant circus-based musical as the show’s finale. Also, there is a horse and there are tranquilisers, and terrible things happen as a result.
Cast and Creatives[]
Cast[]
The Goes Wrong Show features the following actors playing the actors of Cornley Drama Society:
- Henry Shields as Chris Bean
- Henry Lewis as Robert Grove
- Charlie Russell as Sandra Wilkinson
- Dave Hearn as Max Bennett
- Nancy Zamit as Annie Twilloil
- Bryony Corrigan as Vanessa Wilcock-Wynn-Carroway
- Jonathan Sayer as Dennis Tyde
- Greg Tannahill as Jonathan Harris
- Chris Leask as Trevor Watson
- Ellie Morris as Lucy Grove/ CDS Member
- Sydney K Smith - CDS Member
- Holly Sumpton - CDS Member
Creatives[]
- Writers - Henry Shields, Henry Lewis and Jonathan Sayer
- Director - Martin Dennis
- Producer - Jim Poyser
- Costume designer - Roberto Surace
- Hair and Make Up designers - Adele Firth and Carli Mather
- Executive producers for Mischief Screen - Hilary Strong and Kenny Wax
- Executive producers for Big Talk - Kenton Allen, Saurabh Kakkar and Matthew Justice
Gallery[]
