I’ve realised as my kids have become teenagers, and begun moving into the stage of relationships, that I can give them no dating advice at all, as my experience is so skewed and unrepresentative. I’ve been with Ben now for 35 years, and I have never been on what you’d call a grown-up date. Maybe this is why I love TV dating shows. They’re anthropologically interesting to me, like wildlife programmes.
It started with Blind Date, which now seems quaintly old-fashioned, Cilla performing a finely judged balancing act between the risqué and the prudish, reining in guests before they went too far, reminding us all, with her frequent mentions of getting a hat, that she hoped the contestants were looking for love and not just a shag. Take Me Out was more obviously shag-based, the daters flying off to the imaginary Isle of Fernando’s (Tenerife), and having to endure a bungee jump or an afternoon in a canoe before getting down to cocktails and eye contact.
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