TV shows we love: Love Rat
Cape Greco. Ayia Napa. Nissi Beach. This British TV series was shot almost entirely in Cyprus!
I can’t honestly say I love Love Rat. But I do very much enjoy seeing our island on the small screen: shouting out ‘Ooo the sea caves!’ and ‘Look, that’s the Sculpture Park – I’ve been there!’
Airing on Britain’s Channel 5 in May, this four-episode drama follows Emma, a 50-something from Stockport (played by Sally Lindsay) who sets off to Cyprus to find herself post-divorce.
Almost instantly (they’re having it off within the first 20 minutes of episode one!) she meets a charming suitor, a man called Nico who claims to be a hotel owner. Cue starry-eyed dinners in familiar restaurants, moonlit walks on the sands of Fig Tree Bay, and stolen kisses off the coast of Protaras…
So far, so Shirley Valentine. But things soon take a darker turn when Emma realises her newly-beloved has conned her out of her life savings.
It’s a brilliant premise, though it certainly isn’t going to do much for Cyprus’ reputation! And as Emma embarks on a desperate mission to retrieve her money, we have all the makings of an excellent psychological thriller.
Sadly, plot, script and characters are all terrible. Wooden is an understatement; the dialogue, actions and reactions are almost wholly unbelievable, and Cyprus is portrayed as a den of thieves and a sink of iniquity!
On the other hand, if you know the island well, none of that really matters. Love Rat is worth watching purely for the local scenery and dreadful mistakes…
Emma, for instance, arrives in Napa from the east, despite the fact the only two international airports are to the west. The majority of Cypriot characters have accents that are far more Athens than Ayia Napa. And the club the couple visit appears to be peopled almost entirely by teenage Eastern Europeans. (Although, to be honest, this may be true to life and I’m just too old to know!)
Plus there’s the whole fun-in-the-sun angle. There are probably countless divorcées sitting in Stockport right now, dreaming of a whirlwind romance on the Island of Love. And many of them might well give up their life savings for such an experience…