Why Love Island is best TV show ever

It’s like Primark First Dates by the pool

IT’S never been more obvious that we need to wring every tiny moment of joy out of life and savour it… so it is without shame that I tell you how excited I am that Love Island starts next week.

I love Love Island. Forget The X Factor and BGT – Love Island is the reality underdog that is suddenly way ahead of the pack. It’s easy to be cynical and sneery about it, because it’s lowest-common-denominator TV and the premise is basically base. In theory, it just isn’t the sort of thing you would ever want to watch. And during the first series, no one did. Presenter Caroline Flack’s mum probably had it on in the background now and then to be supportive, but that was it. There was zero anticipation for the second series when it started last summer, mostly because we were so unaware of it, we didn’t know there was a second series. Or a first, for that matter. And then, a week in, suddenly everywhere you went people were talking about it. It had started with no fanfare and was now completely unexpectedly brilliant. Love Island 2 had an unusual twist for reality TV – it was real. It was unscripted, because it didn’t need to be – the contestants had grown up on TOWIE and Made In Chelsea, they didn’t need to be told what to say or do, this was just how they naturally lived. There was no schtick, pretentions or guff about social experiments – Love Island is attractive people, in swimwear, getting off with each other. It’s Primark First Dates by the pool, without the French waiter boring on about how love is like a bird with a broken wing or whatever. At first, of course, you were mainly just laughing at the pretty thickies. But then relationships started and unfolded at lightning pace because they were all living together, and there was nothing to do apart from each other. Everyone started out smiling and then, as true colours emerged and the newness faded, ended up negotiating many of the issues, compromises and disappointments proper people who aren’t even on telly do in real life. There was happiness, heartbreak, ecstasy and agony – the very best and worst of humanity, raw and exposed. They couldn’t escape from each other so they were forced to confront their feelings and navigate uncomfortable situations. Unlikely people were brave, despicable, thoughtful or surprising. Lessons were, like, learned. Sometimes it was properly moving. And everything was narrated by a sarcastic Scottish comedian in the funniest voice-over ever voiced (sorry, Come Dine With Me bloke – you had a long run though). So the Sky Plus series link – the greatest honour you can bestow on a programme – is well and truly set for ITV2’S Love Island. And guess what? If you refuse to feel guilty about it, then it’s just a pleasure.