ITV game show Catchphrase will resume filming next week

Catchphrase

Mr Chips is coming back!

Catchphrase will resume filming next week, following social distancing guidelines.

The ITV game show will be the first of the channel's entertainment programmes to resume filming.

To ensure the safety of everyone, contestants and crew will have their temperatures tested daily and work in 'bubble' groups.

There has also been physical changes to the set, galleries and make up rooms, staggered start times, and daily cleaning and sanitisation of the studio.

STV Productions will record 10 episodes of the show, which are due to broadcast in the autumn.

Host Stephen Mulhern said, "We were always due to start filming now so it's great that we are in a position that we can do so. It feels so good to be back in the studio and it's taken a huge amount of work from the crew and all at STV Productions who make the show and ITV who broadcast it to get us back up and running safely. We can't wait to start."

ITV's Head of Entertainment Commissioning Katie Rawcliffe said, "Catchphrase is the first of ITV's big entertainment shows to go back into the studio. All the teams have worked incredibly hard to get us back filming and the production team have protocols in place in line with Government guidelines to make sure that we are doing this in as safe a way as possible for the crew, contributors and everyone involved.

"We can't wait to get going and Stephen is the perfect host to kick off entertainment post lockdown.”

There'll be no studio audience, with many shows having to adapt to working without an audience.

The most recent series of Catchphrase was revived in 2013, bringing on Stephen Mulhern as host.

Before that, the iconic game show was hosted by Northern Irish comedian Roy Walker.

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Lucy Buglass
Senior Staff Writer

Lucy joined the WhatToWatch.com team in 2021, where she writes series guides for must-watch programmes, reviews and the latest TV news. Now she works for our sister site TechRadar in the same role. Originally from Northumberland, she graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a degree in Film Studies and moved to London to begin a career writing about entertainment.

She is a Rotten Tomatoes approved film critic and has a huge passion for cinema. She especially loves horror, thriller and anything crime-related. Her favourite TV programmes include Inside No 9, American Horror Story, Stranger Things and Black Mirror but she is also partial to a quiz show or a bit of Say Yes to the Dress