Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds Set for Trio of Adaptations

Red Arrow Studios International has secured three new deals in Europe for the award-winning series Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds, which is set to get local versions in France, Sweden and Portugal.

Originally produced by the Red Arrow Studios company CPL Productions for Channel 4 in the U.K., the social-experiment format has been commissioned by Canal+ in France for a four-episode local version, which will be produced by A Tableau Productions and is set to air in 2020. In Sweden, Meter is producing four episodes to air on TV4 during 2020, while Fremantle Portugal is in production on a four-episode local version for RTP, to premiere this year.

Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds attempts to dramatically improve the health and well-being of retirement communities by bringing together ten older residents with a group of ten 4-year-old preschool children for six weeks. The old and young volunteers share daily activities designed by a team of experts, including a gerontologist and a geriatrician, who measure and analyze the older groups’ physical and mental progress. The results at the end of the experiment are extraordinary, with significant changes in the physical, social and emotional well-being of the older volunteers.

The format has been licensed to over 13 territories in just over two years, including Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Finland and Israel. The show’s original U.K. production has proved to be a hit for Channel 4, with season two ranking as the number one show of the day across its run.

Bo Stehmeier, president of Red Arrow Studios International, said: “Many countries around the world are dealing with the challenges associated with an increase in aging populations, so Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds is a particularly timely format which tackles an important subject head on. As the format continues to draw strong ratings internationally, we’re thrilled that audiences in Sweden, France and Portugal will also now be able to enjoy this thought-provoking, heart-warming and entertaining show.”