Love Thy Neighbour

As the saying goes, everybody needs good neighbours. But if you had the chance to choose your neighbours, who would you choose to live next door and why?

In Love Thy Neighbour one idyllic rural village plays host to 12 families craving a rural life. Each will be competing for the chance to win a £300,000 cottage in an English country village. Whist the families get the chance to experience the lifestyle of their dreams it is up to the community to decide who wins and will live amongst them in the cottage. It's one of the biggest guaranteed prizes in television history. For the families competing for this life-changing opportunity it won't be easy...

Welcome to Grassington, one of the most beautiful villages in the Yorkshire Dales. A place described by locals as "one of those old fashioned villages where you can leave your back door open and everybody knows your name." It's a tight-knit community where everyone knows everyone... and their business. 

Villagers claim that you have to have three generations in the graveyard before you are considered a local, and like many rural farming communities it is largely white, middle class and conservative. But this is also a village in need of new blood. With local schools facing closure due to a lack of children growing up in the area, and an ever aging population, for Grassington to remain a vibrant village it needs to attract new folk to it's quintessentially country ways.

In each of the first six episodes two different families move to Grassington, and have only five days to throw themselves into village life. They must do all they can to impress the residents and persuade them that their family would be an asset to the community.

At the end of each week the villagers vote for the family they would like to invite back for the semi final, and a chance to win this beautiful cottage. It's a common dream to start a new life in the country, but what will the locals make of these very modern British families?

This is more than just a bid to win a mortgage-free life in the country: it's a bid for acceptance. Over the course of eight weeks we will follow the newcomers as they attempt to ingratiate themselves to this close-knit community. The series will capture the dilemma of the residents of the village as they wrestle with their values and judgements and ultimately decide who they want to stay... and who they want to go.