LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID

Not even Covid will stop First Dates – and it’s going to be hotter than ever

First Dates is back. But how, you have to wonder, when even a show as relentlessly chaste as University Challenge goes in for plastic partitions, did a show in which pleasures of the flesh are served up on a plate manage that?

Once upon a time First Dates was a simple affair: turn up at the table, take a butcher’s at what’s on the menu and keep your options open as to the afters. No longer. Instead of an aperitif to get you in the mood, pandemic First Daters now get sequestered in a hotel room for a Covid test and, depending on the result, are told whether they can move to the next level.

And that’s not all: the production crew and restaurant staff in the First Dates bubble underwent continual testing to ensure they were Covidfree. And anyone who fell anywhere near the clinically vulnerable category had to be signed off by a doctor in order to take part. Now, that’s commitment.

If you’re prepared to go through all that on the off-chance of a halfdecent date then you can bet your bottom dollar you’re committed to the amorous cause. So my guess is that this series of First Dates is going to have a higher strike rate than usual just because the people on it will be so glad to be out of the house, they won’t be anything like as picky over the standard of their date.

For us viewers it serves up a triple whammy. For one thing, it reminds us what the inside of a restaurant looks like. Secondly, it shows people actually talking (and chewing) at each other, in person, not staring up our nostrils on a screen. And the third? It’s not The Cabins, so you won’t feel grubby.

But if you want to know what dating will really look like for the foreseeable you need to turn to The Circle USA (Netflix). True, it’s not actually a dating show per se, given all the flirty messaging that goes on is aimed at winning a cash prize rather than a hot date. But the picture of hot (OK, hot-ish) singletons (OK, singleton-ish) alone in their fancy apartments having fantasies about who they might be seducing (or being catfished by) could not be more lockdown. And when it comes down to it, it’s clear that the only Mr/Ms/M? in their world is themselves.

In the age of narcissism, surely the perfect date is with yourself.