'We were climbing up things and disappearing into tunnels, being tied up and then crawling through vents' - Ed Gamble on new escape rooms show The Way Out
Podcaster Ed Gamble chats about if the escape rooms in The Way Out live up to his own standards. Yolanthe Fawehinmi reports.
Solving problems under timed conditions is already a difficult task. So imagine doing it whilst being filmed for television, knowing a race to the finish line is also involved.
It’s the premise of a new fast-paced comedy competition show The Way Out, airing on UKTV channels U and U&Dave hosted by former Great British Bake Off presenter Mel Giedroyc.
Based on a Belgian format, each episode follows two teams of comedians completing high-pressure escape rooms packed with puzzles, confusion, and a ticking clock.
Across the series, the Off Menu podcast host Ed Gamble captains Lou Sanders and Chloe Petts, while The Mash Report host Nish Kumar leads David O’Doherty and Amy Annette.
From the control room, Giedroyc oversees the chaos, and the team with the quickest overall time, after completing the four escape rooms, will be crowned The Way Out Champions.
Gamble, whose new stand-up tour will bring him to venues across Yorkshire next year, is a big fan of escape rooms.
"Amy Annette and I are part of an escape room collective, gang, who do escape rooms fairly regularly in London,” he says. “We try to get together and do them now and again. I’m a big fan of escape rooms. I love the themes of them, and it’s a satisfying thing when you solve a puzzle.”
The escape rooms in the series got the thumbs up from Gamble, who has favourites in the UK, LA and Amsterdam. “They were so good, it almost didn’t feel like an escape room at times.
"Obviously, they could do a lot more with it, and include challenges you wouldn’t be able to get away with in a normal escape room, because you’d have to spend hours trying to put the whole thing back together again.
“And in these escape rooms, there are involved storylines, explosions and these scientific reactions to things. It was pretty impressive and high value."
It was more physically challenging than expected, he admits. “We were climbing up things and disappearing into tunnels, being tied up and then crawling through vents. It’s what made it feel more like a movie. There were electric shocks, too.”
Has he ever thought about setting up his own escape room? “I don’t know how much of a money spinner they are. It’ll be a high outlay to begin with,” he muses.
"I did come up with an idea. You go in, and someone who works in the escape room comes out and says, ‘I’m really sorry, guys, there’s been a technical issue. So we can’t do any of the escape rooms today. If you could just come out through this exit.’
“Take them out to the exit, shut them in the fire escape. And that’s where the escape room starts, and it starts filling with water. You’ve got to find a way out to escape the water, or you drown. I don’t know where we can build it, but it can’t be anywhere with any health and safety protocols...”
The Way Out comes to U and U&Dave on Tuesday, May 12.