One hour I’d like to forget

Bearing in mind the current dating show climate, Channel 4 perhaps overcomplicated things with its latest effort last night.

Hello Stranger placed a young couple in a state of hypnotic amnesia to see whether they could be persuaded to ditch each other and cop off with someone else.

Hypnotism seemed a bit extravagant when you consider Love Island conducts a similar experiment simply by dangling the threat of eviction and/or a £50,000 prize in front of its contestants. To be fair, Hello Stranger couple Lucy, 22, and George, 24, left, had been together a bit longer than your average Love Island duo – though I get the impression that doesn’t matter very much to the young crowd. Either way, Hello Stranger’s premise felt no less superficial than its ITV2 rival’s. To be honest, I spent most of the hour wondering whether this show was actually a spoof.

I mean, if it really was possible for a hypnotist to make you forget your partner existed, surely Aaron Calvert would have queues around the block.

Plus, it was hardly a surprise that having gone on dates with people NOTHING LIKE their actual partners, Lucy and George chose each other.

Not that I am dismissing hypnotic amnesia out of hand. In fact, if Aaron can fit me in, there is now an hour of TV I’d really like to forget.