New Gordon, Gino and Fred road trip was close to being agreed before Gino quit show

First Dates star Fred Sirieix has revealed just how close fans came to seeing him, Gordon Ramsay and Gino D'Acampo on some new adventures before the latter decided to leave the show.

It might have been less painful to think that the trio had no plans whatsoever to get back on the road, but if I have to live with the knowledge that they were only a few steps away, then so do you.

Gino announced his departure from the popular ITV series Gordon, Gino and Fred: Road Trip today (20 March), when he took to Instagram to announce that he wouldn't return to filming due to scheduling conflicts.

“Last week, I decided not to film any more Gordon, Gino and Fred: Road Trip,” he said. “The reason is simple... nothing to do with Gordon and Fred – the friendship is very strong – it’s just because we can’t get the dates together.”

Gino's announcement came after Fred spoke to the Radio Times about the series earlier this month and revealed the cast had whittled their list of potential road trip locations down to three choices.

"Well, we kind of decided where we want to go, although it's not set in stone and not 100 percent," he explained at the time.

ITV

Fred acknowledged in the interview that the trio had struggled to nail down a date, but little did he know that would be the thing that brought the show to its knees.

"What we have a problem with is dates because we can't seem to agree on dates," Fred said. "So as soon as we've agreed the dates (that's the hardest thing) then we can agree on the location. And it seems like it would be easy.

"We've got three very clear options that we've been talking about. Now we've got to make the dates work."

But alas, we now know that those dates will never come.

Fred did tell the publication that ITV has some previously unseen footage of the trio together, but following Gino's departure it's unclear what the broadcaster will decide to do with the scenes.

ITV

"We've got a couple of episodes where we went to Spain last year, so I think you can see it there, but I don't know [exactly] when it's going to show," Fred said.

"ITV is going to decide that and let us know when they want to show it, but it's already there. It's ready to go!"

Only time will tell whether Gordon and Fred will decide to continue their adventures as a pair.