'My Mum, Your Dad is utterly addictive stuff'

When ITV announced it was bringing back Davina McCall’s dating show My Mum, Your Dad for a second series, I was as delighted as all the other people who binged through the first series.

I did have one concern though. How would the producers deal with the fact that the surprise element of the format would no longer be viable — the bit where the parents find out their kids have been secretly orchestrating the show from a secret bunker. Luckily, Davina dealt efficiently with the issue at the very start of the opening episode. Mind you, she’s always been a consummate professional like that, has Davina.

Let’s face it, there's no way she would have been given that surprise Special Recognition National TV Award by ITV the very week before her new ITV show was due to start if she hadn’t proved herself worthy over the years, right?

"This time the parents have knowingly put their dating in their kids’ hands," Davina said. She didn’t add, "So don’t bother complaining on social media that the format has changed, OK?" Well, at least not out loud.

I suspect the reason Davina didn’t make a big deal about it was that she knew it wasn’t that big a deal. It doesn’t ruin the show at all. If anything, there’s an added dimension in that some of the parents seem to be less guarded, safe in the knowledge that their kids have got their backs. Of course, people quickly found something else to moan about online instead.

Apparently, the contestants are too attractive this year, and angry viewers have demanded to know why ITV isn’t letting us watch some 'normal' people bumping uglies. It’s a bit of a minefield this one, but I’ll try tiptoeing my way through it quickly.

First of all, the contestants are clearly not supermodels. Levels wise, we’re talking 'he looks a bit like Gary Barlow', 'she’s got a little Susanna Reid about her'. They’re the kind of late-40s/early-50s everyday people you might see checking their watches at parents' evening or waving their phone lights at a Coldplay gig.

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They had also, unsurprisingly, made an effort to scrub up nice. A) Because they were on the telly, durr. And B) Because to all intents and purposes they were on a first date.

They were hardly going to turn up in their slobby tracksuits with bad hair and three days’ growth on their chins. (And neither were the men.) Also, if ITV had thrown a few plus-size and/or unconventional-looking people in there it might have inadvertently introduced an uncomfortable “last pick in PE” element to proceedings.

It’s all very well saying we should do better, but human nature is human nature. Imagine how devastating it would be to be left looking like the last turkey in the shop on national television. For many reasons, ITV has undoubtedly played it safer than it could have done. We shouldn’t allow that to spoil our fun though.

And there is much to enjoy about this show. Not least the soundtrack, which, if it were a Spotify playlist, would probably be called Now That’s What I Call 80s Heartbreakers! To be honest, they had me within the first five minutes, when Mary’s Prayer by Danny Wilson came on. The music isn’t just incidental. It’s clearly a Jedi mind trick aimed at transporting us all back to the heady days of the school disco. That’s basically where the contestants find themselves. They’re in a seemingly endless round of "my mate fancies your mate" awkwardness.

I suspect it’s that shared lived experience that makes this show so gripping and emotional for the viewers. Well, that and the fact that we all want to see who ends up with who, and if the eventual matches will tally with our early predictions.

It’s utterly addictive stuff, and I’m not ashamed to admit I binged the first five episodes on ITVX in one sitting, which was quite a commitment given Channel 4 decided to drop the new series of the equally — but differently — absorbing Married At First Sight UK at exactly the same time. I’m not even ad-free on ITVX either.

I won’t give any spoilers away here, but the wild west night in episode five is an absolute cracker in which almost every contestant is guilty of ignoring the advice Lucas gave his dad Christian when he dropped him off at the fancy country house retreat on Day One: "Whatever you do, don’t be cringey."

The cringe was only the half of it during the first week. Some of the stuff the parents came out with once the prosecco had begun to flow was real 'hide behind a cushion' material.

One mum blurted out that when she first started dating following the break-up of her marriage (her husband had come out as gay) she "just wanted good sex". And if you thought that was a bit too much information you should have heard the reason she gave for liking men with big noses.

Meanwhile one of the dads proudly declared at the start of his first date in the retreat that he doesn’t "see the point in marriage." Mate, you’re on a dating show. At least try playing the game.

This was followed by another dad telling his potential love interest straight out that he’d had a marriage-ending affair. This may have drawn an approving "At least he’s honest" from some of the kids watching back at the bunker, but I couldn’t help thinking he might have been better trying a little small talk first.

Luckily, the beauty of the show is that there’s lots of opportunity to overcome such dating disasters, albeit with a different partner. Or, as Davina neatly put it, "There’s plenty more prosecco in the fridge."

No offence to the fish in the sea, but Davina’s line has a much more modern ring to it.

My Mum, Your Dad continues tonight at 9pm, on ITV1 and STV. The first 5 episodes are also available to stream on ITVX and STV player now.

This article originally appeared on Yahoo TV UK at https://uk.news.yahoo.com/my-mum-your-dad-review-utterly-addictive-103255283.html