Ant & Dec

In The Jungle

Presenters Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly have been working together since they were 13 years old. They met on the set of the BBC children’s drama, Byker Grove, where their meteoric rise to fame began - thanks to their breakthrough hit Let’s Get Ready To Rhumble.

Ant and Dec - aka the Grove’s PJ and Duncan - signed a record contract and Rhumbled the charts with an amazing a 14 Top 20 hits over four years.

After leaving Byker Grove, the boys enjoyed more success presenting The Ant & Dec Show and Channel 4’s Ant & Dec Unzipped. But it was on SM:TV Live and CD:UK that the pair struck a chord with a nation of Saturday morning TV fans, thanks to the mix of music, comedy and cartoons. Co-hosted by Cat Deeley, the show won 15 awards, and became the first Saturday morning show to beat their BBC rivals in six years.

In 2000, Ant and Dec signed an exclusive deal with ITV, which saw the Geordies team up with Simon Cowell on Pop Idol. And in 2002, the lads hosted their first primetime ITV1 show, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. The award-winning series has run for seven years and is still going strong.

And yet there’s more! How could we forget the cheeky chaps’ camp quips on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here? Not to mention their recent hits, Ant & Dec’s Gameshow Marathon and Pokerface.

Not content with their TV and chart success, the Geordie twosome became movie stars in 2006 with the release of their first feature, Alien Autopsy. The film took over £2million at the box office and was also a No.1 hit in the DVD charts.

After moving back to peak time entertainment, Ant and Dec’s shows have won a staggering nine National Television Awards (including Most Popular Entertainment Presenters for the last six years in a row), six British Comedy Awards, two BAFTAs and a variety of other industry accolades.

Since last year’s jungle japes, the lads have hosted a second series of Soccer Aid in September and have re-signed an exclusive deal with ITV until the end of 2009. Hoorah!