yes Studios, the Israeli producer and distributor best-known for hit drama series such as Fauda, Your Honor and Shtisel, announced that it will be launching Lifeline, its second major factual title, at MIPCOM this year.

Available as either a four-hour or eight half-hour series and 1 x74 feature – plus a format – Lifeline is an extraordinary and moving new programme that takes us behind the scenes at a helpline centre receiving calls on all manner of subjects from family violence and heartbreak to loneliness and suicidal thoughts.

With exclusive first-time access to the ERAN Association (Emotional First Aid) in Israel, the intimate, single-camera series follows the actual volunteers – all highly trained professionals – who receive the calls, while actors (to preserve anonymity) improvise off notes from selected real cases to bring dramatic stories alive. With compelling – and sometimes shocking – storytelling, plus genuine jeopardy and high emotion, Lifeline shines a light on a wide range of problems and contemporary mental health issues, as well as the work of kind-hearted people who will do anything to help and guide troubled individuals.

Over the course of the series, which features two stories in each hour-long episode, we meet Aref, a Druze manager at ERAN, who receives a call from a fellow Druze who has been sent to murder his sister in the name of his family’s honour, and we listen in to Marcella as she talks to an overworked and exhausted medical intern, which raises emotions from her own tragic story. We also meet branch manager Lydia, who decides to celebrate a holiday evening with an elderly man who called when feeling lonely and Ziv, who must weigh up violating anonymity to save a father who called in with suicidal intentions.

Lifeline is produced by yes Docu and Endemol Shine Israel for yes TV and directed by Golan Rise and Sharon Yaish. The executive producers are Guy Lavie and Keren Gleicher. yes Studios represents the completed series’, feature, and format worldwide.

Sharon Levi, managing director at yes Studios comments: “Lifeline is a remarkable series, allowing viewers to sit right alongside volunteers for a privileged glimpse into the lives of these incredible people and the distressed callers they try to help. Relying solely on the voice on the line and the face and actions of the volunteer, these true stories successfully grip from the outset and keep you in suspense through their various twists and turns with surprise, shock, tears and relief all likely viewer outcomes from each of the narratives.

“Programming that explores mental health issues is of great interest at present so we are pleased not only to have a new take on a topical subject but to also bring series of different

lengths as well as a feature option to the market, allowing buyers to choose the version that will work best for their viewers.”

Sharon Levi continues: “As a factual format, Lifeline’s strength is that it covers both universal and culturally specific problems and can be readily replicated at any helpline office around the globe. This deeply personal world is rarely seen on screen in documentary, but by using actors to preserve anonymity, broadcasters everywhere can allow audiences to eavesdrop on the detail of conversations they would never otherwise hear and, perhaps, even help address some of their own problems at the same time.”