We can't get enough of Love Island - a Sunderland University gender expert explains why

Last year's instalment of the ITV show was its biggest ever - and we just couldn't get enough. It was 100% our type on paper.

Before, during and after each episode, fans would take to social media in their droves to dilute, discuss and debate what’s been happening in the villa with the chosen group of singletons constantly under surveillance.

To survive the series, the contestants must be couple up, with the overall aim of winning £50,000.

It really is addictive - but what is the secret recipe behind the success of the programme?

Gender expert and Professor of Language and Culture at the University of Sunderland, Angela Smith, revealed the key ingredients which contribute to the show's success.

Firstly, there are a lot of dating and relationship shows on TV at present. These took over from make-over programmes which were the defining genre of the first decade of this century - many of these personal and fashion make-over shows morphed into relationship shows towards the end anyway. Love Island falls into this category, but is a cross between dating shows and another TV genre, the public involvement game show, best known through Big Brother. Therefore it has a recognisable format which immediately connects with viewers.

This recognisable format would seem to make it too conservative, as with Big Brother's declining ratings, so Love Island tries very hard to be different. It has a much younger selection of participants, all of whom are conventionally attractive, particularly 'bikini-ready' in the case of the women. This makes the show engaging to watch - in a world where the bikini or beach body is used as click-bait in online news - and also relatable in that the participants are around the age of the intended demography.

Love Island is a form of reality TV which is broadcast with live segments. Live TV is like a game of Russian roulette: you never quite know when something is going to happen or someone is going to say something unexpected. I think there is a time lag on such shows, between one minute and 15 minutes, just to make sure nothing too libellous is uttered, but most of what is broadcast is 'true'. This means conflict and inharmonious relationships can be exploited for broadcast. But it is also very relevant in the context of Web 2.0, as social media is exploited ruthlessly by the producers to engage viewers.

Even in this digital age, there is a 9pm watershed. Love Island is post-watershed viewing, and the beach-body participants are set up for 'sexual action' by the context. The Big Brother-like camera system means that this can be captured for broadcast, and so makes what used to be called a 'water-cooler moment' that generates social media comment and wider media attention. One scene from Love Island was nominated for a must-see-TV BAFTA this year: it was where we were invited to laugh at the participants of last year's show being overheard referring to themselves as being more famous than they really were, when Stormzy appeared on screen to counteract this. The show did win Best Reality and Constructed Factual Show, though.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I think that this sort of show has romance at the heart of it. It is all about relationships and the long duration of the programme means we can get attached to participants as 'characters' and want them to pair up. This goes back to the dating show format which underpins the programme. As viewers, we want a happy ending for them. We want them to find love.

Love Island returns to ITV 2 on Monday at 9pm.