Networking Disaster –
March 24, 2018 – The rehab ripple effect: There’s an uncomfortable hole in the ITV schedule tonight, where the award-winning Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway should have been. From next week, Declan Donnelly will do the unthinkable and host the show alone for the first time in their 28-year screen partnership. The pitiful footage that emerged earlier this week, showing a dazed Ant McPartlin emerging from a crumpled black Mini, following a collision involving two other vehicles, has effectively put two careers on ice – his own, as he has now been charged with drink-driving – but also that of his friend Donnelly. It has also disappointed some 7.5 million viewers, not to mention the impact on McPartlin’s wife of 12 years, Lisa, from whom he recently separated. It’s an example of how one person’s addiction can have a devastating ripple effect. This is not known as the UK’s ‘hidden epidemic’ for nothing. It is estimated that at least one per cent of the adult population has a dependency on alcohol (though this is almost certainly too low).
