ITV’s My Mum, Your Dad returns with Love Island impressed Hideaway

ITV have sexed up the new series of My Mum, Your Dad by introducing a new Love Island-style Hideaway where singletons can get intimate – without being filmed.

The second instalment of the hit dating show, dubbed the middle-aged Love Island, kicks off this month featuring a fresh batch of mature singletons looking for a second chance of love.

Four men and four women will once again live in a plush countryside retreat in Midhurst, West Sussex, but this time producers are hoping for more action between the sheets with the addition of the ‘Snug.’ 

The new room contains no cameras so contestants won’t have to worry about their children, who watch footage from a separate property, seeing what they get up to.

Host Davina McCall is excited by the new intimacy room, saying: ‘There’s a snug and basically the adults, well we call them adults, people like me can go into the snug and have a moment together on their own…

‘But there’s also a cutoff switch where you can cut off a connection to the bunker. So, the kids will be watching them in the Snug and then it goes dead.’

Speaking during a Q&A for the show’s launch this week in London, Davina, 56, teased that this year’s line-up of mature singletons are more open about sex.

Indeed, she revealed daughter Livia begged her to stop her mother, Maria, speaking so openly about her raunchy sex life.

During an interview of the mother and daughter speaking to camera, Maria admitted she preferred to ‘finish herself off’ instead of finding a potential suitor on dating apps to satisfy her sexual desires.

She later admitted on a first date that her relationships post split from her husband were all about the physical and she had enjoyed plenty of sex as a single woman. 

Davina explained: ‘Obviously Maria’s daughter, you thought that was bad – her talking about sex – you just wait.

‘It’s meme central. Basically she was begging me saying ‘stop my mum from talking’ and I’m saying ‘I can’t do that, it’s a reality show, it’s got to be real, this is who your mum is.’

Other contestants include a lonely dad who FaceTime’s his child each night while he cooks dinner and another father who cheated on his wife, but was then a victim of infidelity himself, which broke his heart.

Davina believes My Mum, Your Dad is helping breakdown taboos regarding mature people dating and allows singletons to return to their original ways, believing they’ve been forced to behave while bringing up their children.

She said: ‘This is one of the funny things about being a mid-lifer now because our age group now, we are the first of a new generation of mid-lifers.

‘We are the people that were at the raves, we were at illegal raves, taking drugs, and basically it means that we were pioneers, we were naughty and fun, and we were outrageous… and then we had kids.

‘We settled down and we were good people for 15 years, 18 years if you’re lucky. And once your kids turn 18 you’re thinking, right let’s go again.

‘It’s like having a second chance at life but here we are making their children watch their second chance at life.’

Mum My, Your Dad was a big hit with audiences during its debut series last year.

The show spawned couple Roger Hawes and Janey Smith, the former a widower whose daughter encouraged him to sign up and find love again.

Its authenticity was also praised, as viewers believed the contestants participated for genuine reasons, rather than boosting their social media profiles, an accusation regularly made against Love Islanders.

Davina says My Mum, Your Dad is more of a ‘relationship show’ than a classic dating series as it connects on far deeper levels.

She explained: ‘We like to call it a relationship show rather than a dating show because it’s more than a dating show. It is multi-layered.

‘It’s not just about the matching and we do find very deep connections this series but also watching the relationships between parent and child because obviously the parents now know that their kids are watching. This causes a really nice trust between a parent and child.

‘Messages can now be sent from a child to the parent while they’re on a date and immediately the tears flow because they know it’s from their kid and not a relationship expert.’

Despite praising the moving parts of the show, Davina also appreciates the fun aspects, namely seeing the kids’ reactions when their parents get ‘frisky.’ 

She added: The most cringeworthy bit for the kids is the intimacy right… and it never gets boring.

‘Seeing kids die as their parents get frisky is really funny. But at the same time as a parent you think I wouldn’t want my kids to see that… they are on the retreat to meet someone and if you don’t kiss them then how do you know if you’re going to get the fire in your pants?

‘That’s where the magic happens. But oh my God, the kids… it’s always funny. There are kisses.’

• My Mum, Your Dad returns this September on ITV1, ITVX and STV