大象传媒

It is twenty-five years since the film When Harry Met Sally was released and posed the question; can men and women ever really be friends?聽 Or does sexual attraction always get in the way?聽 Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison are best friends who have put their relationship to the test by writing the young adult novel Lobsters together.聽 They join Jane and Tim along with broadcaster Geoff Lloyd to ask whether relationships between men and women are ever truly platonic.

Reporter Catherine Carr interviews revellers on a night out in Cambridge to discover what we really talk about when the opposite sex isn't around. 聽And what does this tell us about the differences between male and female friendship?

A recent study commissioned by Relate revealed that nine per cent of us don鈥檛 feel we have a close friend.聽 But is that necessarily a problem?聽 Given that people have families, romantic relationships, colleagues and acquaintances, what is the purpose of friendship? 聽Why is friendship something that we seek out and what governs who we befriend? And is there a difference between the way men and women view friendship? Jane and Tim are joined by Mark Vernon, author of The Meaning of Friendship, and by Anjula Mutanda, a relationship psychologist and Relate Ambassador.聽

Simon Speakman Cordall lost most of his sight following a drunken fight with his best friend.聽 He tells Jane and Tim how, despite years of agonising treatment, he cannot feel anger towards his friend.

When Vanessa Feltz's marriage ended in 2000, she thought the support of her life-long friends was a given. 聽Instead she found that she was suddenly on the outside of her social circle and was forced to accept that she not only had lost a husband but many of her friends as well. 聽She talks to Jane and Tim about rebuilding her social circle from scratch and her new best friend - who just happens to be a man.