THIS weekend the BBC is bringing back one of its most successful shows.

And I have no doubt it will be a hit with viewers - not least because it will mark the return of Mel and Sue, not seen on screen together since they exited the Bake-Off tent as the removal men carted it off the Channel 4. Sensibly avoiding taking on another cookery show, they are at the helm of the re-generated Generation Game (see what I did there ?) While many will be saddened by the idea that no fresh ideas can be come up with - the Generation Game has been too much of a jewel in the BBC’s Crown not to revisit it.

They surely will have seen, not including the recent blip in proceedings, the run away success of Takeaway on the the other side which is essentially a souped up generation game. Winning the ads at the end is just a thinly disguised variation on the conveyor belt full of miscellaneous items, some expensive and some not so much.

And both have opportunities for humiliation, warmth and, above all, family bonding. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that the BBC want to re-claim some of that audience share.

Apart from Strictly in the winter months, it is now sorely lacking in something that regularly brings in the viewers for the at primetime weekend slot and who better to take the helm but a similarly tried and tested comedy pairing.

They are the right mix of silly - with a dry-wit and willingness to get amongst it. I am, ahem, old enough to remember when Bruce was doing it and then, in its not to so halcyon days, when Jim Davidson took over.

There is probably a generation of teens now who don’t even know who Jim is - or Larry Grayson who hosted the show for three years until 1981.

Jim has fallen off the radar a bit from a televisual point of view since the conveyor belt of dreams last shut down in 1981.

It had run its course then but all fashions come back around again at some point or other.

Originality is a rare and precious thing on television these days - if something works it is done to death and revived a million times.

A fresh idea rarely stays that way - how we applauded the person that came up with celebrity talent shows.

How I hate them now - apart from Strictly of course which pretty much led the way.

This is why I admire people like Ricky Gervais and even James Corden and Ruth Jones, although I realise at least two of those divide opinion.

They all had massive shows they could have continued to make money out of but decided to leave where they were after just a few series.

That is how classics are made.