Love Island: All Stars to launch this week after wildfires saw filming postponed

Love Island: All Stars is to begin this week after wildfires saw the villa evacuated and filming postponed, delaying its initial launch.

The third series of the ITV2 spin-off dating show will return on Thursday at 9pm after it was unable to premiere on Monday due to the production evacuation in the town of Franschhoek, South Africa, where filming reportedly takes place.

An extra episode will also be broadcast on Saturday at 9pm, with the programmes available to watch on ITVX.

In an Instagram post announcing the news, presenter Maya Jama said: “I’ve got some very exciting news, I can officially announce exclusively that we are back up and running.

“I’m obviously in glam, I’m going to the villa and start filming in a minute, and you can watch us on ITV2 tomorrow night at 9pm. Love Island: All Stars is back.”

A caption on the Love Island post read: “Maya’s got her rollers in, so that only means one thing, All Stars is back on, baby. Watch the launch at 9pm on Thursday.”

Announcing the postponement on Saturday, a Love Island statement said health and safety is the show’s “greatest priority and will always come first”.

The All Stars version of the reality show follows the same format as the original ITV dating programme, only the twist is that a host of former faces return to the villa in a bid to find their match and win the prize pot.

The new series stars two former winners, Jess Harding, 25, and Millie Court, 29, along with series 12’s Tommy Bradley, 22, and Helena Ford, 29, who appeared on the original show this past summer.

They will be joined by Jack Keating, the son of Irish popstar Ronan Keating, who appeared on the eighth series of the show, along with a number of former contestants who will reunite including series 10 finalists Harding and Whitney Adebayo and series 11 islanders Ciaran Davies, 23 and Sean Stone, 26.

The All Stars line-up is completed with Charlie Frederick, 31, from series four; Belle Hassan, 27, of series five; Leanne Amaning, 28, from series six; and Shaq Muhammad, 27, from series nine.