The real date doctor with a prescription for love

Will Smith's latest film Hitch tells the story of a "date doctor" who coaches losers in love on how to turn round their romantic fortunes.

Only in Hollywood you might think. But think again, because Sam van Rood is a real-life Hitch. The Aussie date doctor take singles under his wing and, for a fee, promises to teach them the secrets of a successful love life - a cocktail of toffee, traffic lights and the weather. According to Sam, women have a set of virtual "traffic ligthts" and eye contact and body language are key to reading the signals. If you they're not interested, they'll give of red signs. Catch their eye once and that's an amber light. Twice and you have "toffee eyes" - so-called because your gazes stick - which is a green light.

Sam teaches women how to give off the right signals to the right people and men how to read them. He explains, "Women control the traffic lights, men are driving the car. Women give off five times as many seuxal signals as men. The most powerful flirting technique is eye contact. But men are often too busy looking at the rest of a woman to see the signals!" Sam reckons that every man can get green lights. "I sincerely believe that there's someone for everyone. I had one client I despaired of a bit. But I took him out and in just one night he had four women give him green lights and he chatted to them. He said that was more attention than he'd had in the previous four years!"

Rejection

Reading the signs is key. "Once you've learned the singals it's easy. Lots of men are terrified of rejection but once you've got a green light, if you go up and talk to that person then 95 per cent of the time you'll get a good reception". But what should you say? "Unless you are super-confident, cheesy chat-up lines won't work. The best chat-up line I know is the "weather comment" - something like "awful weather isn't it?"

At £50 for an intorductory session, such advice may not seem good value but Sam claims to have helped hundres of Brits. "I've helped all sorts of people. From your typical IT geek, like in Hitch, to incredibly gorgeous models. The trouble the model had was that she put a red light on all the time because only sleazy bloke approached her. Sam (31) became a date doctor almost by accident. A friend who'd just broken up with her partner of six years asked Sam to teach her how to get back into the dating game. Soon she had a posse of suitors and ecouraged Sam to turn professional.

He did and, just to add to the challege, he moved to London. But isn't it a bit rich that an Australian man, a breed not famed for its romantic reputation, is teaching Brits how to pull? "Australians aren't romantic but they're friendly, like the Scots. They are much more open to having a conversation with a stranger. An Aussie or a Scot will just strike up a conversation with anyone in a bar and if they get on they'll invite them back for a beer and a barbie. Londoners are a different kettle of fish. The go around in little groups and don't like to break out of them".

Unlike Hitch, Sam's own love life is in order. A couple of years ago he took a female client out to teach her how to give off the right signals. His teaching was so successful she quickly went off with a man. But left on his own, Sam spotted one girl giving him "a massive green light". He added, "The rest is history. We're now buying a house together. It's easy when you know how."