The first thing to note about Four Go Flatting is that it’s funny. It’s funny because its subjects – four intellectually disabled men in their 20s, out flatting for the first time – are funny. Families who live with disability will recognise the humour. “Oh, you know, I did have a title called Head of Comedy,” deadpans Rachel Jean, the former TV3 and South Pacific Pictures executive who produced the show for Attitude Pictures.
There is, of course, a serious reality here. Leaving the family home to share a house with other young people is a rite of passage in New Zealand but it can be an elusive step for young people with disabilities – and their parents.
“It’s a fundamental problem for people living with young people who need to become independent from home,” says Jean. “And every parent of every intellectually disabled kid has the great fear: what’s going to happen when I’m no longer around? They’ve got to live somewhere, and they’ve got to have some sort of independence.”
Jean says there was a strong response to a casting call for the show, and a range of abilities among the young men who stepped forward. Some could cook, some couldn’t, some were more used to tasks like supermarket shopping than others, some knew how to clean the toilet …
“Well, actually, none of them knew how to clean the toilet,” says Jean. “But it was also about character. They’re very different humans, right? But the one thing I was looking for in commonality was that I needed them to get on and I needed them to have fun, because it wouldn’t work unless they were actually enjoying themselves.”
She ended up with Henry, 21, who was living with his parents in Ngatea, fancies himself as a rapper (“31k followers on TikTok,” he observes in his introduction) and lives with Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder usually associated with intellectual disability, but also with an outgoing, social nature. Then there’s Mitch, 27, who was deprived of oxygen at birth and has “a little bit of brain damage”. He doesn’t read or write but has a valued job as a school caretaker, a passion for soap products and a goofy sense of humour. Jesse, who has Down syndrome, dances, paints his nails and is, by his own assessment, “super-confident”. Conor, 22, is autistic and ADHD and the most anxious of the four about making the move.
Conor really needs organisation and systems but doesn’t have the social skills to get the others on board with his plans. Mitch has to navigate a new bus route to get to his job and it’s stressful. While there’s no crisis in the first episode, there’s probably one coming.
“There are definitely crises, times where they try something and it goes horribly wrong. And we keep filming it. That was all part of the learning. What they learned to do was actually turn to each other as flatmates have to do. And that was pretty massive.”
The four flatters are also vulnerable, and their safety was a “massive” priority, says Jean. She got up herself to accompany Mitch on his pre-dawn bus ride. The house in the show – donated for six weeks by Barfoot & Thompson – came with a self-contained flat for a support worker.
“And obviously they had an entire film crew, but the rule for the emergency support person and for our crew was to not give them the solution, but to answer with questions that might help them find the solution. And they did.”
Like any reality show, it’s not quite the real world. When filming wrapped, the house went back to the market and the lads went back to their lives. Two of them now live independently of their parents, presumably the wiser for their TV experience. But viewers will also be the wiser for following them on their adventure.
Four Go Flatting, TVNZ 1, Mondays from September 9, 7.30pm.
