THE CUBE on TV vs Playing It for Real

If you grew up watching the host circle that perspex box while a contestant unravelled inside it, you’ll know the feeling. Someone steps in, the tension builds, and a task that looked simple from the sofa becomes impossible.

THE CUBE ran on ITV between 2009 and 2021 and won a BAFTA for Best Entertainment Programme, along with a BAFTA Craft Award for its production team. The live version now runs in Manchester, London and Chicago, so you can find out how you’d do.

Here’s how the real thing compares with the show.

The setup is bigger than it looks on screen

On television the cube looks compact, a clinical four-metre perspex box alone in a dark studio. In person it’s a venue rather than a single box. Manchester has 12 individual CUBE boxes, each housing a different game, and London’s Canary Wharf site has 21 across four floors.

The atmosphere is closer to a night out than a studio recording. There’s a bar, food and room to watch other groups play. The show ran on tension and silence. The live version is louder and considerably more social.

The games follow the same logic

Every challenge on the show was built on one idea: simple tasks become very difficult under pressure. Catching, throwing, estimating, reacting, balancing. Viewers at home always believed they’d do better, right up until the contestant failed for the fifth time.

Before each game, The Body, a performer in a full-body suit and featureless mask, demonstrated what was needed. It always looked effortless.

The live games work the same way, testing balance, speed, memory and judgement, and they’re selected for you rather than chosen. Each looks manageable until you’re inside and the clock starts.

The stakes are different

On TV the stakes were enormous. Contestants had nine lives across seven games, with money climbing to £250,000, and two lifelines, Simplify and Trial Run. When the show returned in 2020 as The Million Pound Cube, the top prize rose to £1,000,000.

In the show’s history only one person beat THE CUBE: Sir Mo Farah, in a 2012 celebrity charity special, winning £250,000 for charity.

The live version plays in groups of four, split into teams of two, across seven games. You win points and try to protect your lives, and there’s a leaderboard rather than a cash prize. Anyone competitive with their friends will tell you a leaderboard does the job.

Losing the jackpot is freeing, if anything. You can laugh when it goes wrong without it costing you a house deposit.

Your group replaces the presenter

The host’s slow builds and knowing commentary made the programme. There’s no presenter in the live version, so your group becomes the commentary track, shouting contradictory advice through the glass. Broadly the same job, less polished and much louder.

What to expect if you go

Sessions run around 90 minutes to two hours depending on how busy it is, with food and a bar on site. Manchester is inside Urban Playground at the Arndale, London is at Canary Wharf, and Chicago is on the Magnificent Mile. Players aged 9 and up are welcome, with under-16s supervised.

The show told you what it looked like to step inside. The live version tells you what it feels like.