Does the world need a middle-aged Love Island?

At 9 pm on Monday, two intense competitions played out on British television. The first was a debate between the two potential candidates for Prime Minister on BBC One. The second, over on ITV2, consisted of one man making carbonara topless whilst another performed a tone-deaf rendition of a High School Musical song as part of a talent(less) contest in an episode of Love Island. 

This scheduling clash made it clear that, unsurprisingly, neither Truss nor Sunak are avid Love Island viewers, but it also served as a reminder that whilst Love Island might take over the summer of myself and my contemporaries, the same cannot be said for the maturer half of Britain.

Until now, that is. Reports suggest there is a television show in the works that could make even Liz Truss tune in (potentially) … a  Love Island for middle-aged contestants.

For those unfamiliar with Love Island, it is a reality television show in which a group of good-looking men and women are put into a villa in Mallorca, where they live for eight weeks whilst undergoing tasks and “coupling up” in an attempt to find love and win a £50,000 prize.

The contestants are young (the youngest ever contestant being 18, and the oldest 31), beautiful, and just about interesting enough to watch them lounge around a swimming pool for half of the summer each year. There are public votes and constant dumpings and recouplings, as they attempt to find the best romantic match on offer, breaking hearts in the process. It is a format that borrows from a long history of dating shows and Channel 4’s Big Brother, tweaked for the Instagram age. 

Despite being watched by between 2.4 and 5 million viewers each evening, in recent years, Love Island has come under scrutiny following the suicides of two contestants and the show’s presenter, Caroline Flack. Each year, there are also often several instances of misogyny and bullying that cause women’s aid charities to issue statements about the behaviour witnessed on the show, which lead to critics calling for the show to come off air.

The format works but something in the show’s culture is clearly broken, and that’s where the middle-aged divorcees come in. A new pilot is reportedly being developed where contestants entering the villa are in their 40s and 50s with “normal bodies”, as opposed to washboard abs.

The show, preliminarily titled Your Mum, my Dad, would aim to give middle-aged people in recently failed relationships a second chance at love. A source told the Sun; “times change and the current generation in their 40s and 50s still care about how they look, are fit and healthy, into fashion and are ready to let their hair down. This show will give those who settled down young a second chance at love while they still feel in their prime.”

It is easy to see the appeal to Your Mum, my Dad: many people find love in their 40s and 50s — why shouldn’t they be able to do it on national television? And seeing older (hopefully maturer) relationships on our screens might provide some positive role models to younger audiences, which, if the number of Ofcom complaints that this season of Love Island has received for misogyny is anything to go by, young people are in desperate need of.

To try and maintain a larger audience, the new show will still incorporate young people by having the contestant’s children be responsible for pairing them up behind the scenes; a sort of PG Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents in reverse. 

This could either be hilarious, or completely patronising. After all, the parents of contestants in Love Island aren’t responsible for deciding who their children end up with. Middle-aged contestants are far more likely to know what they want in a relationship — why can’t we leave the decisions up to them?

Another issue that arises from this potential new element to the Love Island franchise is ITV2 using the show as a scapegoat against accusations of lack of diversity in the original show. Each year, different variants of the same contestant appear on the show, with little variety of body shape or size, age (obviously), and a noticeable lack of Asian representation. Creating a show with middle-aged contestants with “normal bodies” doesn’t take away from the unrealistic expectations perpetrated by the original Love Island; producers must try and improve the original show whilst developing further franchises.

But most of all, the problem with this new spin on Love Island for me, derives from the entertainment factor that comes from watching extremely good-looking young people face romantic rejection for the first time. Would it still be funny when a 45-year-old father of two is rejected just months after going through a crushing divorce? I’m not so sure…

The great thing about reality television, however, is that it is all about throwing mad ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. Maybe Your Mum, my Dad would be a complete car crash — but we will never know unless we try. Let’s hope ITV2 picks up the pilot, and for those looking for a second chance at love (and a shot at internet fame), get your applications in soon.