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Dating shows are all over TV but have never quite taken off in audio, despite numerous attempts. In the fascinating but shortlived It’s Nice to Hear You, created during the 2020 pandemic, we listened in to would-be couples as they exchanged voice notes. Last year’s This Is Dating, which eavesdropped on first meetings and then provided post-date dissections from behavioural scientists, was similarly compelling, though a second season is yet to materialise.
Now we have 28 Dates Later, in which host and comedian Grace Campbell goes on dates with 28 men whom she meets through apps. The twist here is that Campbell, daughter of former Labour spin-doctor Alastair Campbell (they used to host a podcast together), has decided to go against her usual type. She explains how she has become disillusioned with dating apps, which repeatedly lead her to the same men, many of whom have already matched with her friends. She is, in short, in a dating rut and needs to shake things up.
There could be another barrier to Campbell finding the man of her dreams, and that’s the fact that she is recording her dating adventures for this podcast, though we are three weeks in and, thus far, she isn’t short of candidates. Most of her dates remain nameless, presumably by choice, which leads her to name them after a single character trait that would normally send her running for the hills. One is “The Sugar Daddy” because he has a large trust fund, doesn’t work and claims to have dated 1,000 women in three years. Another is “The Guy with the Girlfriend”, which should make him persona non grata, but it turns out he is in a polyamorous relationship. Then there is “The Guy with the Foot Fetish”, who needs no explanation.
In each episode, we get excerpts of the dates alongside debriefs between Campbell and her friends Roz and Dan. The dates themselves make for rather flat listening — I was willing Campbell to ask questions that would make her companions reveal more of themselves and their foibles — but the post-date analysis, during which she is better able to show off her comic chops, is a hoot. A date with a therapist indirectly leads to her sharing memories about having a wart removed during her secondary school years, and pranking friends by texting them from her mother’s phone to announce she had died while under the knife.
As the show progresses, it will be interesting to see if our host loses patience with these men, many of whom wear their flaws with pride, or if she will have cause to rethink her so-called “type”. For Campbell, finding love is the goal, but if she does meet the right man and stops playing the field, it will be podcasting’s loss.