Channel 4 Commissions OAPs Guide To Britain

Channel 4 has commissioned Rumpus Media to produce a three-part series, An OAPs Guide to Britain (w/t) with Barry Humphries.
Over the three, half-hour programmes, comedian and octogenarian Barry Humphries takes his audience through an irreverent guide to life as an OAP in today's world, via investigative trials from a group of game seniors.

Modern Britain can be a confusing place to be old. Things have changed so much and so quickly in the past few decades that it can be hard to keep up - technology, fashions, language and the invention of political correctness have contributed to making the here and now a mystifying zone for the elderly. The series considers how this generation can learn to fit into a world that prizes youth above all else?

Barry Humphries said: "Perhaps the English speaking world will consider me a bizarre choice to be your guide to modern Britain, considering my amazing aura of youth. However, I feel that our senior citizens deserve a nurturing and thoughtful companion in the later stages of this exciting journey called life. These programmes have been, to my pleasure and deep honour, placed in a time capsule so that older folk in the future, and even extra-terrestrials, may learn how we in 21st century Britain learnt to adapt to the strange and many ridiculous customs imposed upon us by the young."

Commissioned by Alisa Pomeroy, Channel 4's Commissioning Editor, Documentaries the series is due to transmit later in the Spring. She said: "This entertaining series offers up an insight into some of the dilemmas and confusions the older generation face when trying to live in a world that over a generation has changed so dramatically."

A group of inquisitive oldies investigate a series of modern-day scenarios. 94-year-old Bobby tries his best to learn how not to offend anyone by testing out phrases of yesteryear relating to some fairly sensitive issues whilst senior citizens best friends Daphne, Trish and Margot go on a quest to discover if recreational drugs can be fun for those who usually relax with a spot of gardening.

With a curious attitude and a willingness to get to grips with the modern world, Barry and his cohorts learn what the younger generation really think of them via a focus group reviewing bogus technology, how to impress people by using some more inventive swearwords and that it really can be fun to blast your best friends to smithereens while playing a video game.

Iain Wimbush, Managing Director, Rumpus Media said: "It was fantastic for us to make this series. We really loved having Barry Humphries on board to lend his gleefully funny and uplifting perspective to life as an OAP in Britain."

Rumpus Media was set up in 2013 and this commission follows their three-part series An Immigrants Guide to Britain for Channel 4 with Henning When. Their six-part series for BBC Three, the Bafta-nominated Asian Provocateur with Romesh Ranganathan transmitted last year with a repeat on BBC One.

channel4.com