Boxing Clever: A Cork man with red hair ticks the boxes on First Dates Ireland
Back in time for Valentines, First Dates is a refreshing back to basics for the daft reality dating-show spectrum.
Irish men have the best arses in the world. And they said you can’t learn anything from TV.
This best arse gem is in a snippet from a promo for ( RTE Two, Thursday 9:30 pm RTE Player.) Back in time for Valentines, First Dates is a refreshing back to basics for the daft reality dating-show spectrum, which is surely only months away from welcoming a show called One Night With My Cheating Ex Celebrity Mansion Island.
First Dates is a simple, sincere format, as against a consolation prize for z-listers whose agents couldn’t get them on to I’m a Celebrity. I reckon the Irish version might be the best on the planet and not just because of our world-class arses. I love the contrast between newcomers to Ireland, who see a date as a form of transaction, and the locals, who still have a bit of legacy shame about sex and can’t really relax until halfway down our fourth Negroni. At this point, we Irish are liable to say anything and that makes for top TV.
The other great thing about the First Dates format is it’s a laugh to watch with someone else, maybe because it isn’t yet another show about the hunt for a grisly serial killer. The crack is all about judging the people on the date. In the first episode, on Thursday, we saw Amy sit at the other far end of a 2-metre long table from Sean. We weren’t gone on Sean in our house. He played it as a former bad boy with a glint in his eye, but unfortunately for Sean, he was off the booze, which tends to ring all kinds of alarm bells for Irish people. When he told us why he gave up the booze, things got even worse. (Unless you think ‘long-term partner’ when someone tells you they were arrested in Denmark for being outrageously drunk at an Ireland football match.) Amy said, of course, she’d like to see him again, as a friend. Good call.
Other daters in the first episode included a Cork guy with red hair, which ticked the boxes for two put-upon minorities. Actually, like most of the people on the show, he was just lovely. Unlike some other countries you could mention, we put a premium and niceness and humility here, which makes First Dates Ireland into a nice winter warmer. Give it a watch.
Don’t miss a catch up of (All 4) while you’re at it. Created by Russell T Davies, the writer who gave us Queer as Folk, this new drama shows the HIV/AIDS epidemic through the eyes of four friends in 1980s London. It’s funny and surprising and sad and the acting will blow you away, thanks to star turns from Olly Alexander and Keeley Hawes. There is anger in the writing, but compassion as well for homophobic parents who had to watch their young sons die from AIDS. Just like a good episode of First Dates, we couldn’t stop talking about it here in our house. And that’s the best thing a TV show can offer these days, with nothing else to do.
