RTÉ has today announced a brand new RTÉ Player Original series, Love in Isolation, which will start on 9 June. Since lockdown and social distancing became the new normal, singles looking for love have had their pursuits put on hold but now love online has never had it so good.

With our Irish sense of humour, charm and wit, and as long as the wifi signal holds, Love in Isolation matches daters online to find out if opposites do attract or is it really a survival of the fittest?

Savannah Nolan, 24, from Dublin says “I felt quarantine was a great time to try new things and I thought why not go on an online dating show too. Emmet was all the things I’d asked for down to his green eyes! He was tall and athletic, driven, he had traveled and was really outgoing and good fun. We got on really well and the date and conversation flowed, I was losing track of time. My friends would consider me to be loud and outrageous, but Emmet almost made me look boring. We were both such high energy and it almost became a competition of who was the most fun and outrageous”.

Let’s face it, you’ve been video calling your friends – nobody has any news and how many quizzes are one too many? If you are living at home with your parents – you’ll be sick of talking about what’s for dinner by now. We could all do with a good fashioned, albeit socially distant, love story! Love in Isolation is bringing singles from across the country together to get to know each other while stuck in lockdown at home. On the plus side, there’s no arguing over who’s paying the bill at the end of the date!

Dater Alan Young, 24, from Kildare says “I had a great time on my date – it was a fun experience and I’d definitely do it again. It might be weird to watch it back on RTÉ Player though, because whoever watches themselves back on a date? Sometimes all we have is a blurred memory! I know this is a difficult time for a lot of people, and hopefully a bit of light-hearted fun like this will put an infectious smile on your face. As for the date itself, this was a great opportunity to do it without having to swipe left or right. It was also great to be able to share some of my life and what it’s like as a gay man on the dating scene. You’ll just have to watch and see… As Cilla Black would say, should I buy myself a hat?”

Recorded in their homes via video chat, our daters have been frustrated by lockdown and can’t wait to get socialising again, so they have jumped at the chance to dress up, have a drink and even light a candle or two. As each date is set a challenge, we’ll discover some quirky talents and daters’ secret passions that just might spark a match!