I don’t have the abs to be a Love Island contestant
Reality show Love Island had the nation hooked last year - and now it’s time for a new batch of contestants to enter the villa. GEORGIA HUMPHREYS chats to narrator Iain Stirling about how series four is going to live up to the hype
LOVE ISLAND ITV2, Monday, 9pm
PLONK a bunch of hopeful singletons in an extravagant Spanish villa, where they couple up with the aim of winning £50,000, and what do you get? Seven weeks of non-stop drama, that’s what.
Love Island, hosted by Caroline Flack, is back for a fourth series, and it has a lot to live up to – last year’s competition, which saw Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies walk away with the cash prize, was a ratings success with an average of two million viewers per episode.
Here, narrator Iain Stirling helps us list the reasons we can’t wait for the reality show’s return – plus why you should tune in if (for some crazy reason) you didn’t before.
IT’S A GREAT CONVERSATION STARTER
ONE of the biggest talking points last series was the heartwarming bromance between Kem and runner-up Chris Hughes (they got their own ITV2 show together, and released a single).
Their rapping sessions, and deep conversations, led to plans being cancelled around the country as people stayed in to watch Love Island instead.
“It went absolutely mad,” recalls Iain, 30, of the show’s popularity. “No one could believe it.
“I don’t think we did anything massively different to the year before, we just did what we’ve always done, and it was nice watching the work we’ve done for the last three years being taken on board by that many people.”
The Scottish comedian continues ardently: “The proof is, if you watch comments from people watching it on Netflix now – series 1 and 2. It’s not like people are watching series 1 and are going, ‘Oh god, this is terrible (compared) to series three’.
People still love it.”
YOU CAN EXPECT SOME HILARIOUS CATCHPHRASES
NO matter which couple you decide to back as your favourite, we can all agree on one thing – the best bit of the show is Iain’s sarcastic commentary.
However, fans repeating his now-famous one-liners back to him doesn’t happen as much as you might suspect.
“I think the people that I say them about get it more than I do,” remarks the Edinburgh-born star, whose TV career started on CBBC.
“So, maybe Kem will have ‘Romford!’ shouted at him on the street, or Marcel (Somerville, 2017 contestant) will get a bit of ‘Paging Doctor Marcel’
action.
“I sort of managed to stay clear of it, luckily!”
And while there aren’t many TV shows that manage to introduce new words into the nation’s vocabulary, Love Island did it with “grafting”, “muggy” and “melt”.
People could even buy T-shirts which had the series’ best quotes on.
IT’S GUARANTEED TO BE DRAMATIC VIEWING
THE heat really gets turned up when it comes to the challenges the contestants are faced with. In one episode in series three, they had to secretly nominate a couple to be up for a dumping from the island by the British public. Ouch... Meanwhile, an awkward game called Bang On Trend saw them work out the identities of the co-stars mentioned in viewers’ tweets. It meant they found out what their friends and partners had said about them – and led to some serious friction between Chris and Olivia Attwood, who were already a very on/off pair. As Iain puts it: “There’s nothing better than watching a couple have an argument on television, and knowing that you’re not involved in it in any shape or form. It’s brilliant.” And the drama is bound to keep us hooked long after the tans have faded... Amber and Kem split just months after winning in 2017, and Chris and Olivia not long after – in fact, Camilla Thurlow and Jamie Jewitt are the only couple from the third series who are still together.
THE COMPETITION WILL ONLY KEEP HOTTING UP
EXPECT to see big personalities chilling by the pool and going on dates. The daughter of actor Danny Dyer – also called Dani – is taking part in this year’s series, alongside a hunky doctor and a West End performer, to name a few.
But it’s not all fun and games – this is a battle for survival. If the format remains the same, as the show goes on, people will be voted out, and swimwear-clad newbies will strut in.
With regular opportunities to ditch who they’re currently with and re-couple, you can guarantee some people’s heads will be turned. Iain is one half of a celebrity couple himself – he’s been dating TV personality Laura Whitmore since last summer – but how does he think he would have fared on Love Island in his single days?
“Oh, I would have been absolutely terrible,” he says without hesitation.
“I’ve got a very soft stomach so my ab count is far lower than those gentlemen, I sweat profusely when heated, which is not a great look, and I’m into early noughties pop punk... I don’t think Blink-182 is going to woo many women.
“So all in all, I don’t think I’d be one of your best contestants.”
IT’S AN AWARD-WINNING SHOW
EMOTIONAL make-ups and break-ups, shocking twists and Stormzy appearing to give advice via video link – it’s no wonder Love Island recently nabbed a Bafta for best reality show.
But still, Iain isn’t worried about trying to match last year’s success.
“If you start thinking, ‘What do people want?’, you’re never going to get it right,” he suggests matter-offactly. “You’ve just got to think, ‘What do we like?’”
It helps that the people who work on the series are so obsessed, he adds. “I think Caroline (Flack) mentioned it in her Bafta acceptance speech – the Love Island team, even the ones who weren’t invited – not, not invited but obviously you can’t bring hundreds of people to the Baftas – booked out a pub in north London, and just had a big party. The video of them losing their mind when they won is just insane.”
Who knows what the producers have in store this year?
All we know is, we’ll be watching.