Graham Norton clearly doesn’t do things by halves and he spent a full month living around the corner from contestants on The Neighbourhood, ITV‘s constructed reality series that launches Saturday night.
Richard Cowles and John Hay, who run The Neighbourhood co-producers Lifted Entertainment and The Garden respectively and whose credits include Love Island and Squid Game: The Challenge, revealed that host Norton relocated himself for several weeks. His relocation meant he could be as near as possible to “Keep Your Enemies Close,” the name of the constructed cul-de-sac in which contestants compete in The Neighbourhood.
The Neighbourhood is ITV’s latest attempt to go big in Saturday primetime. The show sees varied and diverse households live in different houses along the street and compete in challenges, while at the same time trying to socialize and make friends to stay in the game. The challenges put every neighbor to the limit, as they try and eliminate one another without becoming unpopular enough to get the axe themselves. The winning household will go home with a £250,000 ($338,000) cash prize.
Cowles said Norton, a friend of Taylor Swift (she previously called him “insanely charismatic and lovable”) at the peak of his powers who hosts the UK’s most popular late night show and whose book is being adapted by Paramount and FilmNation, was initially skeptical. “He has been quite open about the fact he wasn’t 100% sure at first but the quality of pitch made him change his mind,” said Cowles. “He felt like it was a truly original idea.”
For Hay, Norton’s total commitment to the show, which saw him live around the corner from contestants for a month, was matched by his understanding of the tone, mixing warmth with high drama. “It’s a delicate matter but he solved it in a stroke by being mischievous and witty but never mean,” added Hay. “By being there and by being the presence at its heart he set the tone for us perfectly. We feel lucky to have got him inbetween Taylor Swift video shoots.”
Hay was of course alluding to Norton’s appearance in Swift’s viral vid for her song “Opalite” alongside the likes of Domhnall Gleeson, Greta Lee and Cillian Murphy, which harked back to Swift’s time on The Graham Norton Show. Hay also points out that Norton’s book Forever Home, which is being adapted by Anora studio FilmNation and Mediapro for Paramount UK network 5, is “all about dynamics within a family,” playing into his admiration for The Neighbourhood.
Norton isn’t doing much press for The Neighbourhood but in progamme notes for the show he said he loved how it “leans into our curiosity about what’s behind closed doors.”
Board game pitch
With The Neighbourhood, Cowles, Hay and the creative team want to prove that original, noisy Saturday night entertainment is very much alive and kicking.
The idea came from a Lifted Entertainment development meeting in which the question of “an environment we haven’t seen” on reality TV before was posed.
“We thought that the most relatable environment is basically your street and that led us to conversations about neighbors that annoy us,” added Cowles. “We thought we would be in rich territory here if we could talk about this for a whole hour.”
Cowles wanted to utilize The Garden’s fixed-rig expertise, which is part of the reason Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge has been such a hit. In order to “capture the imagination,” he pitched the show to Hay’s team via a board game with an imaginary street on which was situated ITV commissioners including content chief Kevin Lygo and entertainment boss Katie Rawcliffe. “It immediately made us smile,” said Hay.
With just six months from greenlight meeting to TX, the race was on to complete the street. Unsurprisingly, the setting proved a challenge. The team travelled up and down the UK, eventually settling on a street in the Peak District, in the north of England, which Cowles said “informed the tone.” “It was like if Hollywood tried to do the perfect British village,” he added.
The team always wanted to cast in a diverse manner and set about assembling groups of students, families and friends from across the country. They do battle in challenges featuring bins, giant washing lines and plenty of knowhow about their fellow house-dwellers, but at the same time have to stay in each other’s good books in order to avoid being voted the most unpopular by other houses.
“The two are in conflict with each other so what was fascinating was to see the ways people play it,” added Hay. “Some went out to win and some went out to play the social game. Both didn’t work in various interesting ways.”
Cowles and Hay are quietly confident that The Neighbourhood will find success. They also have high hopes for ITV Studios‘ ability to sell it abroad.
“The local flavor is hopefully the secret of its success and adaptability,” added Hay. “Every country has the concept of neighbors, so there is relatability, but ours is an idealized version of a British neigbourhood. Each country could adapt that to their own.”