Saturday Night Takeaway 2017

The feed cut out during Win The Ads tonight for a second and they have not mentioned who won the £1000 raffle.

Not to mention the awful video quality on ITV SD.

Make Em Laugh is one of the best features they've had for a long time. Simple, not contrived, and funny. The End of the Show Show finally hit the nail on the head too after the damp squibs they've had over the last few weeks.

Don't they only mention last week's winner, and show them in the audience? As they did tonight in the first five mins.

It normally gets a mention with a graphic with their name and location on too. I was watching on TV3 and had no problems with it cutting out. HD picture fine. SD picture awful as itv was.

Yes, but people are questioning ITV over who won.

Not original either. Another YouTube rip off.

The End of the Show smacked of Morecambe and Wise again, and I don't know why but I always feel uncomfortable when they labour that too much.

Captain's Log Stardate 2040: Out of fresh ideas for Series 97 of Saturday Night Takeaway, the boys hope enough time has passed to get away with this one. Ant dons a smart suit, a pair of thick-rimmed spectacles and smokes a pipe cigar while Dec writes about "TV what I used to make" while denying he has short fat hairy legs and a wig.

Maybe because you are over thinking it, and by the sounds of 'not original either' going into it ready to pick fault.

How long does the gap between Morecambe and Wise and the next similar double act doing a similar routine have to be?

20 years? 30 years?

I won't deny they've made seemingly conscious efforts to emulate Eric and Ernie but I don't think tonight was one of them. Any traditional double act could've done something like that, it's not an Eric and Ernie exclusive.

Not trying to pick fault at all, but this series does feel a bit... bitty, not gelling too well. I think a TV show needs soul, and in order to have soul, there has to be an element of originality that the team have brought to the table themselves. Make Em Laugh and Read My Lips are directly lifted from YouTube, so 'not original' is a pretty accurate description.

As for Morecambe and Wise, that was their ACT (similar to The Two Ronnies and numerous other double acts) Ant and Dec are (very good) PRESENTERS, that some have compared to M&W because there's two of them and they sometimes did little skits. For me it feels unnatural to try and crowbar whole M&W-styles routines into their presenting.

I've said it time and time again. They're trying to be too slick for their own good. The reason Make Em Laugh works so well is because it's Ant and Dec being themselves. They were themselves in the early SNT days and they were themselves on SMTV. This is why people like them so much because they were naturally entertaining. If they let the show run a little looser it'd be much more entertaining.