Young at heart...

OLD PEOPLE’S HOME FOR 4-YEAR-OLDS

C4, 9pm IN AN ambitious experiment, 10 four-year-olds leave behind their nursery classroom to join 10 pensioners in a retirement village near Bristol.

Run by geriatric specialists and based on similar successful schemes in the United States, the two groups will work, play and socialise together for six weeks.

The idea is that the inter-generational contact will help to improve the memory, mood and mobility of the older people. Something that’s clearly very needed, as the health experts carry out a comprehensive study of all the older participants at the start of the programme and discover that most of them have signs of depression, are severely inactive and feel lonely and hopeless.

Throwing in a gang of rowdy pre-schoolers might not seem to be the obvious solution – and there’s certainly a fair few doubters at the start.

But there are also things these two groups inherently have in common – perhaps needing help with mobility and everyday tasks, spending most of their time in a small, restricted world, sometimes unaware of social conventions and expected behaviour … and testing people’s patience.

It’s these similarities that could actually make pre-schoolers and pensioners ideal companions.

As for the effect on the older people, it stands to reason that being surrounded by infectious energy, curiosity, joy and non-judgmental friendship could be transformative.

Take curmudgeonly Hamish – an 84-year-old with a prosthetic leg who questions the point of the experiment.

The transformation of this sceptical chap, who could barely get out of a chair and was happiest alone reading his paper, is remarkable.

Within no time, he’s helping his new young friends to crayon or play with baby ducklings – and even crawling on the floor roaring as he makes them scream with laughter while playing Sleeping Lions.

It’s remarkable, important and heart-warming stuff.