And don't be put off by the fact that it overlaps with the Champions League coverage . . . United v Kiev could have been immeasurably improved by throwing in a few catfights.

Now some of you may not consider speed dating to be a sport (And why not? It's sure to pop up at an Olympics sooner or later) but our reason for mentioning the programme in these pages is that the hunk of love at the centre of proceedings is none other than Australian tennis star Mark Philippoussis.

This is a brilliant piece of casting as it turns out that despite being a professional athlete and quite the dish, Mark is utterly gormless around women, coming across as awkward and nervous while constantly tripping over his dunder-headed statements.

The show's setup is an ingenious blend of stupidity and cruelty. All Mark knew initially was that he had signed up for a competition where women would compete for his affections, but then it was revealed to him that the women are the predatory type in their forties. Cue dramatic music and shots of Mark looking stunned and unimpressed. And then it's revealed to the Cougars (as they are called) that there is a second group of women competing for Mark's affections, a cache of nubile twenty-somethings, or Kittens. Cue dramatic music and shots of the Cougars looking stunned and unimpressed. And so Mark, who is 30, will eliminate one member of each group every week before choosing a winner, thereby once and for all empirically proving whether older or younger women are better. And it's called Age of Love! Brilliant.

The producers may have an agenda though. This week Mark's date with the Cougars was to go to a skating rink, while his date with the Kittens was in a hot tub. Now that may not seem like a level playing field, particularly when all the Kittens look like they've stepped straight out of an lingerie catalogue, but it also gave rise to one of the most uncomfortable silences this side of a Steve Staunton press conference. After Mark and the girls had clambered into the tub all giggly and excited, there was a sudden realisation that they had nothing to say to each other. There followed at least 30 seconds of excruciating nothingness as everyone looked this way and that, avoiding eye contact while racking their brains for some way of starting the conversation. Eventually it was Mark's voiceover that broke the silence: "All I could think of was, 'I wonder what the Cougars are doing now?'" Yeah right. Prioritise Mark, prioritise.

The talking heads interviews with the contestants throughout were a thing of beauty. This is the kind of television that works brilliantly when made in America, where there is a ready supply of beautiful people hardwired with reckless doses of self-confidence. For example, Tessa (24) introduced herself to us by pointing out, "I have great morals. I have great thoughts." Yes she does, and among them was the thought that she should introduce herself to Mark while wearing a skimpy white bikini, showcasing the kind of figure that would have Barbie rushing to her plastic surgeon in a flood of tears.

Mark takes up the story: "When she walked in I just thought, 'maintain eye contact, maintain eye contact, don't look down, don't get caught looking.' I was concentrating harder than I ever have in a tennis match, I didn't actually hear a word she said."

Which is a shame, because she was explaining how she loves her tiny pet dog as they have the exact same personality and just "get" each other. Equally good was Megan (21) railing against the suggestion that an older woman could offer more to the lovelorn Mark: "Maybe I'm just young and naive, but in my head I don't know that."

The show's elimination section was a tense, drawn-out affair in which Mark spoke/smarmed to each girl individually. "I want to get to know you better and get to see what's behind that smile. Will you stay on this journey with me?" Yuck.

When he eventually got around to throwing out a Kitten she happily reasoned, "I'm disappointed but I'm not devastated cause I'm only in my twenties." Smash cut to Angela (40) who was also asked to leave the building, but did so without the safety net of youth and was distraught that her chance of love had been scuppered, blinking back tears while admitting, "I don't know, maybe it's the end of the road for me." Ah yes, love can protect us from our age but our age can't protect us from love. Even allowing for that downer ending though, for the next few weeks there's only one show in town worth watching. Go Cougars!