Skinning rabbits and decorating houses were just two activities that twins Holly and Lizzy Robinson got up to when they spent two weeks without their parents.

But the 11-year-olds had not been left to fend for themselves, they were actually filming in Cornwall for a new television programme for Channel 4.

Holly and Lizzy are to star in the reality show, known at the moment as Boys And Girls, in which they join other youngsters in specially built villages - one for the boys, one for the girls - and cope alone for a fortnight.

Dad Roy, of Horizon Windows in Luton, said: "They are trying to find out how kids would behave on their own with no adult supervision. They had chaperones there though, so it was all very safe."

Parents were able to watch their offspring 24 hours a day on CCTV as they used pots of paint to decorate walls and straightened each other's hair.

The highlight for the twins, who used to live in Mount Grace Road, Luton, but now live in Hitchin, was a survival task, in which they had to skin a dead rabbit.

It is thought that Boys And Girls - a working title - will be screened later this year.