
During his rehabilitation following surgery, First Dates actor Fred Sirieix commended the ‘positive’ mindset of the show’s favourite bartender Merlin Griffiths.
Merlin revealed in September 2021 that he had been diagnosed with colon cancer with a stage three tumour, and he has subsequently published updates on his treatment.
The 47-year-old disclosed earlier this year that he had his stoma removed, adding it felt’very weird knowing all my insides are truly internal me again after 9 months of a stoma’.
He subsequently stated that he was being released from the hospital, saying that it had been a ‘difficult and tense week’ for him and that his rehabilitation ‘will not be quick, but I’ll get there’.
‘Yeah I’ve spoken to him, he’s back home, he’s on the mend now,’ Fred said in an interview ahead of the Valentine’s special showing this week.
‘He’s on a six-week recuperation, so hopefully everything will go well now that the surgeon has sent him home,’ says the doctor.
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‘But obviously, it is a serious thing that he’s got so it’s going to take time, but yeah, it’s good, it’s getting there.’
Speaking about Merlin’s attitude throughout his health battles, Fred continued: ‘He is amazing. Merlin is very philosophical, very stoic, very positive man, and every time I call him or see him, he’s got some funny stories to tell me to make me laugh.
‘He’s a good man, a very good man.’

Fred revealed that after 10 years of filming First Dates together, he ‘can’t believe’ how long the programme has been running.
‘We’ve been working together for so long now. It’s 10 years this year,’ he told us.
‘It speaks volumes about the popularity of the show, but the reason for the popularity of the show is because it’s good at heart, and the intentions are pure, and we are there because we really want to match people and make sure that they find the person that they are looking for, and that’s why people like it.

‘It’s genuine. This is a real dating show on television.’
He added: ‘The show is about people who want to live the rest of their life together, who want to fall in love and who want to have a connection, you know, it’s about that sense of trust, which is what we’re going for, you know, it’s about the real thing.
‘It’s difficult, not everybody is going to succeed, but the one thing that people know is that when they come to the First Dates restaurant, is that if it doesn’t work, with us we have tried, we’ve tried everything, we really do our utmost to match people to perfection.
‘And the thing is, it’s down to chemistry, something that you can’t engineer. You can engineer the match but not the chemistry.’
First Dates: Valentines airs Tuesday, February 14, on Channel 4 at 10pm.