ET TO TAKE THE SUMMER BY STORM
Let’s buckle up, this is going to be unmissable
The villa is less than an hour’s drive from Palma airport in Majorca. It is the same one used last year. Camera runs in the garden are hidden in huts either side of an infinity pool and LEDs which can change colour are all around the garden floor. Executive producer Tom Gould said: “The sun deck is different and has changed in a new re-imagined space and there is a swing seat. “It makes it more attractive for them and it’s better for us to film. The hideaway has had its annual makeover. And the bedroom. “There is an inside-out theme, too. We have grass on the walls inside. And that new design has been picked up in the bedroom and lounge, to tie the whole thing as one.
“On the walls and by the beds there are phrases and stuff that have been said before like ‘You OK, Hun?’ and now have a life of their own...”
A smoking area has also had to be created after there were complaints last year.
Paul Mortimer says: “Because they’re a very sexy cast in a sexy environment on a sexy channel then it made smoking look glamorous.
“Ofcom took a view that it was unacceptable. It’s not against the law to smoke cigarettes but this year we have in plan a place for the smoking area to be outside the villa rather than inside.”
A total of 11 contestants will enter the show to begin with, all single and looking to mingle. They will then “couple up”, leaving one person the odd one out. The line-up includes a West End performer, personal trainer Adam Collard, model Hayley Hughes, an A&E doctor and the daughter of EastEnders hardman Danny Dyer. The majority of the five women entering have had their hearts broken in the past 12 months and all of them hope they will finally find “the one” on the TV show where they have up to eight weeks to date.
More than 100,000 people applied to go on the show this year but many of the contestants are offered up by agents or scouted from their social media profiles.
Bosses started with a “shortlist” of 1,000 and execs saw most of The show is well known for introducing a range of words into the nation’s vocabulary, including... GRAFTING Focusing your attention on the boy/girl you want and working to woo them. MUGGY If you are doing something bad or disrespectful. MELT Acting soppy. PIED OFF When you are shot down or basically rejected. STICK IT ON Make a move on a boy/girl. MY TYPE ON PAPER A perfect match. If you’ve never watched Love Island before, and plan not to again this year, you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face.
You’re letting snobby killjoys – who have never seen it either – mug you off ranting about lowest common denominator TV.
On the surface, yes, it’s pretty idiots in swimwear… but there’s so much more to it than that.
Last year, for example, someone who did explosive ordinance disposal work on behalf of the world’s largest humanitarian mine clearance organisation broke up with the guy she’d been dating in a disagreement about feminism.
All human life is there, at its most vulnerable, hilarious, brave, foolish – ie, trying to have a relationship.
You’ll relate, despair, laugh and cry. Love Island is like one of those videos shot from a rollercoaster but from the front row of a relationship instead.
Resistance is futile – so buckle up, it’s going to be one hell of a ride.
these themselves after casting agents narrowed it down.
Love Island 2017 was won by Amber Davies and Kem Cetinay, although the couple split months after winning a £50,000 prize.
Kem and his co-star Chris Hughes, who came third with Olivia Attwood, went on to land a spin-off series and released a top 20 single, earning big money off the back of the success of last summer’s show. SPLIT Kem and Amber