Producers wanted to avoid being ‘unpleasant’ to interviewers on The Assembly

The producers of The Assembly, which sees celebrities interviewed by a group of autistic, neurodivergent and learning disabled people, have said they want to avoid being patronising and “unpleasant” to its interviewers.

The new ITV show will see ex-EastEnders star Danny Dyer, former Doctor Who actor David Tennant, Match Of The Day presenter Gary Lineker and ex-Little Mix singer Jade Thirlwall face the panel’s questions, with producers saying their dream guest would be the next pope.

Each episode finishes with a musical performance relevant to the celebrity being interviewed, and co-executive producer Michelle Singer, of Rockerdale Studios, said these were included to rectify what she saw as patronising flaws in the French programme it was adapted from, Les Rencontres Du Papotin.

She said: “We made the decision that every episode concludes with a musical performance. It’s not always a song, but a musical performance of sorts, which has relevance to the celebrity.

“We don’t always explain that, it’s not always necessary to, but there are reasons why we’ve chosen the specific songs we’ve chosen in each episode.

“How do I say this kindly? We were very aware that the French shows, sometimes they were a bit shit, just a little bit sort of, ‘do you want a triangle and to clap along’, and it’s just unpleasant and just not good.”

Speaking about the fear of the show being patronising, Ms Singer’s fellow executive producer Stu Richards said: “There’s so many decisions you make along the way, right from pre-production to the shoot, and to the edit, and at each stage you have (to think) is this the right decision?

“(We are) worried about being patronising, that’s something that we think about all the time, and so we just hope that it comes off in the way we hoped, which is the way that people can see these guys the way they are – funny, smart, interesting.”

Tennant’s episode sees him being asked about an unnamed colleague who has been accused of sexual misconduct and being an ally to the LGBT+ community, before performing a scene from Shakespeare’s Macbeth with one of the interviewers.

Speaking about the performance, Mr Richards said the interviewer matched Tennant “pound for pound”.

The interviews are filmed for three hours before being cut down for the episodes, which are about 30 minutes long, meaning extra content will be available on ITVX as there was “so much excellent stuff”, with the production team saying they “really struggled to cut it down”.

Speaking about the filming format, Ms Singer added: “It’s a real leveller of an experience, and if you can get over that hurdle, we usually record for three hours and we usually watch that happen after the sort of 15 to 20-minute mark, sometimes it’s earlier, sometimes it takes a little bit longer for people to sort of warm into it.

“But once that sort of facade is dropped, and people are just speaking frankly and honestly, and it becomes pure conversation, and there’s nothing better than sitting and observing brilliant conversation.”

The Assembly airs at 10.05pm on Saturday on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Player with an interview with Dyer, and Tennant’s interview follows the day after.

The show will be available to stream on ITVX and STV Player from 7am on launch day.