Saturday Night Takeaway is back, after its highest ever rating year in 2020. The main challenge of the brief was how do we create a sense of event at such a weird time for the viewers? And how do we showcase Ant & Dec in a way that feels both familiar in SNT-ness but also more relevant and contemporary? The inspiration came from their very own social feeds where they’d embraced the world of TikTok in 2020…

Filming in Covid times was definitely a challenge.  We shot in October so restrictions still very much in place.  The first creative hurdle in bringing theTikTok world to the TV screen was swapping from portrait to landscape and making the moves feel believable and seamless.  The detail was all in the pre-production and planning and a full rehearsal day was invaluable to get the timings and transitions spot on.

It’s all the little touches that make this such a polished piece of work. The moment when Ant & Dec squish their faces onto the phone screen we filmed in camera, then sent a still image to the printers while we carried on shooting the next sequence.  Two hours later it came back as a physical prop which we filmed back in camera with Ant & Dec.  In the edit that whole transition only takes one second, but works an absolute treat!