THE past week has seen me mourning the passing of a great family ritual: Saturday nights in.

Not that we don't still have them - we do, every week in fact. I'm always in on a Saturday evening, with my husband and the children. But it's not the same. Saturday nights are not like they were when I was growing up - and I blame the telly. The death last week of Ronnie Barker rammed it home - Saturday nights will never be the same again.

When I was growing up, Saturday nights were spent in front of the TV. All five of us would sit there, along with any visiting grandparents, and enjoy the likes of the Generation Game, The Two Ronnies, Mike Yarwood, Morecambe and Wise.

It was a family occasion, the same every week, and we all looked forward to it.

We would sit Royle-family style and watch as contestants on the Generation Game battled hard for the chance to win a hand mixer or a chip pan, and laugh at the hilarious interchanges between the Two Ronnies.

If Mike Yarwood was on, my dad and me would look forward to his impression of Eddie Waring which was indistinguishable from the man himself.

These shows had everything - humour, drama, song, dance. It was all harmless fun, and ideal Saturday night entertainment.

Now everything has changed. At the risk of sounding like a disaffected octogenarian mourning the passing of Muffin the Mule, you don't get shows like that any more.

Now families tune in to the National Lottery: In It To Win It and that dreadful VIP thing, where people vie to live the high life around the world. Parents and children watch as people compete for big bucks, expensive holidays and flashy cars.

Would these same people appear on national television and pit their wits to scoop a set of soup bowls or a cuddly toy? I doubt it.

Yet I'm sure just as many people would tune in. When you think about it, it's funnier to see people pulling out all the stops to win a carriage clock than a Caribbean cruise.

Unlike what passes for entertainment today, it wasn't about the prizes.

Also served up on Saturday night now is the X Factor - people desperate for fame and fortune opening themselves up to ridicule by pompous judges. No doubt millions of devoted viewers sit screeching at the TV, swearing at Simon Cowell and Co.

But give me Eric and Ernie - or even Brucie - any day. They might have made jokes at other people's expense, but it was good-humoured. It was perfect weekend viewing, funny and light.

And after the show there was usually a decent drama or thriller. Now it's either CSI (I've never managed to follow one from start to finish) or something set in a hospital.

What with Casualty just before the watershed and Bodies after, I've witnessed so many operations I would sail through medical school.

After the children have gone to bed we spend the best part of half an hour wishing we'd rented a video (those are getting hard to come by now).

I would love to be able to sit down in front of the TV with my family and relax on Saturday night - and let's face it, my children would sit through anything if it meant not going to bed - but there's nothing remotely watchable in today's offerings.

And I'm sure if we went down the road of a set-top box with seven million channels it would be just the same.

Only we'd spend an hour or more coming to that conclusion.

Updated: 09:04 Tuesday, October 11, 2005