BBC Three challenges 'bunk-up' couples to test drive new homes

BBC Three has commissioned Mentorn Media to make a factual entertainment series, Hotel Of Mum And Dad, about the growing trend of young couples having to move back in with their parents or in-laws.

One in 10 young people have moved back home with their partner – that’s a staggering 300,000 couples. But with sky-high house prices, fewer jobs, rent through the roof, crippling debts and extortionate child-care costs, it’s a growing trend for multiple generations to live under one roof. The 6x60-minute series gets a first-hand look at the various compromising situations faced by the couples who have had to ‘bunk up’ with the parents or in-laws. Each episode then challenges couples to test drive a place of their own that fits their budget. The series contrasts the potential nightmare of the family dynamics between two generations when shacked up under one roof with the effect on everyone involved when the couple move out.

Will the young lovebirds cope in the real world? Do mum and dad miss them? Or do they all get on better when there’s some distance?

Whether they live with parents to bring down child-care costs or because they like their mother’s home cooking too much to leave, the series will explore a range of family dynamics and relationships through this very 21st-century phenomenon.

Mentorn Media’s Director of Programmes, Hannah Wyatt, says: “We’re delighted to be making this programme and working with the team at BBC Three. This is designed to be a funny and heart-warming series, exploring a very 21st-century phenomenon in a humorous and insightful way.”

Zai Bennett, Controller of BBC Three, says: “In Hotel Of Mum And Dad we’re going to see what life is really like living as a couple under the same roof as your mum and dad and if we can’t coax you to take those first steps to independence with your own home.”