Love Island: Iain Stirling says he thought the series would be cancelled after one or two years

‘It was so expensive to make,’ explained the presenter

Louis Chilton
Tuesday 03 August 2021 11:24 EDT
Comments
Love Island's Toby says that he believes you can wish for a bigger shoe size

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Iain Stirling, narrator of the ITV2 reality TV series Love Island, says he first thought the series would not last more than one or two seasons.

While Love Island originally ran for just two series in 2005 and 2006, Stirling joined the show after it was rebooted in 2015, at which point it became a ratings hit, with the new incarnation currently midway through its seventh season.

Speaking to iNews, Stirling recalled his original reaction to landing the role as the series’ droll narrator.

“We were all going to Magaluf and having an absolute jolly,” he said. “We thought it had one series, maybe two – it was so expensive to make.”

The presenter and comedian also spoke about his reputation for snark, saying: “People think I’m a lot more brutal than I am. If you go through the last six series, I’ve never said I don’t like anyone or been nasty about them.

“That’s how the show works,” he added. “If I started talking about how awful everyone was from day one, where do you go from there? I make puns out of their names or their jobs, maybe I’ll say someone doesn’t talk enough – that’s the one the islanders get annoyed about.”

Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in