Why Chris and Kem were the true star couple of Love Island 2017

For a programme build around the idea of relationships between men and women (let's not get into an argument about how ancient and heteronormative that concept is right this minute), it's fantastic that the strongest bond on Love Island 2017 was between two of the gents. 

Chris and Kem's blossoming friendship was hilarious and beautiful in equal measure. It was also completely natural – there were no forced dates or a £50,000 prize up for grabs for the lads. They just really enjoyed each others company, and we enjoyed them together – so much so that TV producers are lining up a spin-off reality show about the pair.

Here's why Chris, not Amber (ugh), should have been the one holding Kem's hand when the Essex lad was announced as King of the Villa last night...

They highlighted the importance of 'bromance'

Young men in Britain have an unspoken problem: statistically, we have no mates. A 2015 YouGov poll carried out by The Movember Foundation found that 12 percent of men over the age of 18 don't have a close friend they would discuss a serious life problem with. That means there's  two and a half million men with no Chris or Kem to confide in.

Our 20s are a tough time, an era when we start to build our careers and own independence, free from the comforting shackles of university and the family home. Inevitably, that involves losing a lot of the friendships that have defined the previous two decades.

We've all been in that situation when your best mate from school gets a girlfriend and drops off the face of the earth for six months. No more after-work pints or nights on the pull, he's got to stay in and binge-watch the seventh season of The Good Wife. 

But, in a show where your sole aim is to get a girlfriend and stay with them – so they don't leave you for the new guy who has come in with eight abs as opposed to your measly six – Kem and Chris stuck together though it all.

And when you consider the rising suicide rates among males, now three times the rate of women, it's important to have a bromantic partner with whom you can talk to when things get tough - even if the advice is as useless as Kem's.

They were the only couple who had anything in common

Love Island was so mind-numbing, mainly because it placed more emphasis on physical attraction as opposed the cerebral. The girls literally had to state their amorous targets before the poor blokes had even opened their mouth.

Throughout the show, we all wondered what Chris and Kem saw in their female partners (especially when Olivia seemed to use Chris as a verbal punching bag). But Chris and Kem shared an interest in rap, and together they span the deadliest ryhmes in the house (OK, competition was scarce).

 They're now rumoured to be starting off on a music career with each other, while Kem has contacted rapper Stormzy to join the boy's crew. Boy Better Know better watch their back.

They left their mark on each other

Everyone had sex in the house. It meant nothing. Even the shows producers made light of the comic regularity with which the housemates bonked, by turning the presumably steamy scenes into something straight out of a sitcom. 

But Kem and Chris touched each other physically like no other housemate – to the extent that they both shaved their initials into the foliage surrounding each others private parts. It was weird.

You don't have to do this with your mates, don't worry.

They are probably the only couple who will last

They promised each other they'll be best men at their weddings – whether Olivia or Amber involved is up for debate. They got matching infinity friendship bracelets – tantamount to a pre-nup these days. And they did that shaving thing.

Chris' partner Olivia summed it up well when she said: “Imagine coming on Love Island and meeting a boy who feels about you the way they do about each other." Rather.