Australian Production House makes One Euro Dream come true with Sicily-set docuseries

One Euro Dream centres of four Australian tradesmen and builders

Melbourne-based prodco Australian Production House (APH) is developing a home renovation format called One Euro Dream.

Filmed in Sicily, the docuseries is described as a “light-hearted mash-up of Grand Designs meets Clarkson’s Farm.”

It follows four Aussie tradesmen and builders as they pursue their home ownership dreams in a foreign land, buying a rural property in Salemi for just €1 (US$1.16) and trying to complete the refit for €50,000.

To generate a following for the series prior to its release, snippets of the renovation project are being showcased on Instagram, via an account that has garnered 770,000 followers so far.

APH said it decided to do this to make up for the fact the show doesn’t have any celebrity attachment, unlike shows such as Clarkson’s Farm.

“With commissions getting harder and harder – requiring two territory deals, a celebrity attachment and docos on the rise with reality on the decline – APH decided a different approach had to be taken,” the company said.

APH executive producer Louise Schultze added: “Over a year ago, when the boys pitched the idea of a heavily curated reality series with competition, sit-down interviews and fake deadlines, we knew there wasn’t a show without celebrity attachment for that format. But after chemistry testing, adding a mate to the group that gave them TV quality, focus group feedback and analytics surveying, we knew we had a different kind of show.

“With the success of [shows like] Clarkson’s Farm and [Welcome to] Wrexham that focus on communities and characters, we found the data showed audiences love the authentic nature of storytelling. They want to be introduced to characters in soundbites (social media) to entice them into a larger longform story (series).

“But it was still a huge risk for commissioners, as what those other two shows have is A-list talent attached with existing audiences. From here, our job was to film them with an expert team and, after we started filming, let them post snippets of their journey on social media to build authentic audience engagement, without too much production interference.”

The filming team consists of showrunner and director Duane Hatherly (Grand Designs, Next Top Model) and director of production Richard ‘Dicky’ Malone (Nat Geo, 60 Minutes).

No commissioning broadcaster or platform has been announced at this stage.