BBC Three adds more Factual to the schedules

BBC Three has today unveiled a new season of factual documentaries for 2012.

The channel says that further commissions follow the success of the channel’s award-winning series Our War and Small Teen Big World. The former is returning to the channel. This time the programme makers are taking viewers closer than ever to the defining moments of the Afghanistan war.

New series We Call It Home and New Kids on the Block capture life for Britain’s young, visiting Britain’s estates and following first-time parents.

Zai Bennett, Controller, BBC Three says: “BBC Three is the only digital channel commissioning award-winning factual for young adults. We are delighted to be adding two new and innovative documentary series to the channel.

“We Call It Home will capture what life is really like on one of Britain’s toughest estates – not only the highs and lows, but importantly the honesty and humour of some of our audience in their own words. New Kids on The Block (w/t) will give our audience an insight to the first fraught months of bringing a new baby in to the world, with young parents learning how to cope from each other and their families and friends as they live together in the apartment block.”

We Call It Home is to look at the story of Britain’s estates in six hour long programmes. The show will meet everyday people who capture the truth of life on Britain’s estates. Set entirely on a housing estate in North Manchester, the documentary tells the stories of young people growing up at the sharp end of life in Britain in 2012 – in their own words.

Life changing stories of teenage pregnancies, looming jail sentences, drug addicted parents and dreams of escaping to become a world famous rap star are mixed with fleeting snapshots of every day young life that are shocking, hilarious, outrageous and profound.

This series is immersed in the world of the estate. From the launderette beleaguered by local burglars to the beauticians where a ‘wow brow’ is the current fashion statement of the summer; from the impromptu riding stables on a patch of wasteland to the disused council property that has been turned into an illegal party house, the everyday activities of the estate provide a rich backdrop to the extraordinary highs and lows of young life in this vibrant and often contradictory world.

New Kids on the Block will air across four programmes following four new sets of parents as they face the most pressurised experience of their lives: the challenge of becoming first-time parents. The couples will head straight from the hospital to an apartment block, where they will spend the first months of their parental lives living alongside one another.

The couples will face the highs and lows of becoming new parents, dealing with breastfeeding, nappy changing and a serious lack of sleep in the same — all in the same building. BBC Three will follow as each couple across the hour-long editions as they face their own unique challenges and experiences of first-time parenting.