Dating with your mates sounds like the perfect solution to any awkward moments and who sometimes doesn't need to morale support? But it's likely many will draw the line at dating the SAME person at the SAME time.
Well, a TV show has done just that. The aptly titled Dating with my Mates has been airing on the W channel and is narrated by our very own former Coronation Street star Catherine Tyldsley. It follows a group of four single friends who go out for a three-course dinner with a difference.
With each course, a different potential date joins the mates at their table. When the plates are cleared, the date also must leave. If the dates feel a connection, they can return at the end of the meal to ask out one of the mates. However, the mates are only able to say yes to one date.
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William Foley is one singleton who enlisted his friends and took part in the show, which was all filmed in Manchester. “The concept behind it was great,” he told the Manchester Evening News. “When the BBC approached me I said ‘tell me more! I didn’t want to be on something not quite as sophisticated.”
“It was me, basically with three of my friends on this date together in a restaurant and a guy would join us for a starter, go away, then a guy for the main, go away and then [the same] for dessert. And then those three guys would come back to the table at the end and choose out of the four of us who they wanted to take on a date.”
The programme was produced by Dan Neal, a former Big Brother contestant who was married to TV and radio star Rylan Clark. “It was just a really lovely show,” William, who is originally from Burnley but now works in Cheshire, told us. “I liked it, I enjoyed the concept!”
Speaking about what it was like to film, William said: “We kind of forgot the cameras were rolling at points because we were so in the moment of having a laugh and enjoying our experiences… we’re four genuine friends that have been friends for such a long time that we kind of forgot about everything and it just rolled and rolled.” He added: “So the experience was great.”
But he does admit that some points were ‘nerve-wracking’. “You’re on a date, you’re being questioned and sometimes you do slip into that, ‘Oh, I’m actually on TV here!’” William said. “So it was nerve-wracking in parts but I always said it was so much easier doing it with friends. If I had to do that singular, it probably would have been more nerve-wracking but I had the backup with my friends so it made it easier.”
He added: “But then we’re obviously competing at the same time. So you’re like, ‘Well, I wan’t a date but I want you to get a date.’ So it was quite challenging at times thinking about that.”
And while William, 38, was approached for the show, he needed to recruit his friends to take part. “I was interviewed for the programme and then they said, ‘Oh great, have you got any friends?’ and I said I do. A few of them didn’t want to do it so I asked some other ones but three of them said, ‘Yeah okay, we’ll do it,” and we got accepted onto the show.”
But the big question is, with dating the same person at the same time, was there any tension? “No, not at all,” William, who is a skin expert in Alderly Edge, said. However, it does appear he was making a bit of a mistake when it came to fulfilling his own love life.
“I didn’t realise I was doing this on the show but I was trying to set everybody else up which is a natural thing for me,” William explained. “I was like, ‘Oh so this one’s for you, Oh he’s great, what about this one?’ and everyone's said you weren’t really drawing attention to yourself.” He added; “But we’re all still friends!”
While William didn’t get chosen for any dates, two of his friends did but one only had a few dates before it fizzled out. “We’re all still single actually,” William laughed. “We need to do another one!”
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