Love might feel like a game for teenagers. Find it in your twenties, or at the very least in your early thirties, or settle for a life devoid of romance. At least, that’s how reality television can make us feel.
Just look at the reaction to anyone on Love Island who isn’t in their early twenties – Laura Anderson and Charlotte Sumner faced wrath for committing the ultimate crime – being 29 and 30. Other dating programmes, such as Married at First Sight and Love is Blind, appear to have simply a token older person, who seldom receives the most screen time.
Now, middle-aged Love Island, or My Mum, Your Dad, to use its official moniker, has joined the conversation. The format’s debut on ITV might herald the start of a new reality period in which the love lives of persons over 40 are thrust into the limelight.
In the first episode, we meet six single parents yearning for love, as well as their children who nominated them to participate.
Sharon, who is struggling to trust after being cheated on, Monique, who was rejected by text and hasn’t had the confidence to get back out there, and Clayton, who has spent his entire life rushing love, which has left him alone, are among the singletons.
Roger, a single father who lost his wife to cancer a year ago, is an early standout dad. He’s attempting to navigate dating for the first time in 37 years, and we’re sure the entire country will be pulling for him.
Host Davina McCall whose general affection for the cast is easy to see quickly arrives on the scene to inform his daughter Jess, and the rest of the offspring of the shock twist. They will secretly be acting as ‘relationship experts’ deciding what happens in their parents’ dating life for the next two weeks.
While we get the same juice as other dating shows – groups gathering and discussing who is most their type, awkward first dates, and even men getting overly excited at bombshell arrivals – there is an extra layer with this new series – back stories that aren’t always possible with younger daters.
Watching fully grown adults getting their second (or third, fourth or fifth) chance at love is one thing, but equally as special is the unique dynamics of a parent-adult child relationship put on full display.
They want their parent to be happy. They worry about their parents finding someone in the same way their parents once worried about them when they went out on a Saturday night. We get to see children care for their parents the way they have for them their entire lives.
‘It’s time to put yourself first,’ they encouragely tell their parents as they are dropped off at the lavish country house.
While there are a lot of jokes about cringing at their parents and possible new step-parents, there is a real heart to the show, which has already had series in the USA and Australia.
Prepare for many laughs and more than a few tears.
My Mum, Your Dad starts Monday 11th September at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX. It airs every weeknight for two weeks.
Source My Celebrity Life.
