A middle-aged couple and a younger couple arrive separately with their own unique fantasies.

It’s Bad Neighbours, the Fantasy Island edition: one of the couples we meet this episode has to win the award for the ‘most wasted fantasy opportunity’. Sitting in your own back garden? OK, you wished to have a dead tree back, but still. Aim higher.

The ‘twist’ this week is that the other guest couple are their real-world neighbours… the ones that they’re locked in a battle with. It’s a battle exactly as passive aggressive and petty as you’d expect from warring neighbours, but there’s a nasty streak as the shots fired escalate in their spite.

Our second couple are struggling with some major fertility-related life decisions, but the island works its magic on their self-awareness and helps the pairs to understand each other… they’re simply at very different life stages, with distinctly different needs and it turns out that cutting each other some slack is all it took. There’s a message in there somewhere for today’s world and the kindness and compassion it so often lacks.

Verdict: A fairly basic episode without enough focus on the emerging deeper intrigue between our recurring characters. 6/10

Claire Smith