West Midlands rocker Ozzy Osbourne and wife Sharon are returning to the UK and launching a new reality show documenting the move. Following the explosion of The Osbournes, the original outrageous family show that reacquainted the clan into the pop culture collective consciousness 20 years ago, the new show sounds intriguing.
Home to Roost
The series is titled Home to Roost, and will catch up with the Osbourne family as they head to the English countryside in Buckinghamshire, and will be broadcast on BBC One and iPlayer – which hints at perhaps being more subdued in tone than the MTV original reality show. Now after all this time, as the teenagers have become middle-aged, and the parents are now grandparents, perhaps the family has mellowed with age, as a BBC statement teasess:
“The series will follow the Osbournes as they celebrate one of their most important years yet — with everything from Sharon’s 70th birthday to Kelly’s soon-to-be-born baby, Ozzy’s tour, and of course the big move itself.”
Clare Sillery, Head of Commissioning, Documentaries, at the BBC, also expressed her joy, saying:
“I’m delighted that the Osbournes will be sharing this next chapter in their lives with BBC viewers in what promises to be a funny, moving and honest insight into their new life in the UK.”
Expectation will produce the ten-part series of 30-minute episodes for BBC One and iPlayer, Home to Roost will document Ozzy and Sharon’s journey back to Britain, alongside Kelly and Jack’s efforts to support them, as they attempt to re-start their lives in rural Buckinghamshire.
This will be a genuine portrait, showing Sharon and Ozzy as they face up to illness and the challenges of getting older, but with the usual Osbourne eccentricities, humour, warmth and love.
The series is a collaboration between Expectation’s Factual and Entertainment teams. Ben Wicks and Colin Barr, Creative Directors, Expectation say:
“Rejoining the Osbournes as they return to the UK is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Twenty years ago, they shaped television for all of us – now they’re coming home at a different stage in their lives but with the promise of the same laughter, love and tears. We can’t wait to work with them and to share it with BBC One viewers in 2023.”
The Osbournes also revealed that a big factor in their decision to move was the gun violence epidemic in the USA, and how much the landscape has changed in their time there. Speaking to UK media The Observer, the couple explained with Sharon saying:
“America has changed so drastically. It isn’t the United States of America at all. Nothing’s united about it. It’s a very weird place to live right now.”
While Ozzy expressed:
“Everything’s f*ing ridiculous there. I’m fed up with people getting killed every day. God knows how many people have been shot in school shootings. And there was that mass shooting in Vegas at that concert… It’s f*g crazy. And I don’t want to die in America. I don’t want to be buried in f*g Forest Lawn. I’m English. I want to be back. But saying that, if my wife said we’ve got to go and live in Timbuktu, I’ll go. But, no, it’s just time for me to come home.”
We are sure The Osbournes will get a warm, British welcome home, and will metaphorically ‘pop the kettle on’, as we look forward to the 2023 BBC series.
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