Or Carrie and her Sex And The City friends.

So imagine trying to find the even more elusive, second-time-around Mr Right two decades on.

When you're old enough to be Bridget's mother, the very thought of looking for love all over again is a daunting task.

Your comfortable married life has suddenly fallen apart and you're probably still reeling from the shock. Your new-found freedom is great - but it also has its downside.

"Little things, like having to wire a plug yourself, to bigger things like having to manage all the bills when you've previously lived on two incomes, all have to be worked out," says Sheffield mother-of- three Margaret Birds, single again after 32 years of marriage.

"You decide you'd like to meet someone new. But then you find you've been hurled back into scenarios you last experienced as a teenager; the will-he, won't he ring quandaries and the eternal puzzle of where to go to meet the right sort of person. And at the same time, you're having to cope with the emotional growing pains of your teenage children.

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"Undoubtedly, the dating game the second time around is much harder," says Abbeydale 53-year-old Kate Holmes.

Sitting next to her on the sofa is her friend of over 20 years, social researcher Moya Riley. They met while sitting on the sidelines at Tumbletots. Both were in long-term relationships and bringing up young children.

"We never thought that, all these years on, we'd both be trying the dating scene together," says Kate, a mum of four. Her single status is much more recent than Moya's. Two years as opposed to 20.

Theoretically, Moya should now be well-versed in 21st century dating etiquette, but admits that when she found herself on her own with three kids and a full-time job to juggle, finding romance was the last thing on her mind.

She's just coming around to it, now her children have left home. "You're looking at the woman who has had three dates in 20 years," she laughs. "I'd like to start now, but it's a case of: 'Oh God, what do I do?'"

Moya, Kate and their fifty-plus friends who are also now single again are dismayed by what they find.

"From the comfort of cosy coupledom, the singles scene can look pretty exciting. It seems like they have it all. But when you become one of them, it's a different story," says Kate.

"Where do you go? We have lots of fabulous friends all in the same boat but there really isn't anywhere for us to go, where we feel comfortable, to meet people of a similar age."

"All the places I went to in my teens and 20s don't exist any more," says Moya, a youthful 61-year-old with a blonde urchin crop. "Mr Kite's, Turn-Ups at Nether Edge, Vat 1 on West Street and The Limit... all gone.

"And on the occasions when I've driven my kids into town for their nights out, I've been quite shocked by what I saw. I don' think I'd feel safe."

Kate is inclined to agree.
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