''Dates'' is a

British television Regular television broadcasts in the United Kingdom started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transmitted moving image in 1926. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection ...

romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

series created by Bryan Elsley, who also created '' Skins'', which first aired on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

on 10 June 2013, at 22:00 ( BST), as part of its "Mating Season" programming, illustrating a series of first dates between online dating service users. The show's target audience is " ABC1".

Plot

Set in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, each episode focuses on one date.

Production

Creator Bryan Elsley conceived the idea of ''Dates'' between December 2011 and January 2012, stating "a date is a very complex and grown up interaction between two people. It's a complex language that everyone understands. Everyone knows the difficulty of spending an hour or so in someone's company that you haven't met before. It seemed to be that there was an almost infinite range of possibilities that could flow from that. So dramatically it became very attractive". ''Dates'' was commissioned and approved by Channel 4 in September 2012. ''Dates'' was filmed in London during the first quarter of 2013.

Cast

* Will Mellor as David * Oona Chaplin as Mia ("Celeste") * Sheridan Smith as Jenny * Neil Maskell as Nick * Ben Chaplin as Stephen * Katie McGrath as Kate * Gemma Chan as Erica * Montanna Thompson as Ellie * Greg McHugh as Callum * Sian Breckin as Heidi * Andrew Scott as Christian *Jamie Di Spirito as Jason ''Dates'' features numerous up-and-coming and more established British and Irish actors and actresses. To promote the series and to provide further background knowledge, Channel 4 has created a series of fake online dating profiles for each of the main characters.

Episodes

Reception

''Dates'' has been critically well received thus far. Tom Sutcliffe from ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'' wrote, "the writer who wants to leave an impression behind will always be tugged towards a gratifying finish. Credit due to Bryan Elsley, then, for ending the first of Dates, a series of dramas about modern relationships, with an ambiguity". Of the first episode, Gerard O'Donovan of '' The Telegraph'' wrote, "It was enjoyable, I didn't just want more, I couldn't wait to see how successive episodes would link and weave into a format so unforgivingly dependent on great writing and acting. Suffice to say, in a game of snog, marry or avoid, ''Dates'' is definitely a keeper". Lucy Mangan of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' called the first episode "a little nugget of bliss" and commended the show for its realism and its "beauty" in its screenplay and acting. Paul Naylor of '' Express & Star'' deemed that the execution of the first episode was "classy". Of the first three episodes, ''The Scotsman'' wrote, "Elsley is attempting to say something meaningful about the guises we adopt at our most vulnerable and desperate. It's an unedifying portrait of human nature at somewhere near its worst: a cynical blast of rotten candour. Whether Elsley and his fellow writers actually like their characters is a moot point, but I can't deny the voyeuristic impact of these superbly performed chamber pieces". Writing for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...

'', Clarissa Tan said that the show's "smartness gets wearying after a while". She criticised episode four on the basis that a lesbian

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out ...

narrative "is quite thin as plots go, but not as thin as the sheets that she and her new lover Kate are under for most of the show". Tan concluded that the characters are "tropes rather than people", "a congregation of characteristic, a multitude of attitudes".

International broadcast

In Australia, the series premiered on 16 February 2015 on BBC First and was watched by 21,000 viewers.

U.S. Ratings

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

aired nine episodes of the show in 2015. Season 1

Spin-offs

Entertainment One Entertainment One Ltd., trading as eOne, is an American-owned Canadian multinational entertainment company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition, distribution, and production of films and television s ...

and Bryan Elsley have partnered to release a companion

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...

to the television series.

References

External links

* *{{IMDb title, 2964118, Dates 2010s British drama television series 2013 British television series debuts 2013 British television series endings 2010s British LGBT-related drama television series Lesbian-related television shows Television shows set in London Television shows shot in London Channel 4 television dramas