Strangers form Amish community in new docuseries to encourage us to ‘rethink our modern British way of life’

The show will see 24 Brits discover the Amish way of life (Picture: Channel 4)

Channel 4 has announced new series ‘The Simple Life’ which will follow 24 strangers as they come together to live an Amish way of life and shun their current situations.

The contestants will live on a 40-acre farm and wave goodbye to all technology as well as mains electricity and gas.

During the process, they’ll get to grips with looking after livestock as well as learning to harvest over three acres of hay.

Everything will also have to be done be without mechanisation – in traditional Amish fashion.

The programme seeks to find out whether Brits can find happiness with a more humble existence.

There will also be an Amish fan on hand to offer up advice and tips about their lifestyle.

The community will also need to travel into the local town via horse and cart for supplies and to trade or sell results of the cottage industries they have started. The Amish family will offer the community advice on the day-to-day lifestyle as well

The six part show will soon come to the broadcaster (Picture: Channel 4)

Gilly Greenslade, Commissioning Editor for Factual Entertainment at Channel 4 said: ‘I think many of us have been questioning whether we’ve got our priorities right, not just in light of the pandemic, but also the climate crisis, our worsening mental health crisis and our increasing reliance on technology for everything from our social lives to the weekly food shop.

The channel hopes the unconventional series will help the audience to reconsider the modern British way of life.

‘By shining a light on the substantially stripped back lives of the Amish community, we hope the series will offer the volunteers the chance to be part of something truly special and re-evaluate what matters in life,’ added Gilly.

the unconventional series will help the audience to reconsider the modern British way of life

Stephen Day, Executive Producer added: ‘This is an extraordinary chance to cast aside technology, social media, credit cards, fashion, news – almost everything that defies modern life – and to see what that does to us and how that makes us feel.’

Martin Oxley, Executive Producer from Motion Content Groups adds: ‘An opportunity to examine the pros and cons of modern life in genuine depth rarely comes around.

‘So, we couldn’t be more excited to do exactly that with Channel 4 and the team at Five Mile Films.’

The process was filmed over a six month period, with the contestants assisted by an Amish family from Ohio.

A team of British scientists will monitor and evaluate changes to the wellbeing of the newfound community across the time period.

The project will also be overseen by psychologist Barry Schwartz, author of bestselling book, The Paradox of Choice.

But will the community see an improvement in the physical and mental wellbeing as a result?

The Simple Life will air on Channel 4.

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