Love it or hate it but this reality TV show certainly has me hooked / Sue Plunkett

This week I have a confession to make.
This week Sue Plunkett confesses to being a Love Island fanThis week Sue Plunkett confesses to being a Love Island fan
This week Sue Plunkett confesses to being a Love Island fan

Please don't judge me or hate me but I have a guilty secret that half the nation shares with me...while the other half curls their lip in disgust at us.

Yes, I'm sorry but I am a Love Island fan! Every night at 9pm I settle down on the sofa to watch the daily helping of reality TV that first hooked me in 2017.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"It's a load of rubbish' I hear you cry, yet around 2.5M viewers tune in nightly to watch the exploits of a group of boys and girls, who all look like they have just stepped off a catwalk, find love, or fame perhaps.

Set in a beautiful Majorcan villa, the contestants gets chance to 'couple up' with whoever takes their fancy to see if they hit it off and so it goes from there.

With a few twists thrown in, such as Casa Amor, where the boys are shipped off to another villa full of girls to tempt them to stray and a new batch of boys are brought into the main villa to do the same with the girls, the show is like a real life 'soap opera.'

Whether or not the contestants really are after love is debatable, but they soon become mini 'celebrities' in their own right.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

For me Love Island is like a living soap opera I can tune into nightly after I have caught up on my other favourite 'soap' Coronation Street.

I've been a fan since I was a child and my earliest memory of the show is seeing the iconic Hilda Ogden, played by the late Jean Alexander, gossiping in the Rover's Return in her hair curlers.

The show today is a million miles away from what it used to be and I must admit the recent storyline involving long standing character Leanne Battersby, played by Jane Danson, becoming caught up with the violent leader of a drugs' gang left me cold.

ITV3 is showing episodes of 'classic' Coronation Street and at the moment it is still in the 90s. One of the biggest dramas back then was then what Sally Webster would rustle up for tea for her two daughters, Rosie and Sophie!

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But I love watching it. It's a mixture of nostalgia and affection for a show that I can switch on and catch up on the storyline within minutes. It's the perfect way for me to unwind although my partner, Ian can't understand my fascination for it.

"But why watch it when you know what's going to happen?" he always says.

I don't care I know what's coming, and to be honest, perhaps more to do with my age, I have forgotten the outcome of many of the storylines!

Which brings me back to Love Island ( sorry to all the LI haters reading this.)

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

What about a Love Island for the over 40s? Or even 50s? They could call it Love Island the Vintage Years but you can bet there would be no shortage of contestants.

It would be quite a different show though, especially if they went for the 50 plus option. Everyone would be in bed by 10-30pm and up at the crack of dawn complaining about the heat and their aching backs!

But I could be wrong. Put a few people in there who have some life experience and don't care what people think about them and watch the fireworks start.

It would be unmissable TV for me without a doubt.

Related topics: