Love it! First Dates is back for its 22nd season
Tuesday: First Dates (Channel 4, 10pm)
“It makes me laugh when people say, ‘Oh Fred, you’ve got to have more balance in your life’,” he grins. “I always say, ‘I can’t have balance because I either work or I don’t work’. And if it’s a project and it’s exciting, I want to do it. And if there’s another one, I want to do it as well.”
Perhaps that’s why he signed up to take part in the BBC’s Olympics coverage this year. The fact that it’s taking place in his native France and that his daughter, diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, is representing Team GB, probably helps too.
But now he’s returning to the show where he made his name – First Dates, which is back for its 22nd season; it’s been on the box for a decade too.
“I don’t see myself stopping doing it – it’s gone so quick and I really enjoy it,” he claims. “I’m not bored of it.
“The nice thing is the people who come on the dates, the daters, because these people are really excited about meeting you and they really do think that you’re going to find them the love of their life. So we have a responsibility for that, and that is really exciting. Every year it’s the same, but every year it’s completely different.”
He adds that the show “appeals to everybody and it shows us that love is ageless, that everybody needs love, and everybody wants to find love. It gives hope to everybody. That’s what’s important in life; when there is no hope, there is no life.
“As long as you’re alive and as long as you hope and as long as you’ve got love in your heart, then life is beautiful and worth living. When it’s not like that any more, that’s it.”
In the opening episode, Sirieix meets another four couples keen to find ‘the one’. And he may not have to stoke the flames of passion too much for fire-performer Hayley when she comes face-to-fave with businessman Glen, who claims he’s a real-life version of Christian in Fifty Shades of Grey. Blimey.
After that, tattoo fanatic Sarah arrives with a very down-to-earth brief: “I just want to find someone that’s not an a******e,” she explains, and someone “who’ll take my bins out on a Tuesday.” Hopefully the equally well-inked Dan fits the bill.
Then it’s the turn of twenty-somethings William and Zara, neither of whom have ever been on a date before, to come face-to-face. Hopefully a shared interest in the royal family will give them something to chat about.
Finally, Kurt lends a sympathetic ear to Ashauna, who feels she’s been left out of the dating game due to discrimination over her albinism. Could he be the man to give her her confidence back?
Here’s hoping Cupid’s arrows find their mark – and that the rest of the series features long-term couples in the making.