“What have I signed up for?” Jenny Ryan – better known as The Vixen from The Chase – asks herself. She’s confined to a yellow metal box, just big enough for one person to stand in, and any moment now, the doors will open to… who knows? For this is The Box and she could be anywhere, about to face any challenge be it physical, mental, or a combination of both. I’m sure her fellow celebrity contestants are asking themselves the same question. But perhaps none more than the show’s host, Gary Lineker.
On paper, The Box sounds frankly awful. A cast of C- and D-list celebs, including former Speaker of the House John Bercow, presenter Ranvir Singh and – surprise, surprise – Joey Essex, are placed in boxes and then taken to various locations (a castle, a racecourse, a church) to take on various challenges. In the opening episode, for example, they are dropped in the middle of a sprawling industrial state and tasked with finding a small yellow hexagon each. In the next one, their boxes open onto a stage and they are given an hour to come up with a performance for a battle of the bands challenge.
In reality, though, it’s actually quite fun. The celebrities live together for the duration of the show, giving us a Traitors-esque insight into their tactics and backstabbing (whoever is on the winning team must decide who to put up for elimination), and the unpredictable “anything can happen” nature of the challenges keeps you wanting more. There’s just one thing dragging the energy down: Lineker.
