‘Bake Off’ Producer Love Productions Preps U.S.-UK School Swap Docuseries For Channel 4

Jake Kanter
·1 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: Channel 4 has organized a U.S.-UK student exchange program for its latest project from The Great British Bake Off producer Love Productions.

Working titled School Swap, Love followed seven British students from London’s Elmgreen School as they spent time at Mena High School in Arkansas. Six Mena students traveled in the opposite direction.

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The docuseries was filmed late last year and is now in the edit. Channel 4 is planning to broadcast the show at some point in 2024.

Richard McKerrow, Love’s CEO and the executive producer of School Swap, said the idea for the series came from his teenage daughter, who loves Friends and is fascinated by “Americana.”

He told Deadline that the Elmgreen School pupils “sample the reality” of a rural American high school, in what is designed to be a “fun cultural romp.” “It’s an entertaining and soulful culture clash,” McKerrow added.

Channel 4 will be hoping that School Swap proves to be a hit with audiences in the same way as other Love shows, including Bake Off and The Piano.

The British broadcaster has experimented with a student exchange-style format in the past in the shape of Top Hat Productions’ The Great British School Swap.

The 2019 series saw pupils from the predominantly white area of Tamworth become the racial minority in a school in Saltley, Birmingham.

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