Bo' Selecta! is a British TV comedy sketch show which ran for three series and one Christmas special on Channel 4 television and had several spin-offs. Written and created by Leigh Francis, the programme involved lampooning celebrity culture, featuring Francis himself in a series of surreal, often crude, celebrity imitations using rubber masks. Notable personalities spoofed in the series included Michael Jackson, Melanie Brown, David Blaine, Kelly Osbourne, Elton John and Craig David. The title of the series originates from David’s single Re-Rewind, which contains the line "Re-Rewind", when the crowd says "Bo Selecta!".

The programmes were bookended by Francis as an Eastern European celebrity stalker known as Avid Merrion, who would conduct interviews without the celebrities involved realising he was in character, a similar concept to the original Ali G performances. In nods to the 'cult of celebrity', the character was revealed to have Craig Phillips, the winner of the first Big Brother UK TV series, locked in his cupboard. A second character involved in celebrity interviews was Francis as ‘The Bear’, a small creature that would get erections at inopportune moments during interviews.

Although ratings for all three series were strong, critically the show has been singled out for allegations of racism, misogyny, or just being wilfully puerile blank">http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1892588,00.html Nevertheless, the series, for a time, made its mark on modern society, including being referenced in an episode of _The Office.

In Series 3, Steve Webster, head of visual effects, had to design five bears. An new bear for Leigh to wear, a stuffed one and three robotic ones, one which the head moved, one which the arms moved and one which both arms and legs moved.

To achieve shots where the viewer can't see the body of Leigh as the bear when there's no padding behind him, Leigh's head was through a blue screen and was then keyed in in post production.

Both the Michael Jackson sketches and the Mel B sketches of Series 3 were filmed in four days, two for each character, although not on consecutive days.

Mel B's stomach is actually two towels.

For the shot like Ant and Dec and the Davina McCall interviews in Series 2 and the "Crappy Days" spoof in Series 3, the camera was set up in one place. Leigh said his lines in one place, swapped costumes and did his other line in another place and so on. The images were then fused together to give the impression that Leigh is in many places at once.

In the Christmas special, "Ho Ho Ho Selecta", when the Lorraine Kelly set came out of storage, the pillow which she sits on disappeared, and the production team had to cut up a pillow from a different sofa and stick Leigh in it, literally the moment Brian Dowling was coming to the set.