First Dates
Channel 4
★★★★☆
Inside No 9
BBC Two
★★★★☆
Wednesday is TV night: Line of Duty, Suspects, Outnumbered, Parks and Recreation, Inside No 9, Fleming (if sadomasochism is your thing) — and First Dates, which returned last week. Since the summer run of this fixed-rigged dating series the interactive element, in which viewers could bid for a date with one of the dissatisfied daters, has been dropped. Apparently, so many people e-mailed to take part last year, the production team just sifted the rejected pile for this year’s love-seekers. It makes very little difference. Who would want to go on a date when they could eavesdrop on other people’s?
Generally, this programme makes you wish the contestants