50 Terrible Predictions
A countdown of history's most inaccurate forecasts.
Hosted by Angus Deayton, the British television special 50 Terrible Predictions aired on Sky One on 28 March 2005. It ranked the fifty most inaccurate forecasts ever made, with the Y2K bug topping the list for supposedly threatening global collapse.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Clip show
- Writer
- Jez Stevenson
- Director
- Mark McMullen; Gareth Williams
- Presenter
- Angus Deayton
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Executive producers
- Mark Robinson
- Camera
- Single-camera
- Company
- Granada
Facts from the source article.
Production
The programme was produced by Granada Television for Sky and directed by Mark McMullen and Gareth Williams. It followed a similar show, 50 Worst Decisions of All Time, also presented by Deayton and broadcast by Sky in September 2004. Talking-head contributors included Carol Vorderman, Noel Sharkey and Jon Tickle. Predictions covered included Tony Blair's claim that Saddam Hussein would have weapons of mass destruction and David Steel's 1981 forecast that Liberal activists should prepare for government. In a Times review, Joe Joseph singled out David Gest's 2002 prediction that he and Liza Minnelli would die in each other's arms as the most risible, given their subsequent divorce proceedings.
Promotion
To promote the show, Deayton filmed trailers aired by Sky in the days before broadcast. Set to the "Sunrise" section of Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra, the trailers show Deayton in a bright white room wearing a white suit, attended by a man in a gorilla costume—a reference to Arthur C. Clarke's 1964 prediction about bioengineered chimp servants. Deayton lists unpredicted aspects of 2005 life and some incorrect forecasts, then invites viewers to watch, ending with: "I think I'll have my Brazilian now."
Reception
Reception was generally positive. Gabrielle Starkey of The Times's arts supplement The Eye named it a "multichannel choice" and noted Deayton's wry smirking. Kate Bevan of The Daily Telegraph called some predictions "a bit makeweight" but described the show as "an unmissable show". Karl French of the Financial Times gave three stars out of five, calling it "all rather good, undemanding fun". Tanya Sweeney of the Evening Herald was more critical, finding it "all very predictable" and not "as juicy as it could have been".
Distribution
50 Terrible Predictions first broadcast on 28 March 2005 on Sky One. Sky repeated it several times: four times over the 2006–07 Christmas period on Sky Two and Sky Three, and again on Sky One on 28 July 2007. After the Hollywood Foreign Press Association decided not to host a traditional ceremony for the 65th Golden Globe Awards, Sky moved its awards coverage to Sky News and replaced its planned Golden Globes show with a repeat of 50 Terrible Predictions.
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