Generation Game to be brought back with Mel and Sue

And they actually offered Deal or No Deal to Chris Evans first, who turned it down.

And of course Only Fools wasn't a huge success out of the gate and only really found an audience with a repeat run. I think though light entertainment has always been more cutthrought - Bruce Forsyth's Big Night being an obvious example from 40 years ago.


Les Dennis was in the frame as well.

How about Brendan as Mrs Brown? He has the ability to interact with people and ad lib while in character, although it may have some form of Mrs Brown branding.

As seen, people will watch anything with the Mrs Brown brand on it.

Clearly it was, because Conley did the original DOND pilot and was canned.

I could actually see Harry Hill working far better on the Generation Game than he did on Stars in their Eyes as it is a format that would allow him to mess around in a way that adds to the show rather than detracts.

Have you ever seen Harry Hill in a non-scripted show?

I suspect the problem with Brendan is that the people who love Mrs Brown love it, but you're not going to pull in any other casual viewers because they hate the whole thing. So you've got a situation where some people who like Mrs Brown, but not all, will watch any spin-off and then absolutely no-one else.

Harry Hill isn't mainstream enough for me to make The Generation Game work. TV Burp worked and was brilliant but it was heavily, heavily formatted. We need someone whose act is bigger than the show, or adds a hefty bonus to the existing format, to make it work.

On Bruce's Big Night: it feels like that was the exception that proves the rule. The ratings drop between episode one and two was catastrophic in an era when your battle was essentially between two big mainstream channels. If The Generation Game halves in audience next week it's probably done as well.

NB: And I had no idea Brian Conley had done the Deal or no Deal pilot. The more you know. Clearly the wrong fit for that show in this country, where it required an extra soap opera-esque element and essentially almost to not be treated like a quiz show. The person who matched Noel Edmonds to it is a genius.

I think ITV already beat the BBC to the revival when they aired "You're Back In The Room" with Phillip Schofield and Keith Barry, it was complete nonsense but great fun to watch for all the family sadly even that only managed to last for 2 series so I don't exactly predict a long term future for this!

He was also said to have recorded a pilot for the revival of Play Your Cards Right around when The Brian Conley Show was at its peak. He was apparently set to host the full series but ITV had nabbed Brucie back from the BBC and had him host it instead. Maybe if Bruce stayed with the BBC, Brian might still be a prominent face in British television. IIRC he hosted the ill-fated Judgment Day and 2003, which was dropped considerably quickly (I think his chat show ended around the same time but I don't know if he quit or was sacked) and almost every presenting gig he's had since has been throwaway daytime tosh.

It's not the strangest idea - we had Lily Savage's Blankety Blank after all...

I saw him play the lead role in Barnum a few years back and he was absolutely brilliant. It rarely works out when someone makes a return to prime time tv after many years absence but I think Brian Conley would be the exception to that.

Bit like Cilla on Wogan, moment she let get hair down the TV execs were fighting like mad to snap her up.