COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, November 4, 2019. DR, Denmark’s leading public service broadcaster, has commissioned Snowman Productions, a Red Arrow Studios company, to produce a local version of hit format “Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds”. 

Snowman, who created the internationally successful format “Married at First Sight”, have completed production on the show, which will see seven senior residents of a Danish care home brought together with eight four-year-olds for six weeks. 

The four-episode series is set to premiere on DR1 on November 6, 2019. 

The original production of “Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds” is created and produced by CPL Productions for Channel 4 in the UK, and has won numerous awards including a Broadcast Award, a Grierson Award, two Realscreen Awards, two Edinburgh TV Awards, two International Format Awards, and two BAFTA Award nominations. 

Red Arrow Studios International distribute the format of “Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds” worldwide, with local versions commissioned in over 13 territories including Spain (Movistar+), the Netherlands (Max), Israel (KAN), Australia (ABC) and Germany (Vox). New territories recently announced include France (Canal+),  Sweden (TV4) and Portugal (RTP). 

Michael von Würden, Managing Director of Snowman, said: “We are delighted to be producing ’Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds’ for DR. They have become trusted partners through our work together on ‘Married at First Sight’, and with this commission are once again proving their commitment to bringing innovative, life-changing and important social experiment formats to Danish audiences.” 

In October, Snowman announced the launch of major new development label Snowman Global, to harness the creativity and expertise of their Danish format production operation into an international development and production label. Snowman Global will work with broadcasters and production companies worldwide, including Red Arrow Studios companies, to develop major new formats; and assist Red Arrow Studios International in retaining rights to global format IP. Snowman are currently looking for production partners in selected territories. 

More about “Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds” 

“Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds” is a revolutionary new social experiment that attempts to dramatically improve the health and wellbeing of retirement communities by bringing together ten older residents with a group of ten four-year-old pre-school children for six weeks. 

Social isolation is one of the biggest problems facing older people living in care homes. This loneliness, combined with boredom and inactivity, has a severely negative impact on their health, wellbeing and life expectancy. 

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 older volunteers undergo a series of baseline tests at the start of the experiment, and their activities are tracked and tested throughout. 

The results at the end of the experiment are extraordinary, with significant changes in the physical, social and emotional wellbeing of the older volunteers. 

– Press release ends – 

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Photo of Danish production of Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds (Rollinger på plejehjem) – Photo credit: DR / Malthe Miehe-Renard 

ABOUT SNOWMAN PRODUCTIONS: 

Snowman are market leaders in the development and production of entertainment formats for the Scandinavian market and worldwide, with hit social experiment format Married at First Sight now sold to over 29 countries worldwide. Snowman is run by respected industry executive Michael von Würden, with top production and creative executives including Rasmus Steentoft and Lars Fønss. Since their start up in 2011,  Snowman has successfully launched TV formats on multiple local channels, including Married at First Sight (DR3 / DR1 Denmark), Buying Blind and Kiss Bang Love (TV3 Denmark), A League of Their Own and Culture Shock (Kanal 5 Denmark), Superhuman (TV3 Norway), Denmark’s Next Top Model (Kanal 4 Denmark), My Man Can (TVNorge Norway & Kanal 5 Denmark), and new show Menneskekender (international title: How Dare You) to TV2 Zulu. In addition to a strong and growing slate of local productions and original formats, Snowman is also active in co-productions, to leverage creative output across Red Arrow Studios.