IT was only a matter of time before the success of Channel 4’s First Dates rubbed off the rest of our TV scheduling and so we have BBC’s new offering Love In The Countryside - a dating show aimed at finding partners for lonely farmers as they battle the perfect storm of poor broadband, closing pubs, disappearing bus routes, rising suicide rates and sliding EU subsidies.

None of this was mentioned of course, but it was there lurking in the background of this profoundly odd show which walked a fine line between humiliation and humour.

The rural fun started when presenter Sarah Cox (a shining light throughout) explained how eight farmers had uploaded video profiles on the BBC’s website asking prospective partners to then write them love letters.

The whole letters thing was just plain weird and took up nearly half the hour-long programme, as we were treated to the rather sad sight of perfectly nice Christine crying her eyes out after receiving only a scattering of post from what were mainly psychopaths.

In contrast sexy Ed (who milked his cows on a segway) got boxes full and was soon fighting off a succession of lovelies with a cattle prod

(not literally).

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was screaming at him to pick the beautiful but sad Megan ,who was clearly still coming to terms with becoming a widow soon after she got married.

Thankfully he did, but there’s a shallowness to Ed, which the producers were quick to pick up on: at one point he complimented two women on their looks, but another missed out and the camera quickly zoomed in for a reaction shot.

It’s this kind of exploitation which made Love In The Countryside a pretty uncomfortable watch at times and one that masked some sad realities.

Many of the people involved were painfully shy and for some a little too much seemed to be riding on the show’s outcome.

Bluff Yorkshireman Peter, 52, supplied some good comedy lines, but when he compared the process to a cattle market and then chose the highly unsuitable Francesca, 16 years younger than him and fresh out of the shower according to her letter, Love In The Countryside’s whole concept quickly soured as quickly as a milk pail left in the sun.