Show + tell: Paul Flynn’s top TV
IMAGINE THE summer of your life. Among a crop of handpicked beauties, you’ve dated, you’ve kissed, you’ve finally found The One and you’ve done it all against a glorious Balearic backdrop. You have a sort of fairy godmother and father in the shape of Caroline Flack and Iain Stirling, on whom to offload the narrative of your quite literally banging season. Moreover, the people of Britain have fallen hook, line and sinker for your romance and crowned you and your beau this year’s Shirley and her Valentine. You are now, officially, Dani Dyer.
Somewhere amid the turbulent coupling, the speedy lustfulness and insane levels of personal competitiveness that make up the greatest dating show since Cilla presided pruriently over the parting curtains of Blind Date, actual love has been injected into the island. Never ones to miss an opportunity to maximise the value of one of the defining brands of the 2010s, we are returning to matters unresolved for Love Island: The Christmas Reunion, a chance to relive and love the affairs that gripped us this season. Think of it as a school reunion as reconfigured by the overlords of Tinder.
The format is simple. Ms Flack and Mr Stirling have reunited those who found and lost love in this year’s gripping season. The young and the horny now have axes to grind. The delicious bellwether of success underpinning all proceedings in this festive time-shift is a popularity contest of unmediated gravity. Being good at love is one thing. Being good at Love Island is quite another. Finalists Wes and Megan join Dani and Jack, the crowned Prince and Princess elect. Kaz is solo as Josh is in the States. Former couples Laura and Paul, Georgia and Sam, Ellie and Charlie must pick over the bones of their broken hearts. Singletons Samira, Dr Alex, Alexandra, Kendall, Hayley and Eyal will uncover whether Cupid’s cruel winds have finally blown in their direction since departing the Mallorcan love nest.
There will, inevitably, be mistletoe. There will, inevitably, be booze. It’s the office party you’ll gratefully receive an invite to. Love Island is now as synonymous with British Summer Time as the clocks moving forward. In this clever strategic timebomb waiting to explode, it may yet do the same for Christmas.
Monday, 9pm, ITV2