North Devon families and children invited to apply for new BBC series on friendship

The BBC is looking for families in North Devon to take part in a new series about children who are finding it hard to make friends.

Will You Be My Friend? is a six part BBC One series where experts work with children aged five to eight-years-old to help them find new friends.

Production company Five Mile Films got in touch with the Gazette and said they were casting for the show in North Devon and asked us to help spread the word to invite families to apply.

There are many reasons why children might struggle to make friends - some are shy, some feel like they don’t fit in, others simply haven’t found ‘their tribe’ yet. They want to make a friend - but don’t know where to start.

Above: Experts on the show will work with children and then carefully match them with another in their area for a play date, before returning six weeks later to see how things have gone. Credit: Five Mile Films/BBC

In North Devon and Torridge there are more barriers due to communities being rural and isolated, with no bus services after 6pm in most cases, making connections with others more difficult.

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The show’s format includes The Friendship Centre, where a team of psychologists help children build the confidence and social skills to form real, lasting connections with other kids. Each child is then sensitively matched on a play date with a potential new friend from their local area.  

Six weeks later, the cameras return to see how their new-found courage has helped at school, in the playground and beyond.

Emma Loach, BBC interim head of commissioning, documentaries said: “The longing to connect, to be seen and to belong is universal. Whether you're five or 55, I defy anyone to watch these children without seeing a little bit of themselves reflected.

“In a world that can feel increasingly disconnected, this series shows that the simplest gestures - a smile, a shared joke, a tentative ‘will you be my friend?’ - still have the power to change everything.

“Five Mile Films has brought us something very special, and we couldn't be prouder to give it a home on the BBC.”

Nick Mirsky, CEO of Five Mile Films added: “I don’t think there’s a commission I could be more thrilled to bring to Five Mile. Will You Be My Friend? will be joyful, warm and funny, but it also does something genuinely new – inviting us to look closely at the challenge and art of making friends.”

Filming will take place between July and August this year, involving children aged between five and eight years from July 20 to August 23. To find out more or to register to take part in the show, go to https://bemyfriend.tv

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