We met on Blind Date and have been married 34 years — here’s what we think of the show’s Love Island style return

Alex Tatham was 23 and on the brink of taking his chartered accountancy exams when he got a call saying he’d been selected for the biggest TV show in Britain.

It was 1988, and – at its peak – Cilla Black’s Blind Date was being watched by 18.2 million people. Still, Alex’s parents were appalled by his urge to flirt in front of the nation for fun.

That was, until it became clear that 22-year-old Sue from the West Midlands, who’d been signed up by a friend without her knowledge, would go on to be the love of his life.

“We just clicked,” she says today. “He’s so funny, caring, and vivacious; I find him easy company. We just slotted beautifully into place together.”

Next month, the couple will have been married for 35 years, having wed in front of Cilla, six television crews and 17.5 million pairs of eyes glued to the TV set in 1991.

“You can’t get more real than two people getting married, having children, and spending the rest of their lives together,” says Alex of the home they’ve built together and their kids, Charlie, 30, and Emily, 32.

“Really, it was Britain’s first proper reality TV show,” he adds, of the programme that preceded shows such as Love is Blind, First Dates and Love Island.

To bring the narrative full circle, Blind Date is now set for a “contemporary” relaunch on Disney+, with Love Island alumni Maura Higgins slated to fill Cilla’s shoes.

“She’s an outstanding choice for a host,” says Alex. “But I wonder if Blind Date translates to today’s language. You’ve got to be quite salacious to fight for airtime. When me and Sue went on, there were only three television channels.”

Neither Sue nor Alex originally went on Blind Date with a motivation to find love. Really, they just wanted to be on the hottest TV show of the moment.

“It would be like if someone asked you to go on The Traitors now,” says Sue of the intrigue.

They envisioned filming the programme to be full of sparkle and glamour but the reality of the on-screen reveal was far more rustic.

“It all looked so technical on television, but actually it was just some bloke with a bit of cardboard,” says Alex.

When it was removed, he says, “that was the very first time we laid eyes on each other”.

Alex’s immediate feeling upon seeing Sue after selecting her was relief: “She looked absolutely lovely.”

Sue was relieved for a different reason: “That he was taller than me!” she laughs. “I’d borrowed a friend’s flat shoes – and they were absolutely killing me.”

What happened next couldn’t be further from the claustrophobic conditions foisted upon reality dating show contestants today.

Alex and Sue went on their first date, a medieval banquet in Ireland, the following morning – and were then placed in hotels five miles apart.

“We were quite heavily chaperoned by a photographer and a researcher,” says Sue. “We had such a lovely time that we wanted to go to a nightclub, but they said the date was over.”

It was only after returning to London – where Alex decided to spend the day with Sue, so she wouldn’t be alone in the city – that they were finally alone. “I took her to the zoo,” he says. Then they went out for dinner – and have carried on having a lovely time for the rest of their lives.

“Sue and I started off with shared values,” says Alex of their easy compatibility that has lasted almost four decades.

“Whether it’s family, or money, or success or travel, if you share them, then you’re working towards a common goal.

“I think that’s the secret to success; and that sort of transcends any arguments – any ups and downs you might have through your married life – because you understand what’s important to you.”

“It’s been a wonderful, chilled, exciting experience,” Sue concurs. “We’ve had a wonderful marriage.”

Blind Date came to a close in 2003, after Cilla Black shocked producers and viewers by announcing her decision to leave the programme live on air. “Surprise surprise,” she yelled to the cameras afterwards.

It was a decision the presenter said she came to after consulting with her husband, Bobby Willis, who’d died of cancer two years earlier, via a psychic medium.

“I walked into her room and before I had even sat down she said, ‘You are frightened and excited. Bobby says that is OK – you are doing the right thing’,” the presenter told reporters at the time. “I hadn’t given her any idea of why I wanted to see her.”

Over the course of 18 years, Black had welcomed hundreds of single people onto the show in the hope of finding them love. The programme’s only mild controversy came when a journalist, Nicola Gill, snuck onto the show undercover, posing as a secretary, to write a story for Cosmopolitan magazine.

Cilla’s disappointed cries of “she’s a journalist, ladies and gentlemen!” are still memed on TikTok and X (Twitter) to thousands of likes today – almost 30 years on from the episode.

Nicole (politely) declined to speak for this piece, as she now does for all Blind Date requests, as the delight and intrigue over her on-screen rumbling continues to rumble forever on.

Disney’s Blind Date relaunch, which follows in the footsteps of Paul O’Grady’s 2017 takeover, will see the show “reimagined”: “bigger, better, and bolder than ever”.

While delight in the original show persists, reception to the reboot has been mixed, with some declaring the series “another show no one wanted”. Others remain cautiously curious.

But whatever happens when the show hits small screens once more in 2027, fronted by Higgins fresh off the back of Dancing with the Stars success, Blind Date has two fans for life.

“I may be a bit sceptical, but we’ll definitely be watching,” says Alex. “It’s really exciting and we do wish it the very, very best of luck.”