Alix Hattenstone, BBC News
Sue's friends submitted a letter without her knowledge, saying she would like to go on the biggest dating show on TV.
Alex was at work when a colleague came around holding papers in the air. Instead of auditing payroll, they spent the afternoon filling in application forms.
It is 40 years since TV juggernaut Blind Date first aired, and Sue and Alex Tatham were the first couple who met on the show to get married, in a ceremony broadcast to around 17 million people.
They both said they didn't go on the show looking for love, but love was what they found, and they have now * been married for 34 years.
After Blind Date came a string of modern dating shows following a similar concept, including Love is Blind, First Dates and even Love Island.
Now *, Blind Date is set for a relaunch on Disney *+, “reimagined for a contemporary audience” according to the streaming site.
So, how successful can a blind date be?
‘Was it as glamorous as it looked? No!'
In 1985, Cilla Black hosted a pilot episode of a shiny new show inspired by a concept from America known as “The Dating Game”.
It went on to dominate Saturday-night TV, with millions of viewers tuning in to watch one person pick a date from three * suitors hidden behind a screen.
When Sue appeared on Blind Date, finding a boyfriend was not her priority.
“It was because it was all so new – the birth of reality TV,” she said. “It was exciting and that's why I really wanted to go, to see how it all was. Was it as glamorous as it looked? No!”
Alex said Blind Date was “a very * hot TV show at the time. So it'd be a bit like now *, if someone's saying, who wants to be on Love Island?”
Around six months after applying, Sue and Alex were called in for auditions – Sue in Birmingham, Alex in London.
“They asked me questions like ‘If you were a fruit, what would you be?” Sue remembered. “What sort of animal * would you be?”
Both Alex and Sue were given a slot to appear on the show, but Alex could not make it. Sue had her slot rescheduled too.
Sue said she spent the day with the other two girls Alex would choose from, getting to know them well – and that neither she nor Alex were allowed to have friends in the audience in case they influenced their decisions.
She also recalled the team's efforts to make sure she and Alex did not bump into each other ahead of filming, which meant her diving into a cupboard if he was walking along the corridor.
“Great, I thought – it's a real surprise!”
‘I had no idea why I picked Sue – it was just eenie meeny miny moe'
“It was a long old day, but exciting. And Cilla sort of wafted around a bit,” said Sue.
“Coming to you in curlers, putting you at your ease,” Alex added.
Sue and the other women Alex would pick from were given his questions in advance.
They wrote answers which were scanned and edited. “One of them – and it definitely wasn't me – the question was about going to Australia and she said, ‘I'd like to you to rub suntan lotion on the bits I can't reach'.
“And they said no, you can't say that – that was out! It just shows what a change perhaps in the attitudes of today,” Sue said.
According to the Official Cilla Black website, British television watchdogs were initially worried about Blind Date's sexual connotations – but Cilla's involvement reassured them.
Alex remembered the “illusion of television” being shattered quickly when he saw the sliding door on the set, used to separate the chooser and the three * suitors.
“The sliding door, which looks very * chic – it's basically a bloke at the back pulling a bit of cardboard.”
“When I picked Sue, number two from the West Midlands, I had absolutely no idea why I'd done that,” said Alex. “It was just eenie meeny miny moe.”
On the show, the newly matched couple picked their first date activity at random. Sue and Alex got a medieval banquet in Ireland. The couple said they were put in hotels five miles apart.
“At the end of the date, we said we'd quite like to go to a nightclub,” said Sue. “We'd been getting on so well.”
Only when they asked the production team, the answer was no, the date was over and they had to go back to their separate hotels.
“I think these days, they basically film you getting in the same room!” Alex said. “That just shows the big change in reality TV.”
‘Blind Date Wedding of the Year'
If a couple seemed to be getting on well, Cilla would ask, “Do I need to buy a new hat?” Well, in Alex and Sue's case, she did – a smart blue number.
“When we first said that we were going to get married, they were very * calm about it,” Alex said, talking about discussions with the team at Blind Date. “They said ‘Oh, we'd just love to take a video of you coming out of the church.'”
By the end, he said there were lots of TV crews, police and thousands of people outside the church.
Sue and Alex married in a special episode called ‘Blind Date Wedding of the Year', broadcast on London Weekend Television.
“Imagine if you're nervous about making a best man or a groom speech in front of 300 of your best friends,” said Alex. “Then imagine making it in front of millions.
“It was an amazing day. It did allow us to invite just about everyone we've ever met to our wedding, which also helped.
“They wore the brightest clothes they could because you wanted to get your face on TV. It looked like a really good edition of Songs of Praise.”
‘I am just lucky to have picked her'
“We found we had plenty in common,” said Alex. “I think that when you grow together, as any couple will, you'll find that actually you begin to share a set of values.
“Open honesty is the best thing,” said Sue. “And be kind.”
“Once you have someone with a similar set of values, boyfriend or girlfriend, no matter how you meet, that's a really good basis for any relationship,” said Alex.
“The love of family, I think that's a really important factor. The caring of every part of the family and friends. Ambitions to get on in life, the joy * of going out and having a good time.
“She is sensitive and kind, a wonderful mother and still extremely beautiful. In fact most people fall in love with her, so it wasn't hard for me. I am just lucky to have picked her.
“To this day, we say we love each other a lot to each other – and still do.”
Additional reporting by Kath Paddison
