In our modern world there’s an idea that fills our dreams and desires, something we’ve all searched for – romantic love. Lucy Worsley, A Very British Romance, BBC 2015
So much of romance isn’t about spontaneous feeling; all of love’s rituals had to be invented. Even the way that we feel can be traced back to specific historical moments. ibid.
The romantic novel – this is literature that was as revolutionary as a political manifesto. ibid.
Samuel Richardson was the fairy godfather of British romance. ibid.
The cult of sensibility ... They do buy love only when it’s balanced with economic sense. ibid.
Jane Austen created the imaginary world in which she had all the choice and control that she lacked in the real world. ibid.
Chivalry was reborn, and there were new roles to play. Lucy Worsley, A Very British Romance II
Ivanhoe: Scott applied the same approach to the chivalric romances of old. ibid.
Jane isn’t a conventional Victorian heroine ... He’s twenty years older than Jane. ibid.
The main revolution is yet to come ... Out of this turmoil came this romance as we know it today. Lucy Worsley, A Very British Romance III, BBC 2015
The 20th century was putting the sex into romance. ibid.
She and Stephen were in that stage of courtship which makes the most exquisite moment of youth, the freshest blossom-time of passion, – when each is sure of the other’s love, but no formal declaration has been made, and all is mutual divination, exalting the most trivial word, the lightest gesture, into thrills delicate and delicious as wafted jasmine scent. George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
She might have asked why she was doomed to be seen and coveted that day by the wrong man, and not by some other man, the right and desired one in all respects – as nearly as humanity can supply the right and desired; yet to him who amongst her acquaintance might have approximated to this kind, she was a transient impression, half forgotten.
In the ill-judged execution of the well-judged plan of things the call seldom produces the comer, the man to love rarely coincides with the hour of loving. Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Tess was taken completely by surprise, and she yielded to his embrace with unreflecting inevitableness. Having seen that it was really her lover who had advanced, and no one else, her lips parted, and she sank upon him in her momentary joy, with something very like an ecstatic cry. ibid.
All romances end at marriage. Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd
Absolute: Come, come, we must lay aside some of our romance – a little wealth and comfort must be endured after all. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Rivals
She’s a girl dreaming of escape; he’s a boy too wild to be tamed. They were horribly alone until their worlds collided and they fell in love. We’ve seen this all before but all around the world we keep returning to watch them laugh and despair before running across town and into each other’s arms to live happily ever after. Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema I: The Romcom, BBC 2018
Perhaps the best-loved genre of all: Romantic Comedy, or the Rom-Com. ibid.
It’s the sheer simplicity of this formula that makes it so endlessly reinterpretable. ibid.
Splash: A man falls in love with a mermaid … cf. Miranda cf. The Shape of Water … 14 Oscar nominations cf. Splash picked up just one Oscar nomination. ibid.
When Harry Met Sally … Four Weddings and a Funeral … Love Actually … Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs … Letter to Brezhnev … Follow the Fleet … This Kiss (1896) … It (1927) … 3 Idiots … The Naked Gun … Notting Hill …. 500 Days of Summer … La La Land … The Philadelphia Story … Pretty Woman … His Girl Friday … The Lady Eve … Bringing Up Baby … Bridget Jones’s Diary … Christmas in Connecticut … How Stella Got Her Groove Back … Elizabethtown … The Big Sick … Annie Hall … Top Hat … My Best Friend’s Wedding … But I’m a Cheerleader … Love is Strange … Love, Simon … The Truth About Cats and Dogs … Sleepless in Seattle … Groundhog Day … Something’s Gotta Give … The Fly … Audition … Manhattan Murder Mystery … Punch-Drunk Love … Superman. ibid.
In a rom-com we allow ourselves to leave the real world behind. ibid.
Debra Newell was running her successful interior design empire when she decided to turn to the internet in the hopes of finding love. Inside Evil s1e4: Doctor Love, Sky Witness 2018
John Meehan was far from who he said he was. ibid.
Debra’s daughters decided to take action … He was charged with extortion, stalking and burglary … right before he met Debra. ibid.
Terra Newell had been attacked by her stepfather John Meehan. ibid.
We investigate the criminals who con people looking for love. Catfish: the romance fraudsters who exploit the lonely. We set a trap for the criminals as we uncover a crime that takes us around the world. Panorama: Billion Pound Romance Scam, BBC 2018
The pick-up artists who harass women on the street. And post-footage they secretly film online. I go undercover and find teenagers being approached by older men … Revealing the truth about seduction boot-camps. Panorama: Secrets of the Seduction, BBC 2019
There is a business which claims to offer a formula for success … He [Ahmed] leads a group of men based in Glasgow who call themselves pick-up artists … Consent doesn’t seem to be a big concern. ibid.
The seduction industry is said to be worth around £80 million. ibid.
This is a story of two places [Thailand & Denmark] at opposite ends of the world tied together by marriages filmed over ten years. Storyville: Fishing for Love: How to Catch a Thai Bride, BBC 2020
‘I felt like this was the one that I had been waiting for. Maybe it was too good to be true. Did he love me or was this all a game?’ Dateline: The Women & Dirty John, victim, Sky Crime 2020
Who was this guy: ‘His name was Dirty John. I started snooping and I found everything.’ ibid. other victim
He was handsome, tall and very fit … ‘He said everything right … I fell in love.’ ibid.
She [prospective daughter in law] decided to do some snooping … They were not going to be put off … ‘Did not look to her the actual hands of a doctor.’ ibid.
I met John online. He made me feel wonderful. It was the best feeling in the world. Dirty John: The Dirty Truth, victim, Netflix 2019
Many women were terrorised … a serial predator. ibid. Christopher Goffard, LA Times reporter
… It’s humiliating … I never told him I knew it [wedding ring] was fake. ibid. Tania, first wife
There were so many things that didn’t make sense. ibid. victim’s daughter
John had all the traits of a psychopath. ibid. prosecutor
He had multiple restraining orders against him filed by different women. He was a chameleon. ibid. Goffard
They met in cyberspace where reality is entirely in the eye of the beholder, and where online love is probably just as blind as the regular kind. Maybe more. Very Bad Men s1e1: Don Juan of Con, ID 2006
Michael told her he was a surgeon who had just lost a child on the operating table. He was taking time off. He needed a new beginning. He needed Joyce. ibid.
The wake-up call came from Michael’s sister Pam who lives in Texas. ibid.
None of Michael’s wives saw it coming. ibid.
Meet Leslie Gall – men’s gift to women. Or so he says. Half a dozen magistrates have decided that in fact he is a conman having robbed and ruined many women’s lives. Very Bad Men s1e4: Sweetheart Swindler
Leslie Gall fled Canada wanted by the law and his wife and children … He headed for Florida. ibid.
‘He really takes pride in what he does.’ ibid. reporter
His first wife dumped him for another man. ibid.
Nowadays, the best way you can meet someone is on a dating app. The Tinder Swindler, woman, Netflix 2022
I get these threatening messages. These enemies were watching me, my family. ibid.
He has this magnetism. There is something about this guy that is special. ibid.
The Israeli millionaire that cheated on women. ibid. victim searches Google
A guy who had pretended to be the son of a diamond millionaire. ibid. victim
Simon Leviev was sentenced to 15 months for the crimes he committed in Israel. He was released after 5 months … Simon currently lives in Israel as a free man … It is estimated he has swindled $10 million from victims across the globe. ibid. caption