deodorant. One night a guy fell out of a tree and broke his arm – but it was more down to him being drunk off his head than any brute force from my direction).

For most of the balmy days, apart from sun-bathing time, the girls went their way in search of adventure and I went mine. Come the early evening before a long night ahead, invariably the bar talk from the girls was whether this waiter or that surfer was ‘the one’…

This year’s summer TV craze, Love Island shows that whilst the accommodation has become chicer, the stories of mercurial romance are just as timeless as all those years back – and that’s great news for TV ratings as well brands exploiting the summer of love.

The third seriessince its relaunch in 2015 is a contest in which beautiful men and women young enough to have hope in their hearts and passion in their pants, get the chance to potentially hook up with their ‘love-for-life’ for longer than two weeks.

Ingredients for a sizzling summer

For several reasons, Love Island has been a soar away hit with audiences: Firstly, the now long in the tooth summer alternative, Big Brother which puts together an olla-podrida in a Lord of the Flies CCTV rigged house, has lost much of its original charm – both in terms of the format and the odd-bods under the microscope.

TV critic and author Caitlin Moran explains:

“Reality TV has become very vindictive. It’s all about torture and pain and Simon Cowell laughing in people’s faces.” Moran