In this bizarre new gameshow, you will encounter John Bercow doing topless karaoke while tossing glitter at pensioners and Joey Essex pounding on the walls of a shipping container. Why? Who knows!<\/p>\n
What is The Box? It is easier, perhaps, to list the things The Box is not, if only to give ourselves something to cling to when the more recognisable trappings start to wobble, the floor gives way and we find ourselves in a tent with Joey Essex, watching in silence as a topless John Bercow hurls glitter at an audience of braying pensioners.<\/p>\n
So. Some things The Box is not: a sitcom; a medical drama; a property show presented by sockless men with teeth that follow you around the room; a thing about badgers. Beyond this, however, we are on our own. The opening titles do little to assist. \u201c10 BOXES\u201d booms a caption as the camera swoops over a collection of giant yellow containers strapped to the back of a flatbed lorry. \u201c10 CONTESTANTS\u201d it continues, as a montage of coming attractions reveals footage of Graeme Souness squinting at an egg and a member of JLS running towards some trees. And, finally, a distinctly disobliging caption that is nevertheless pivotal to the wilfully befuddling modus operandi of this six-part series: \u201cNO HELP\u201d. Bloody hell. Or rather, \u201cbl\u00f8\u00f8dy hell\u201d, because The Box is a Norwegian format so something may have been lost in translation. Anyway, shh, because it\u2019s episode one and here is Gary Lineker.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2c37b473789e73b37860e4c812b40d72cd6daabc\/225_0_1350_1080\/master\/1350.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=8151768f26a03cd37fa1ddd5d00cbd80\" "\\"The")
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