Holly Willoughby set herself something of a challenge on BBC1 last Saturday night, with this bold claim to Bradley Walsh: “I can’t think of anything worse than sitting next to you on a long-haul flight.”
Oh I can, Holly. Lots of things.
Sitting through another episode of Take Off with Bradley and Holly is one that comes to mind.
While I accept that this may not be the worst Saturday night game show in history – although with two episodes to go, that accolade is still very much up for grabs – it is surely the most ill-timed.
Holly and Bradley are actually offering holidays of a lifetime on primetime BBC1 during a pandemic.
It’s a time when the very act of going on holiday feels like a life’s work. And I’m afraid that timing just got worse.
The destination for the winners in tomorrow night’s show is Mexico –which has just been placed on the Government’s red travel list.
It’s not like the BBC can postpone that episode and bring forward the following week’s either – the prize in that one is a trip to South Africa, which is not only on the red list but also has its very own Covid variant.
If I were firefighting on behalf of the BBC, I would just pull the show completely and put it all down to bad luck. My real job demands that we don’t let them off that lightly, however.
Even though it was all filmed just before the first lockdown last year, it’s still a dreadfully dull format which should never have been allowed to get off the ground.
The Beeb simply tried to do Saturday Night Takeaway on the cheap. Whereas Ant & Dec filled an actual plane with contestants, Holly and Bradley try to get away with plonking 18 prize-winners on a fake section of plane in a studio.