Dermot O'Leary threatened with stern warning by U bosses - 'we don't have the money'

Silence might be golden - but it can also be pure chaos. That’s the lesson Dermot O’Leary learned while juggling This Morning with U’s new social experiment show, Silence is Golden.

The high-stakes programme sees 70 audience members offered £250k on one strict condition - they don’t make a sound. “We were filming at least two episodes a day,” the 51-year old says. “So by the end of it, you’re like ‘Someone please say something.’”

Dermot would dash to the set of Silence is Golden from ITV ’s daytime studio, often working until 11pm. The constant shift between lively morning antics and deadpan silence left even the seasoned broadcaster rattled.

Silence is Golden is simple - on paper. Stay silent, win a life-changing prize. The twist? Dermot unleashes a panel of chaos agents - comedians and entertainers whose job is to make contestants crack.

Dermot leads captains Katherine Ryan, Strictly star Seann Walsh and Fatiha El-Ghorri on to the stage, all backed by a rotating door of performers ranging from the mainstream to the bizarre.

“We had to keep hitting them with something new, we were almost out for blood,” says Katherine. “We tried everything - pyrotechnics, snakes, spiders, even nudity.” Some acts were more unusual than others. “There was a baby race,” she adds. “That was amazing.”

The goal? Any reaction. “It’s not just about making them laugh,” Seann says, “It’s about getting any kind of reaction, whether it’s shock, fear, sadness. Anything to get that noise.”

Dermot adds: “It’s £5000 for a small reaction, £10,000 for a large reaction. Everyone’s wired, everyone’s got mics, everyone’s got cameras on them, and we’ve even got a Guinness world record adjudicator, Joanne Brent, who I found on This Morning!”

But there’s more than money on the line for Dermot and the panel. “Our job is to get the money back,” says Dermot. “The channel said to us, right from the start, ‘We don’t have this money to give away.’ That comes with its own pressure.”

And for the audience? The pressure to keep silent was so intense that trust began to erode - even after filming ended. “They were so scared, even with the light back on,” Dermot says.

“Joanne has to tell them: ‘The light is now on. You can talk.’ And even then, there were trust issues.” One contestant with a severe phobia of snakes and spiders left the show altogether before uttering a single word - sacrificing themselves so the others could win.

Still, the real chaos kicked off as the minutes ticked on. “People went crazy,” Seann remembers, “One guy started taking 20 quid a pop. He’d make a noise, there was a score. Another noise, there’s another score. That’s how bad it got.”

This inevitably led some contestants to turn on one another. “We didn’t see that coming,” says Seann, “They were screaming at each other.”

Backstage, however, the performers bonded over both the madness and their shared struggles. “There’s nothing the comedian loves more than another comedian bombing,” says Seann. “It’s a win-win situation - we can laugh at a fantastic act or at the silence when it falls flat!”

But the lack of response eventually took a toll. “It’s traumatic, we’re used to people laughing,” says Seann. “Instead, the audience is just staring at us and it looks like hatred.” Katherine jokingly echoes the sentiment. “I have PTSD from the experience,” she says.

The only refuge came from the green room, which became a tight-knit basecamp for cast and crew. “It was buzzing,” says Katherine, “We had snacks and drinks. As captains, we were also trying to keep everyone in the best atmosphere possible, though we knew what we were sending them into.”

Sean adds: “It turned into a crowd at a football match. We were really rooting for everyone going out there because we all know how tough it is.”

And then there was the final round - a crescendo of tension. “Everything rests on that final round,” Katherine adds, “So they’re under a lot of pressure and we all relied on that.”

She reveals her strategy was to zone in on groups and couples - especially the ones with history. “I was flirtatious at one point, I tried to destabilise relationships,” she says. “I have that kind of relationship with my sister - I can’t do anything serious with her.

My middle sister is getting married in August and I know we’ll be laughing because we’re bullies. That’s what we had to bank on for Silence Is Golden. Those groups of friends that get the giggles for whatever reason.”

Seann, on the other hand, was more direct in his approach and took inspiration from Jim Carrey’s Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumber. “I had a scene from Dumb and Dumber in my head,” he says, “So I screamed in someone’s face. We go to desperate measures.”

Now back on safer comedic turf, Seann says: “I was very happy to go back to audiences that weren’t being paid a quarter of a million pounds to not laugh.”

But he remains grateful to work with Katherine, with whom he shares a surprising past. “We entered the same competition years ago,” he says, “We came joint runner ups but I gave my award away.”

Katherine also praises her teammates, especially Fatiha. “She’s so funny,” she says, “I was completely sold when they told me what the show would involve. I knew it’d be something special.” One thing is certain: silence has never sounded so loud - or been so hilariously dangerous.

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