Ant and Dec spark outrage on Saturday Night Takeaway after ‘belittling’ elderly woman

A game of Ring My Bell on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway turned into utter chaos when an elderly woman named Cynthia showed up.

For those who need a refresher on how the rules work, Ant and Dec will show footage from the doorbells of people in the audience in the hopes that one of them will jump up and yell: "Ding dong, that's my doorbell!"

From then on, it's up to that person's neighbours - who are hopefully watching the show themselves - to find a certain item in their own homes and present it to the audience member's doorbell, shouting 'ring my bell'.

If they can pull all of this off, then they and their doorbell-owning neighbour can each win a nifty £500 all for a bit of running around and shouting on telly.

However, this week's run of the game fell apart after someone showed up at the doorbell who seemingly had no idea what a game of Ring My Bell was and just wanted to call round on her neighbours.

ITV

Ant and Dec initially thought she was just a very enthusiastic neighbour who was playing the game and wanted to win, but when they told her she was live on TV and asked for some of her dirty laundry (the thing the neighbours had to bring), she didn't seem to know what was happening.

To pile on with the chaos, a bunch of her neighbours quickly showed up to join her on the doorstep, each of them clutching some dirty laundry because they were playing the game.

The presenters tried to get her to move away from the doorbell and let someone playing Ring My Bell have a go, but Cynthia was determined to check on her neighbours and uphold that fine British tradition of an orderly queue.

Viewers of Saturday Night Takeaway absolutely loved Cynthia's sudden appearance on the show as they said she'd 'made my night' and had become 'a legend', but others weren't so happy with the way Ant and Dec handled the situation.

ITV

The presenters were criticised by some viewers for 'laughing' at Cynthia, with one saying they could have been nicer to an 'elderly woman who seems hard of hearing' and another calling on them to 'not just laugh and belittle her'.

Others took issue with Ant's parting words of 'just to be clear, Cynthia wins nothing' as one called it a 'little dig' and another said they 'talked over her'.

One of the most popular opinions from viewers was that if any neighbour deserved the £500 prize for Ring My Bell then it was Cynthia herself, with a few even suggesting that people should get a crowdfund going to raise the money for her.