Channel 4 launches its most audacious survival show yet – by handcuffing strangers to each other
Jonathan Ross returns to Channel 4 to run this daring and ultimately heart-warming social experiment
A famous phrase says “hell is other people” – can eight pairs of strangers survive being handcuffed to one another for weeks? Will they learn to love one another?
Channel 4 has commissioned Handcuffed from 72 Films, a Fremantle Company – a bold new series which takes eight pairs of strangers with completely opposed opinions, beliefs, lifestyles, and bad habits, and handcuffs them together 24/7 in the ultimate test of survival.
The couples will be handcuffed together through thick and thin, as they navigate eating, dressing and even sleeping just inches apart. Shackled around the clock, the pairs will be sent on a road trip across our beautiful nation, in the hope they find common ground along the way. If a pair can last longest chained together, they’ll be in the running for a £100,000 jackpot – but if it proves too much and they demand to be unchained, their shot at the jackpot is gone. Drawn from across the UK, the couples will represent the wide range of views and opinions found in modern Britain.
Will the chance to win a huge cash prize drive them to stay together whatever, or will their massive differences lead them to quit?
This timely experiment will be overseen by mastermind Jonathan Ross, who’ll pair up the couples and guide them on their path to reconciliation. The series marks the host’s return to Channel 4, having started his career presenting The Last Resort on the Channel in 1987.
If you think you could survive being handcuffed to a stranger, in return for a possible share of the £100,000 prize fund, applications are open now - please visit http://72films.com/theexperiment
Jonathan Ross said: “I believe this experiment will go a small way to healing a fractured Britain; after all, to know is to love. I’m rooting for our couples to go the distance and not let our differences overpower us.”
Tim Hancock, Commissioning Editor, says: “Funny, intense, and featuring a cast reflecting a truly diverse range of British characters, this is the kind of social experiment you’d only see on Channel 4. The series aims capture modern Britain by examining its divisions and hopefully helping mend some of them too.”
David Glover, Executive Producer, says: “The show is designed to both to be funny and to have a surprising amount of heart. The winners will have to be able to put their differences aside and get along.”
Handcuffed is a 6x60’, commissioned by Tim Hancock for Channel 4. The Executive Producers for 72 Films are David Glover, Tim Whitwell and Tom Clarke, series editor Ben Allen and Production Exec Alex Nicholson.
