A new marriage proposal-themed TV show from York production company is on its way to becoming a sweet success.
The premise for E4’s newest proposal-based TV show is simple. Will You Marry Me? follows hopeful Brits who really want to pop the question to the person they love – in a creative or special way.
And it has just received the ultimate accolade – by being featured on Gogglebox!
It airs on Wednesdays at 10pm on E4 with all episodes available to watch now.
The new show is the brainchild of York TV production company Button Down, who are based at St William’s College behind the Minster.
YorkMix spoke to Louis Bamber and Kezia Sheard at Button Down to find out more.
Button Down was formed a decade ago by Louis Bamber and his business partner Pete Brandon, who are both from York.
They’re also both lifelong York City fans and met in the away terraces of the former ground Bootham Crescent, where their friendship first began before transforming into a business partnership.
Since then, Button Down have made half a dozen or more one-off documentaries for BBC, and their first series was Brickies for BBC Three, which followed young bricklayers learning the trade. Now their latest success is Will You Marry Me? for Channel 4 and E4.
It was an idea that was first sparked by assistant producer Kezia Sheard, after some late-night TikTok scrolling.
“Elaborate, over the top proposals are really popular on social media,” said Kezia. “The hashtag proposal on TikTok has 20 billion views.
“We thought if you can cry at a ten second video proposal, imagine a whole series where you actually know the love stories.”
“Our show is much more about the heartfelt backstories,” added Louis. “What we found is that the proposees – the people being asked the question – really deserve something nice and special to happen to them.”
One of the couples featured in the first episode is Laura proposing to her long term partner Jack. Jack has a terminal illness, and after a tough few years it had taken a while for “Laura, especially” to feel able and optimistic to be able to do something in a really big away to celebrate their relationship.
Button Down worked with London-based proposal planning company The Proposers for the show. “A decent percentage of the proposals came from their books, but we also cast the net a bit wider too.”
“We put adverts out on Facebook, X and Instagram and we got some really interesting people,” said Kezia. In episode two, Marcella proposes to her best friend – and they’re not even in a relationship!
“I think it’s true to say that everybody was already planning to propose,” said Louis. “I think for some it probably helped crystallise that idea when they saw the call out.”
The ones who are getting proposed to, of course don’t know that’s what’s really happening and the cover story element was “probably the most interesting and challenging part of the show.”
The range of cover stories created included testing an escape room, making a dog walking show, or extreme sport hobbies like sky diving. One episode even sees a baker who ends up baking her own engagement cake for what she thought was her partner’s colleagues engagement party!
“For most of our contributors – if not all – it’s the most important day of their life so far,” said Kezia. “So that piles on the pressure and to not give away the secret.
“But it also makes it so much more enjoyable because it’s a really lovely warm, show to be a part of and you’re helping set up memorable moments for these people.”
The show is seeing a lot of success so far, with the early statistics showing that its exceeded the slot average.
“More and more it’s the case that the streaming platform is the most important thing,” said Louis. “So we’ll be looking at the seven and then 28 day catch up numbers to really see how well we’ve performed.
“We seem too be in the ‘most popular’ category on the Channel 4 platform. So that bodes well – we’ve got our fingers crossed.”
Will You Marry Me? has received a “flood” of positive reactions, with many messages saying how refreshing it is to see something as joyful and unashamedly feel good.
“It’s fun watching it in a room with other people and just looking around for reactions, and everyone’s smiling because it’s so feel good,” said Kezia.
“We’re really proud of it,” added Louis.
The show is being distributed by BBC studios, with the hope that there will be different iterations of the show across the world.
“That’s a really big deal for a company like us.”
Button Down are hoping there will be a series two of Will You Marry Me? on the table. “We’ve learned a lot making this season and we know we can do it even better,” said James.
“However proud we are of this one, there’s always room for improvement.”
The show’s launch also featured on Loose Women and in a proposal-dedicated episode of ITV’s This Morning – “We’re keeping our fingers crossed for Gogglebox!”
So what’s next for Button Down?
“We work on something like 100 ideas to every one successful pitch,” said Louis. “That’s pretty typical for most companies.
“The big thing for us is recruiting locally and being able to grow our workforce locally.
“The more we can do to help retain graduates in York and not lose them to Leeds, Manchester or London – that underpins the mission.
“We want broadcasters to recognise that there’s something happening in York and to take interest when a company from here is pitching to them.”
Will You Marry Me? airs every Wednesday at 10pm on E4. All episodes are currently available on catch up on Channel 4 – so you don’t have to wait to make this your next binge-worthy obsession!
Find out more about Button Down at their website here.