Soft landing for the conned space cadets

Channel Four’s prank “reality” show Space Cadets ended tonight – with the three cosmonauts suspecting they had been conned shortly before the show ended.

The programme aimed to pull off the biggest TV hoax in history by persuading a group of three Britons they had spent two weeks in a Russian training camp before being blasted into space.

In fact they never left the UK and spent the past five days in a space shuttle simulator on a disused military base in Suffolk.

When the prank was revealed by host Johnny Vaughan contestants were all smiles - no doubt helped by news they had each won £25,000.

But one of the three “cosmonauts”, college administrator Keri Hasset from Birmingham, said: “When I thought we were coming back to Earth I was planning my speech.

“I was going to say it had been my childhood dream. Now I’m a little bt heartbroken.”

Suspicions that something was amiss mounted after the group were asked to hold a memorial service on board the shuttle for Mr Bimby, who they were told was a celebrity dog famous on Russian TV in the early 1990s.