Channel 4 to follow the love lives of Undateables

21 July 2011

The Channel 4 Factual Entertainment department has commissioned Betty to make a series about people looking for love - but with a difference.

The Undateables (working title) will follow a range of people whose ability to form relationships is affected by an impairment or challenging condition - such as being deaf or having Tourette's, Asperger's or Narcolepsy. The programme will chart their quest to find love in an image-obsessed world where people are too quick to make snap judgements or assumptions based on first impressions, and even consider such people to be ‘undateable'.

The series will feature a personal introductions agency whose unique method of pro-actively searching for perfect matches will give everyone the best chance of finding a suitable partner.  The agency will be fully inclusive and have both disabled and non-disabled people on their books, who for their very own reasons have found it difficult to find love and decided it's time to do something about it. 

The agency will also consult a number of experts in the field, to ensure all aspects of the search for love are handled in an insightful and sensitive manner.

The Undateables will be an uplifting and moving series and explore how society's attitude towards anyone who digresses from what is considered to be the norm can have a profound impact on those people's lives.

The 4 x 60 series has been commissioned by Liam Humphreys and will be executive produced by Vicky Hamburger and series produced by Lucy Leveugle. It will air next year.

Channel 4 Deputy Head of Factual Entertainment, Liam Humphreys, said: "The Undateables will be an entertaining and life-affirming series which hopes to prove there is someone out there for everyone. We want to challenge people's perceptions about what is considered to be "normal", but ultimately this isn't going to be a programme about disability. It's about a universal desire - to find love."

Channel 4's Disability Director, Alison Walsh, said: "Channel 4 pioneered the normalisation of disability through natural inclusion of disabled people across reality and factual entertainment shows. Betty played a major role in this with programmes such as Truly Madly Deeply, Find Me a Family and Beauty and the Beast. So I know they'll bring their honesty, wit, warmth and a light touch to this portrayal of people who face more than the usual difficulties in pursuing that very normal part of everyone's life - the search for love."

Betty Chief Executive, Liz Warner, said: "Betty has a proud track record of working with a diverse range of contributors on often highly sensitive subject matters. This series will be full of warmth and humour and will follow the stories of people who will hopefully discover that, in the end, love conquers all. It is Vicky's first commission since joining Betty two months ago, and we're delighted to have her on board."