Richard Bacon says his brush with death inspired him to make new mystery game show
RICHARD Bacon says his brush with death inspired him to make new mind-bending game show The Hustler - that he has pegged as "Broadchurch meets Agatha Christie".
ABC has commissioned eight episodes of the game show, which will see five contestants attempting to find the secret mole within their ranks in order to win a cash prize.
Bacon, 43, says the show will keep viewers and contestants guessing who the Hustler is until the end.
He explained to The Sun Online: "It's the essence of a really good whodunit, like Agatha Christie or Broadchurch.
"Broadchurch does this very clever thing where every time you go to an ad break, you change your mind about who the murderer is.
"You're like, "oh s***", now I think it's the cab driver". And Agatha Christie does that as well.
"And so I tried to devise a game show in which you have five people playing as a team and one person on the team is cheating, and you have to work out who it is.
"The way the game is put together you will constantly change your mind about who the Hustler is.
"I think the most fun bit, in a way, is that you get these really personal clues about who it is.
"It could be anything from The Hustler is a big supporter of Donald Trump to The Hustler used to work in the CIA.
"And so if you're matching this clue to someone, it brings out this finger pointing game of prejudice."
The identity of "The Hustler" is a secret and they will eliminate two other contestants throughout the course of the show.
All the contestants must answer trivia questions in order to uncover the identity of the Hustler and split the prize money.
Otherwise, The Hustler takes it all.
Last year, Richard was hospitalised with an infection in both lungs on his way back to Britain from his home in America and needed to be put into coma in order to save his life.
The presenter says coming out of this life-threatening situation provided him with the motivation to pitch it.
He continued: "It was coming out of [the coma] which made me really want to focus on this.
"I've also got ADHD and it's good training for my brain. It's the opposite of what I normally do with my brain.
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"When you're on the radio, you're coming up with new ideas every few seconds, breaking news, and things like that, and this process is the opposite.
"It's slow and involves focusing on one single thing alone and that's not something I'm used to. I think it's been quite good for me."
The show is hosted by Emmy award-winning game show host Craig Ferguson and produced by Studio Lambert, the company behind The Circle.
Richard says on working with the company: "I'm really excited to work with a legend like Stephen Lambert to produce this show together."
Richard lives in the US with his wife Rebecca McFarlane and two children, Ivy and Arthur.
The Hustler will be available to stream on Hulu.