Returning to the famous First Dates restaurant tonight, if you can return to somewhere you’ve never been, are four single celebrities; Jamie Laing, Jorgie Porter, Anthea Turner, and Alexandra Burke. Leaving no stone unturned in their quest for love, they’re being paired up with unwitting members of the general public. It has been said, after all, that there’s someone out there for all of us.

X Factor songstress Alexandra Burke’s date for the evening was gorgeous model Louis. Admitting in the footage that if a woman can sing he’s done for, and that he stays in at the weekends to watch X Factor, he seemed to have lucked out. In fact, returning dater Gary came over to tell Louis just what a ‘lucky bastard’ he was, and was so preoccupied that he missed the arrival of his own date. After a winning date Louis got to watch Alexandra perform that evening – well, they do say your partner should be your biggest fan.

When the familiar theme tune of Made in Chelsea began, we could guess we were waiting for the arrival of love rats Spencer, Jamie or Alex. We got two of the three, with Alex there to support Jamie, ironic really, as he’s the only person on Made in Chelsea who’s worse at relationships than Jamie. Jamie confessed that he’d probably tell his date he loved her straight away, showing that he’s learned absolutely nothing from his nine series on MIC. Jamie was paired with ballet dancer-turned-neuroscience research student Sophie, who doesn’t watch much television, at least not London-based reality shows. Somehow, Channel 4 managed to find the only girl in London who doesn’t know of Jamie’s reputation. They went for a second date in Chelsea, so hopefully one of his scorned exes warned her.

We were there for broadcaster Anthea’s first time being single since she was 14 years old. Her date with smarmy Jeremy wasn’t absorbing viewing, but Gary made up for this by leaning over the neighbouring table to snog his chap mid meal. They ended up sharing a cab back to his, the sign of any successful date, but not before Gary went in for yet another embrace with Maitre d’ Fred.

For Jorgie Porter, who plays Theresa McQueen on Hollyoaks, a good date just means not getting pregnant with your cousin’s husband’s baby and murdering him on their wedding day. After sharing that she’d only met her father once and thought all men would disappear, we hoped that Craig would stick around. And he did, even accompanying her to the Soap Awards.

After the awkwardness of whether to split the bill had been dealt with, there was a five minute clip of the real reason for the celebrity special. The video showed the devastating impact that cancer had on Pauline and her husband Tom when she passed away. With a hundred percent of the money given going to funding research, there couldn’t be a more worthwhile cause. The celebrity special is completely worth watching, although the star of First Dates, in my eyes, will always be Maitre d’ Fred.

 

Hannah Holmes

 

Featured image from The Mirror.