In amongst all the success and praise Ant and Dec have achieved, one of their many credits that has gone unnoticed is that they have single-handedly (or should that be double-handedly) brought back the double act as part of mainstream entertainment.
Most people thought that end of Morecambe and Wise, The Two Ronnies, Cannon and Ball, and Little and Large in the Eighties signaled the end for double acts as a staple of light entertainment. But ten years later, after failed attempts by the likes of Hale and Pace and Newman/Skinner and Baddiel to crack the mainstream audiences along came the fresh-faced Geordie duo and took over the our screens.
Since their rise to fame on SM:TV, they have now become Britain’s most popular presenters, and deservedly so. There is nothing in comedy, or television presenting for that matter, to match the repertoire and chemistry between two like-minded people. It is no surprise then to see Ant and Dec borrowing heavily from their predecessors, most notably in their wonderful Christmas sketch with Robbie Williams on Saturday Night Takeaway a couple of years ago, which had more than a whiff of Eric and Ernie about it.
Since the rise of the Byker Grove starlets to ITV most-loved, the double act has seen somewhat of a resurgence. First came Dick and Dom, who have now unbelievably landed a Radio 1 show of their own, and of course Matt Lucas and David Walliams are very successfully now joined at the hip as a double act.
It seems that everyone is having a go, including Hollyoaks’ longstanding comedy duo, Max and OB. With Darren Jeffries (OB) leaving the show in the next couple of months, what price will there be on him and Matt Littler venturing into the presenting game? If this debut is anything to go by, they might just have a future, you never know.
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