Friendship Season

"I was incredibly moved by the content I heard across the network, and the audience response really seems to echo that"
Helen Thomas, Head of Content Commissioning, BBC Radio 2

Summary

A 4 day campaign on BBC Radio 2, kicked off on International Friendship Day 2020, exploring why mates matter and how to make more.

Deliverables

- Theme curation and content support over a 4 day campaign

Outline

Friends: they celebrate our birthdays, pop a cork over our new jobs, listen to our jokes and soothe our sorrows, even become bridesmaids and best men at our weddings. But according to a 2019 YouGov survey, more than one in ten of us have no close friends and a further one in ten have no friends at all.

Romance gets all the attention, with songs about friendship on our playlists mere drops in an ocean of love songs. And while Valentine’s Day is an international card and flower fest, hardly anyone has heard of International Friendship Day. And yet when the romance ends, the family breaks up or the business fails, it’s to our friends that we turn. On International Friendship Day 2020, Radio 2 launches a four-day Friendship season celebrating our BFFs and buddies, exploring why friendship can be so difficult and giving practical tips as to how, post lockdown, we can build closer relationships across our communities, helping to bring the country closer together.

Participating shows included:

• OJ Borg
• Early breakfast w Nicki Chapman (for Vanessa Feltz)
• The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show
• Jeremy Vine
• Steve Wright
• Sara Cox
• Jo Whiley
• Alan and Mel
• Good Morning Sunday
• Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs
• Sue Perkins (for Michael Ball)
• Craig Charles' House Party