Pictures: ITV/Rex
A clip of Blind Date has gone viral because Cilla Black’s pick of three men for single Sophie from Sunderland was, well, questionable.
Warning: There’s a lorra, lorra content to digest here.
For those of you young enough to have been deprived of the joys of dating shows in the 90s and early noughties, Blind Date was the pinnacle – what Love Island, Love Is Blind and the rest of them can only aspire to be.
We all hailed Cilla as Britain’s cupid – and rightly so – but in hindsight, her idea of suitable candidates was fairly problematic.
A video from one from a particularly insightful episode in 2002 is now doing the rounds featuring Chris, Tim, and Leon.
Contestant number one Chris, began by obliging to Cilla’s ‘what’s your name and where do you come from’.
2002 was a different dimension. pic.twitter.com/G3c7tdZtvG
— Ewan ðªðº (@EwanESC) February 28, 2020
And then it all plummeted to mortifying new depths from there.
Chris told Cilla he’s looking for a ‘weekday girlfriend’ because the weekends are for ‘lads, football and pubs’ – all of which ladies were seemingly banned from partaking.
But the audience was almost on their feet as the 24-year-old engineer grinned: ‘So as a boyfriend I’d be a part-timer.’
Surely Tim could do better? Spoiler alert: he didn’t. Unless you’re called Tracey or Sharon, then it’s your lucky day.
‘I’ve had enough of “it girl” wannabes – the Tamaras and Victorias of the world,’ the London socialite moaned. ‘I’m looking for someone a little bit more down to earth and get racy with a Sharon or a Tracey.’
By then you’d imagine they can’t all be that bad. Leon celebrated women who love their bodies no matter what – what a guy! Or so you thought…
He ended his introduction with: ‘I suppose a word to describe me is, “a chubby chaser!”’ which got a huge round of applause from the studio audience and our Cilla.
And it turns out the whole thing just got even wilder behind-the-scenes after Sophie picked number one, Chris.
This guy did some digging:
She ended up choosing number one, only to discard him when face to face (a new imitative the show took on to combat a flagging viewership) and choose number 3. But then turned out to be ENGAGED and in a later show number one and her ended up choosing each other again.
— Secondsupereon (@Secondsupereon) February 29, 2020
Blind Date is currently presented by Cilla’s close friend Paul O’Grady and these days is celebrated for its first episode featuring drag queens and a female trans contestant.
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MORE: Cilla Black was a ‘wreck’ while filming Blind Date after tragic death of husband Bobby Willis