What's the worst date you've been on? Was it bad enough to put you off dating altogether? Did you learn to turn it into a good story? And are you able to look back on it with hindsight now, knowing that failed match was just making room for the right person, if you've met them yet?
These are just some of the questions host Katie Strick asks emergency service workers Paige and Rob in episode two of The Standard's new dating podcast London Love Stories, which hears the unlikely and rollercoaster love story that ensued from a very fateful 999 call to a chicken shop back in 2016.
The eight-part audio series launched last Thursday, with episode one telling the tale of a real-life Sliding Doors moment between two Londoners on the Tube (the District Line — the same as Gwyneth Paltrow's fictional meet-cute — in case you were wondering).
Rachel and Aaron, the BBC presenter and data centre lawyer we meet in episode one, have certainly had a whirlwind love story over the two decades since their eye-flirty moment on the Underground, as you'll hear in the 17-minute episode.
But not all our stories start in the good-old days before dating apps. Thankfully, for any old romantics out there, they can still happen — even in the digital dating wild west that is 2023 — as our second episode proves.
Rob, a police officer for the Met, remembers that wild west of dating apps all too well. His story starts with the worst date of his life, which just so happened to be the night before he met his now-wife Paige, a paramedic with the London Ambulance Service. Whether that's purely coincidence or strange stroke of fate, we'll leave that to you to decide.
Paige and Rob's love story is available on all podcast platforms from today, November 16, with new feelgood, rollercoaster-filled episodes dropping every Thursday throughout November and December — and featuring a very special Christmas guest (yes, actually).
Expect true, tear-jerking and goosebump-inducing stories of real-life Londoners finding love in the world's greatest city, from a pair of Putney SpareRoomers who had a secret relationship in lockdown to a couple from south London who married each other twice, 11 years apart.
Prepare for heartbreak in the West End, snogs outside Tube stations and plenty of screen-worthy will-they-won't-they moments set here in our capital city. Host Katie Strick even takes a ride on the city's most romantic bus route, where a curious number of Londoners have had their own rom-com-worthy Sliding Doors moment... though you'll have to tune in to find out exactly which bus number it is.
Think of it as a Richard Curtis-style movie in your ears every week — except all of these stories actually happened. Just search 'London Love Stories with Katie Strick' wherever you get your podcasts.
