15 Best British TV Shows Of The Decade

These days, we love to be made to cringe more than just about anything else. Forget your belly laughs or your heart warming moments - there’s little better than real stomach churning awkwardness. Channel 4 must have realised this when they commissioned a show all about peering in on real people undergoing one of life’s most awkward moments, and they struck upon a formula for gold.

Each episode sees four to six couples on a real first date, in a restaurant populated with nothing but newly introduced maybe-couples. It perfectly captures a great swathe of British chancers - divorcees and divas, lotharios and losers.

Couples are paired up by the producers based on commonalities - they both love SCUBA diving, perhaps, or they live near Wigan (in the earlier seasons they’d occasionally organise a proper stitch up date, pairing people who’d never get on. They don’t do this anymore, sadly). They sit through two courses, they’re encouraged to tell a sad story from their lives, then they appraise each other. More often than not they never see each other again.

But that’s not what’s important about First Dates. What’s so important is the hope. No one goes in expecting the world - but at the same time, who’s to say they won’t find the love of their life in this pretty ordinary looking London eatery?

The staff have slowly moved into the spotlight, but the stars will always be those ordinary Britons who just want to forge a connection. Their outlook may be basically pessimistic, but in life, you’ve got to leave yourself open to opportunity - and that’s what First Dates is all about.