The nation was on the edge of its seat on Tuesday night. After an endless, wearisome pandemic, how refreshing to see genuine drama, heartache and human emotion on the small screen.
No, not the football. On another channel, there was a far more nail-biting offering: The return of our favourite guilty pleasure, Love Island.
There, served up for our delectation for a sun-drenched hour every weeknight, is a Shakespearean-style play of longing, jealousy, thwarted love and passion.
Complete, of course, with heaving bosoms, nuclear fake tans and tiny swimwear (and that’s just the men).
Like many young women, I am hooked. How refreshing to see gorgeous people frolicking as if Covid were a distant dream, the kind you wake up from and think, ‘that was a bit far-fetched’ (though the narrator’s constant reminder that the contestants have quarantined and formed a ‘sanitary sex bubble’ does rather jolt you back to earth).
Emily Hewertson (pictured) says she has turned down several offers to go on Love Island, because she is a Tory
Ms Hewertson (pictured), said: 'I like partying. I’m blonde, buxom and wear long flippy hair extensions. I am even often branded a ‘bimbo’ by online trolls on the basis of my looks. But I knew something set me apart from the other contestants: My sharp mind and political views.'
But I have another reason to be so interested in the goings on in the giant fluorescent palace of telly pleasure: I have been asked to appear on the show for a few years in a row.
I was approached by producers who had watched a short clip from when I appeared in the audience on Question Time.
It was clear they saw I offered something unique. However, by this point, it was late in the casting process, so I didn’t hear from them again until they were casting for the following series, when another email landed in my inbox.
You might be surprised that I said 'no' to both of these lucrative offers after my effusiveness about the show.
A spot in the villa has become the dream for this generation of wannabe ‘influencers’ (a kind of D-list fame is guaranteed after appearing on the show, with millions of Instagram followers flocking your way).
In fact, the programme is so appealing to its impressionable young audience that in 2018, Love Island had considerably more applicants (150,000) than the prestigious Oxbridge Universities (40,000 combined). And this
