Ant and Dec bring their Saturday Night Takeway back on to ITV this weekend for the first time in three years and it sees the Geordie duo once again set to dominate Saturday evenings, we’ve decided to look at exactly why we love the pair so very much.
The simple answer is that they always come as a pair. One without the other just isn’t as good as having the two of them presenting with each other. The reason for this is their greatest strength lies in the ease and obvious comfort the pair has in each other’s company.
Far too often we see a pair of presenters thrust together that have no natural chemistry and have to really force the link between the two of them onscreen. While this may seem a viable process on paper, it just isn’t on camera. As we’ve seen over the last season of the America X Factor, when two presenters don’t have good on-screen chemistry, then it all just looks stilted and the repartee between the two looks false and written.
This just isn’t the case with Ant and Dec though, with the pair having known each other for over a decade and so used to each other’s company, that all of the banter between the two just looks wonderfully natural and easy.
The duo are also master improvisers, able to respond to the oddest of situations should they arise in a wonderfully unflappable manner. This ability to adapt to whatever the public can throw at them is an invaluable skill to have and makes Ant and Dec just all the more enjoyable company.
This ability to get the humour out of most situations is yet another factor in the Ant and Dec puzzle that we like so much. The two obviously never take themselves, or the situations they get put into all that seriously, which once again never makes their company overbearing or portentous.
It’s clearly not just us who like them, as the duo have won the Best Entertainment Presenter award at the National Television Awards for the last twelve years, sweeping all competition out of the way quicker than a failed Britain’s Got Talent contestant.
Over the last decade they’ve also become as important to ITV as Coronation Street and Simon Cowell. If the channel has any doubts about a show, as long as they hand the presenting duties over to them, then they’re almost guaranteed at least a healthy audience and a slick production. Heck, even the torrid Red Or Black was a nicely put together production.
As long as the two stick together, we can’t see anyone ripping that crown off them for a very long time.
Tagged in Ant And Dec National Television Awards Simon Cowell I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here ITV Britain's Got Talent