MYTHS AND TV LEGENDS

Faking It, the BAFTA-winning television reality show where volunteers learn a new skill to convince a panel of experts they're the real deal, is back on our screens after 20 years. But can you guess which of these three fakers will triumph in the 'modern-day Pygamalion'?

- By Christine Smith

MORE than two decades since one of the first ever reality TV programmes graced our screens, the much-loved Faking It is making a grand return this week on Channel 5.

And just as it did originally, the new series’ format will be based on “a modern-day Pygmalion” that poignantly refers to the 1913 George Bernard Shaw play in which flower girl Eliza Doolittle was trained to appear like an aristocrat.

Using Shaw’s play — named after a Greek mythological figure - as its inspiration, Faking It sees ordinary members of the public train with a mentor for four weeks to try to learn a new profession.

They then must convince a panel of judges they really are who they are pretending to be. Success means fooling them.