First Dates

Series one, episode one
Like ‘The Apprentice’, one of the key attractions of this restaurant-set dating series is that you’ll end up screaming a mixture of criticism and advice at the screen. Don’t bang on endlessly about paedophiles! Don’t go to the toilet for five minutes to ring your mate and tell her how it’s going! Don’t tell a date that you’d guessed they were from Liverpool because ‘you’ve had my wallet already’!

Well, the beauty of it is that you can act on these criticisms. If anyone catches your eye, you could be appearing on a future episode of the show thanks to the interactive elements at firstdates.channel4.com. Why you’d want to is another matter; it takes an unusual kind of person to want to accentuate an already nervy situation by willingly adding TV cameras.

Still, it’s good fun and sure to make any singletons feel better about themselves. And kudos to C4 for not entirely ignoring the seniors – it’s interesting to see how differently things progress for two sixtysomethings than they do for hormone-addled youngsters.