Old People's Home for 4 Year Olds returns to the largest retirement community in the UK

Have a box of tissues at the ready as BAFTA-nominated Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds – a heart-warming documentary series about intergenerational care - will be returning to our television screens once again.

The five-part series will create a nursery within an elderly retirement community, and this time, the action will move to Lark Hill Village in Nottingham, the largest retirement village in the UK and home to more than 420 residents ranging in age from 60-102.

Over a ten-week period a team of experts hope to create a longer-term template for others to follow in a bid to transform the care of older people across the UK.

Mick Laverty, chief executive at the ExtraCare Charitable Trust, said: “We are delighted to welcome Channel 4 to Lark Hill Village and to have been chosen to take part in this heart-warming series. Our residents are inspirational, leading active lives as part of a wider community that comprises visiting volunteers, families, community organisations and schools.

“ExtraCare is committed to supporting intergenerational opportunities and believes there are mutual benefits for both the children and adults involved.”

In 2017, an experiment inspired by a revolutionary American scheme brought together the very young and the very old in an attempt to prove scientifically that these two generations can transform the physical, social and emotional wellbeing of the older residents for the better.

In moving scenes, viewers watched a widower, who formerly sat in his chair, become 'very much alive' and self-confessed sceptic Hamish Hall announce that he would remember the children until his 'dying day'.

This time around, ten older adults and ten four-year-olds will share daily activities designed by the experts who will measure and analyse the older groups’ physical and mental progress throughout. As well as analysing frailty, memory and mood, there will also be a series of new tests.

Compelling and heart-warming stories

Residents taking part in the latest experiment include a 97-year-old karaoke loving Dunkirk veteran, a glamorous tap-dancing lady from Essex, a 91-year-old Samaritan who’s spent her life helping others, receiving an MBE for her efforts, and a ‘cheeky’ former Kodak film spooler.

The team of experts include: gerontologist Professor Malcolm Johnson, consultant geriatrician Dr Zoe Wyrko and physiotherapist Dr Melrose Stewart. They will be joined by biogerontologist Dr James Brown and early years specialist Alistair Bryce-Clegg.

Channel 4’s acting head of factual entertainment, Lucy Leveugle is “absolutely delighted” to be supersizing Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds by taking it to the UK’s largest retirement community for a longer period of time.

She said: “The continuing legacy of this series is testament to the universality of the issue of social isolation and loneliness. Both the older residents and the children’s stories are compelling and heart-warming, and we are so grateful to them for sharing them with us.”

Creative Director for CPL Productions, Murray Boland added: “We are so proud to be making a second series of Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds. It is the most important programme that any of us have ever made.”

Lark Hill Village is operated by The ExtraCare Charitable Trust, a registered charity since 1988.

The charity has pledged to roll out a wider programme of intergenerational activity across its villages and is encouraging people to take a moment to spend time with others outside of their age-group.

You can watch the first episode on Channel 4 at 9pm on Monday 8 October.

click here for more details or to contact Lark Hill Village