TV Review: First Dates

Make a date with the sweetest show on TV.

I remember well the first date I went on with the woman who was to become my wife.

We sipped the finest Tennants lager, I showered her with romantic cheese and onion crisps and my sparkling chat included such classic lines as: “So, errr, what does, ummm, your dad do?”

I think we can all see why, only 15 short years later, she was powerless to resist my pathetic begging and suitcase stuffed with cash and leapt at the chance to become the seventh Mrs Strathie.

But things could have been so much different had that first date featured the following: me revealing I had the word ‘Mum’ tattoed in a VERY personal spot (think of the last place you’d want to suddenly notice the word ‘Mum’ and you’re in the right ballpark, if you’ll pardon the expression), or me proudly announcing my biceps were called “Tam” and “Boab”.

Granted, all of these things sound like unlikely scenarios, yet they all played out on last week’s episode of Channel 4’s First Dates (except the biceps were called James and Andrew).

If you haven’t seen the show, it involves nothing more complex than a steady stream of hopeful singletons attempting to woo each other over dinner in a swanky restaurant.

Ridiculously simple…but utterly watchable.

For the hour it’s on my living room echoes to cries of “He did NOT just say that!”, “Woah! She’s coming on a bit strong!” and “At least she got a meal all I got was cheap lager and crisps.”

We get to see the nerves, the eyewateringly bad chat-up lines, the ‘no wonder he’s single’ misjudged revelations and, best of all, the occasional eyes-meeting-over-the-peas moments where you see that spark of something that could maybe, just maybe, grow into something more.

It may sound flimsy and meaningless and represent all that is wrong with modern TV, but it’s sweet, uncynical and endlessly fascinating.

Like the equally popular Gogglebox it works because at its heart it is about love and relationships in this case romantic, in Gogglebox’s familial and being, well, human.

I’m telling you, watch it once and you’ll be champing at the bit for a second date…

First Dates, Channel 4, Wednesday.