Saturday Night Takeaway
Ant and Dec on the surprises in store as their hit show returns – and why they never take their success for
Saturday / ITV
I’ve cancelled all my plans for Saturday nights as Ant and Dec return for a 15th series of their fun, prank-packed show. The lads were on top form when we met them to discover what treats and tricks they’re planning this time round…
Cancel your weekend plans – Ant Mcpartlin and Declan Donnelly are back for a new series of their award-winning Saturday Night Takeaway. TV Times met up with them, both 42, to find out what fun and games they
have in store for us this year…
What can you tell us about the 15th series?
Ant: All your favourites are returning, like Ant vs Dec and I’m a Celebrity… Get Out of Me Ear.
Dec: We’re doing our biggest ever Place on the Plane giveaway – more seats than ever before, and going to a location that we’re hugely excited about. Ant: We’re going to a place that we really want to go to – and they have golf courses there!
That’s lucky! And which of you has been winning at golf recently?
Dec: We haven’t played much lately. It’s too cold and wet – we’re very fairweather golfers.
Are you still competitive with each other?
Ant: I don’t think we’re ever going to get less competitive! We’re a bit more chilled than we were – we’re not going to have a hissy fit if we lose now but we both always want to win anything we play. Dec: We both like winning, that’s the thing, which really plays to our advantage when we’re on the same side. But when we’re against each other we both desperately want to win. So Ant vs Dec is always crunch time for us.
What’s new on this year’s show? Ant: We’ve got a new drama series in the vein of Who Shot Simon Cowell? This time we’re sticking with working as The Honoured [a secret service staffed by celebrities] for Joanna Lumley. Dec: Members of The Honoured are being kidnapped so we have to track down who’s doing it and why. There’s a big baddie behind it. It was enormous fun to shoot. David Walliams is appearing in this one. He twisted our arm – he always wants to be in everything.
Ant:: Emilia Fox, Alan Shearer and William Roache are all back again. And there are some new cameos but they’re surprises because they’re the bad guys!
Does it make you want to do more acting?
Dec: In a word – yes!
Ant: We love it. That’s where we started. It’s a slightly different discipline for us and it reminds us of being back on Byker Grove.
Dec: Last year we took the best of Who Shot Simon Cowell? and The Missing Crown Jewels and cut them together into a half hour oneoff which was on ITV at Christmas and that went down really well. So we’ll do the same with this one and then we might look at spreading it out and doing a few specials, maybe a Christmas special.
What about a big-screen movie? Ant: Let’s not run before we can walk! Look, we’d love to do a movie but let’s see… Do you have to get fit before a new series of Takeaway?
Ant: Yes, the Ant vs Decs have become quite physical, and the End of the Show Shows are tough. Dec: We normally have a postchristmas regime. Once we’ve had a bit of a blow-out we try to get in shape because it’s a really tiring, physical seven weeks.
Who’s doing the End of the
Show Shows this year?
Dec: We’re kicking off with Kylie Minogue, who’ll be performing her new single and some of her biggest hits. That’ll be a lot of fun. We’ve also got Rita Ora and Paloma Faith lined up. A lot of people are up for it this year, which is great.
Ant: It’s been the most pre-booked series we’ve ever had.
You’ve just won three more gongs at the National Television Awards. What do they mean to you at this stage in your career? Ant: For Takeaway they always mean a lot because they’re voted for by the viewers and we’re
always up against great shows. And then this year for Takeaway to get the inaugural Bruce Forsyth Entertainment Award was amazing, a real honour. It’s great for the team who work so hard. Dec: Takeaway is on quite a long time before the awards so for it still to be remembered fondly by the viewers in October and November is a real accolade. And to get the TV Presenter award for the 17th year in a row is just incredible. Every year it feels like the first year: your heart’s beating, your hands are sweaty, the other nominees get a bigger cheer than you, and you think, ‘This is the year we’re not going to get it’. Then they open the envelope and read your name out. It’s the best feeling.
Talking of awards… You also won our very own TV Times Award for Favourite Presenters just before Christmas!
Dec: We did! Thank you so much to the TV Times readers, that means a lot because it’s voted for by viewers. Ant: We never take it for granted, we just keep trying to entertain people and we’re always grateful.
We try to get in shape because Takeaway is a really tiring, physical seven weeks DEC