By Richard Jenkins

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Beloved comedian Timmy Mallett is spearheading a new heartfelt campaign to help encourage men across the country to open up and share more of their feelings. The former Wacaday host has teamed up with hundreds of blokes across the nation to build a collection of ‘buddy benches’ designed to trigger up to 200,000 additional chats between men. The project, dubbed “Mission: Shoulder to Shoulder “, stems from studies involving 2,000 adults which showed that half of all men find it easier to have discussions while doing something – instead of just sitting opposite each other. The new initiative will unfold in two phases. The first step will involve getting men to craft benches together in workshops. The second part will see them placed in parks, with hopes they’ll encourage people to strike up conversations in locations they might not have previously. The push follows a social study by alcohol education platform DRINKiQ and the UK Men’s Sheds Association (UKMSA), which monitored public benches nationwide to discover how frequently they were genuinely used for conversations. The examination of 21 benches in public areas across the UK, from Scotland to the South West of England, revealed they enable an average of 5.5 chats per day, totalling over 2,000 annually. To start the campaign, Timmy Mallett linked up with ‘Shedders’ at Black Park Shed in Buckinghamshire to assist in building their bench – one of 100 set to emerge countrywide. However, he proved more of an obstacle than assistance, as his comical creation ended up resembling a peculiar vehicle rather than a bench. The former Wacaday host said: “We need to get people talking. If you put two men in a room and ask them to have a deep and meaningful conversation, they might scarper. “But if you put them at a work bench, shoulder to shoulder, you often get work-bench buddies. “They might not fix much, or build much, but they’ll get chatting, and those conversations can brighten a day – or even change a life.” Studies reveal that four in ten men never start conversations or share their problems with anyone beyond their inner circle. This occurs because they believe others wouldn’t care, or feel too timid or uncomfortable to begin talking, frequently leaving them to handle their emotions in isolation. Elisabeth Rochford, DRINKiQ ambassador, said: “Older men consume more alcohol than any other cohort, with around four in 10 men between the ages of 55 and 74 drinking more than the Chief Medical Officer’s ‘low risk’ guideline of 14 units per week. “That level of consumption, which is characterised by more frequent consumption than other age groups, doesn’t always happen in a vacuum. “But rather because of a vacuum created by life-stage and age-related factors such as retirement, empty-nesting, separation or bereavement. “Men’s Sheds are a demonstration of how social community outlets can provide a different option for men in this age bracket.”