Trouper Ant gets game face on as Amanda just plugs away
Nobody could accuse Anthony McPartlin of easing himself back in gently following his recent rehab spell.
He refused to duck out of I’m A Celeb at the end of last year.
And at the weekend he fair threw himself into Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.
That monster truck race for Ant v Dec looked terrifying enough from my sofa, so you can only imagine how Ant felt in the driver’s seat. Back in the studio he may have fluffed the odd line and looked a little on edge at times but that’s live TV for you.
The only time he seemed genuinely put out was when the guy who won Win The Ads suddenly bear-hugged him off his feet in celebration. Expect a strict no-touching warning to be issued to all civilian guests before this Saturday’s show.
Ant’s smooth return was no doubt helped by the fact that he and his old mate could probably do this show in their sleep by now.
The format remains so strong it’s even easy to forgive occasional niggles such as Scarlett Moffatt’s shouty live links and the hosts’ misguided belief that those celebrity whodunits are worth sticking with.
However I will not forgive turning Undercover into a shameless plug for Amanda Holden’s QVC homeware range. Given that she shares an agent with Ant and Dec it was all a little too back-scratchy for me to swallow.
The fact that it’s increasingly difficult to tell Amanda’s shocked face from her everyday face didn’t help.