I would be interested to know how some of the people receiving places on the plane actually manage to find out on Saturday night for a departure on Tuesday! Do the production/researchers ring up workplaces in advance finding out if they can just take 7 days off work/school just like that?
Also spotted in the end credits that Lisa Armstrong does Mulhern's make-up for In For A Penny
Really impressed by tonight's show! I was out earlier so battled through the ITV Hub to watch it and whilst it was definitely different I don't see how they could have managed it any better. Saw a tweet earlier that summed things up pretty well - tonight was the night where Dec showed himself to be a brilliant and engaging solo presenter, whilst equally you saw how missed Ant was from proceedings. The use of Stephen Merchant was VERY clever, as it gave Dec someone to bounce off much more than a traditional Hollywood celebrity, and in his own right Merchant is very funny and entertaining.
I originally thought that Mulhern and Moffat were going to be a much bigger part of the show than they actually were, with Moffat barely featuring and Mulhern not doing much more than his normal bits.. Whilst the rearrangement of their This Time Next Year surprise was unavoidable, that also ended up working well for them as it meant bringing in another experienced presenter via McCall to help the show during the first fifteen minutes.
And a very nice nod to the end of The London Studios as well - noticed the robot computer in the back of a shot after the End of the Show show which had 'bye bye TLS' (or something to that effect) written on it! I can definitely see Dec doing some proper solo stuff off the back of this, although I still think they face a bit of a challenge in how to approach Britain's Got Talent. Are they going to acknowledge that it was recorded months ago and that's why Ant is in it so heavily, or are they going to ignore it and then have it be a bit jarring when we go to the live shows and Ant disappears?
Did any old SMTV Live viewers notice that during his link in the empty Studio 2 Dec emerged from the bottom of the screen like he used to do on Captain Justice? Really not sure if it was intentional or not...
I think all credit tonight to Dec and the team right balance struck all round found it really enjoyable, the tongue in cheek remarks about the last couple of weeks events were funny and just right well done guys!
I would be interested to know how some of the people receiving places on the plane actually manage to find out on Saturday night for a departure on Tuesday! Do the production/researchers ring up workplaces in advance finding out if they can just take 7 days off work/school just like that?
Probably yes. Last year when I worked at ITV I overheard a researcher begging someone’s employers to give him a day off on Saturday night so that he could be surprised in studio, even though he’d run out of holiday. Employers always seem to be a bit more willing to grant extra days off when the magic of television is involved!
Stephen Merchant was an inspired choice for announcer as the 'knowing wink' persona is right up his alley, certainly compared to some Hollywood type who wouldn't have a clue.
Dec did well, you could tell how nervous he was at the start - some will probably be surprised it wasn't addressed head on but given it's meant to be a Saturday night entertainment programme, there's a pending court case, and you'd have to be living on Mars to tune in without knowing the circumstances, it was probably best just to have a couple of quips through the show instead.
What seemed more obvious to me was how Dec was doing all the voiceovers and the very generic Florida clips instead of the usual messing around we'd seen for the rest of the series.
Lovely to see TLS getting a bit of a sendoff with a great nod to the SMTV days - did we all spot the LWT logo on the wall?! And even the reasonably slow sweep across the studio at the end instead of the 100 mile an hour spin (don't know if that was for TLS or just because of the circumstances).
Was Stephen Merchant always booked for last night or a last minute change due to the circumstances?
I’m pretty sure he was as it was meant to be Alan Carr last week and clearly Stephen was primarily there to plug his film rather than just being a last minute booking. A useful coincidence as he was definitely the best person they could have wished for last night.
I thought there would be a bigger increase given the extra buzz around it. Although I guess most of the people who gave a toss about the buzz are regular viewers anyway.
