Variety is officially no longer dead...

That would be in line with my understanding of the concept of guest presenters.

I never know it was.

A very varied and entertaining hour it was too. Stephen seemed understandably nervous, but pulled it off well. The quiz element left a lot to be desired. It's as though they didn't want to bring back beat the clock, but shoehorned some audience element.

There could have done Take you pick, or name that tune

I can't see some acts being happy with not being "Top of the Bill"

Think Beat The Clock is licensed format from Mark Goodson/Fremantle.

I found it very poor honestly.

Not being old enough to have seen the original, I deferred to my parents, who simply said "not as good as it used to be". I'm no fan of Mulhern, and I think he lacked throughout - not incompetent, but lacking the gravitas to not seem like a spare part.

Don't get the appeal of Stephen Mulhern at all.

Stephen is a solid presenter, but as Billy mentions, doesn't have the gravitas of an old school entertainer.

Still, Jason Manford may prove to bridge the gap next weekend.

I seem to recall the odd episode or two of the original circulating on YouTube, but I definitely know Network have two DVDs out with old episodes on them. I've seen a few of them, and frankly you can only compare them by so much. Times have changed a hell of a lot since the 50s and 60s, as has the variety circuit. The original show was a transmission of a common form of entertainment. It's now a revival of a format is, sadly, very uncommon on television, let alone in theatres.

Of course it won't be "the same" but I really do have to take several of my hats off to ITV for doing a cracking job. They could've easily tried to appeal exclusively to an audience who'd have memories of the original show and risk alienating a much larger demographic, but the modernisation paid off. Here's hoping this is the beginning of a true variety comeback.

Yes they did try and get the rights but were unable to for whatever reason, hence the new game.

Guest hosts are good to see who really is able to do well in the reality show format.
Stephen was fine, but should be more used to game shows and BGMT than this.

Beat the Clock is licenced elsewhere so that's fine, as long as they had a new game in place.
Little Mix's performance is the kind of thing you would only get in these shows, which is why I'm glad it's back. And it was the highlight of the night (sorry Bryan Adams, if he had sung Everything I Do I Do It For You, that would have helped)

I guess the only proper thing really is the spinning round finale thing.