Do you remember 2020? No, not that bit. The part about eight weeks before the global pandemic fully kicked in, when 11 outrageously beautiful single people decamped their lives in the hope of falling in love in a remote villa in South Africa. You don’t? Neither do I. After a lacklustre initial outing that featured the forgettable final winners Paige Thurley and Finley Tapp, a rebooted winterLove Island hopes to once again capture the nation’s attention with a new cohort of sunkissed islanders, while back home, normal, less attractive Britons face the drudgery of January. It therefore feels like an auspicious start for this series to begin on Blue Monday, but then again the producers behind ITV2’s runaway smash hit have never been ones for subtlety.
So what’s new this time? An updated McMansion and, of course, the arrival of Maya Jama as Love Island’s new First Lady. But we’ll get back to that.
