Rylan Clark reveals the naked truth about television's new dating game show

But those who are lucky enough to make it to the end of the dating experiment, could not only successfully find love but get their hands on a huge cash prize.

How the contestants will interact with each other will be interesting, says Rylan, who first came to the nation’s attention during the X Factor talent show in 2012.

"I think it’s the vulnerability of it all. And also, none of these people are nudists. None of these people walk around naked, it’s not normal for them,” he said. “So being thrown so far out of their comfort zone, the common ground they found with each other, was that we’re all in this together.

"The crew’s not naked. I’m not naked. They’re naked. And within five minutes of meeting each other, they were all like, ‘You all right, mate?’. It’s because they’ve found this common ground and accepted who they are. Being naked becomes normal. And it was the same for me, everything just became so normal. But because they’re naked, everything is there. It’s like dating bare, laid bare.”

As Britons, we are traditionally very reserved about nudity. But should we be? Rylan thinks as a country we are beginning to loosen up.

“Yeah, what are you worried about?,” he says. “This dating show really challenges that. When you hear that they’re all naked, you think, sex fest. Oh, it’s dirty. It’s just not like that. I mean, it was at times, don’t get me wrong, there’s sex in the show. But there’s something about Brits being quite prudish at times. And I think as the years have gone on, we’ve got a lot less rigid and a lot more loose when it comes down to a number of things, but especially the body and things like that.

“This show is not sexualised in any way, shape or form. When you just lay it all on a plate, it removes the naughtiness of it. And there’s this sort of voyeuristic element as a viewer, because you’re looking, and thinking should I be seeing this? Especially when a contestant is doing an interview in the diary room and the blokes are sitting down and you’re looking down the barrel.”

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It’s difficult to imagine the nakedness not being an issue if you work on the show but London-born Rylan, age 35, who also took part in Celebrity Big Brother just over a decade ago, said he quickly stopped thinking about it.

“Absolutely. That was exactly the point of it. The initial shock value is that they’re all naked and not blurred. It’s not like we have strategic cameras. You see everything,” he says. “When you start to watch the rest of the show, you start to realise there’s a full reason for that, and that’s because it eliminates body worries, we’ve got contestants of all shapes and sizes.

“It means you’ve got no option but to just get to know that person. And we found, as a series, that because of that – being so vulnerable in a naked sense – they get to know each other quicker and make deeper connections. It’s not really all about the sexualised side of dating, where you can’t wait to get their clothes off, there’s none on. You’ve seen those goods before you’re going to go near it. It works.”

It does beg the question why people would put themselves through a show like this with, literally, everything on display. However, Rylan said the contestants genuinely wanted to meet someone like-minded to date.

“They’re all great people. None of them are stupid. They’re all really intelligent. They know what they want in life, and they want to meet someone. They’ve done the swiping left and right, they’ve done the blind dates and tried everything but it’s not worked. They’re willing to try anything to find someone,” he says.

“We were born naked. Why not give it a go? If people had a bit more of that attitude – not taking your kit off in the street – but just giving it a try and seeing what happens. What have you got to lose? I don’t want to give away anything, but we still have people together today.”

As someone steeped in reality TV, Rylan has seen it all. He says allowing people to be themselves makes for the best viewing.

“I was in and worked at Big Brother for seven years during the pure era when you didn’t see a producer. And don’t get me wrong, when you’re on an island in Colombia, sometimes contestants will see production, which is absolutely fine because they could be moving to a date location,” he explained.

“But one thing I was very adamant about was that I don’t want to be on a show where people are going in and saying, ‘Right, we’re going to do that again’. Or, ‘God, can you look a bit more sad?’ That’s not what I was brought up in when I was at Big Brother. That’s how it was. I obviously don’t know about now, because I’m not there, but that’s what I love, that purity of it.

“Trust in the daters. I’ve been a contestant and know what my reaction is going to be or how I’m going to react. Sometimes I don’t, but that’s what makes it good. We’re not herding sheep. They’re people.

“They’re going to have opinions. There’s going to be drama. They’re going to fall in love. They’re going to have sex. They’re going to kiss and make up. They’re also going to speak behind each other’s backs. They will also try and manoeuvre things to make their life better or easier. Let’s just watch it play out. And that’s exactly what happened. It was so real.”

Dating Naked UK starts on Paramount+ on Friday, August 23.