Ant & Dec

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Anthony McPartlin (born 18 November 1975) and Declan Donnelly (born 25 September 1975), from Newcastle upon Tyne, England are popular presenters of light entertainment television programmes in the United Kingdom, as the duo Ant & Dec.

Contents

[edit] Biography

The pair grew up in Newcastle Upon Tyne and lived two miles from one another but never met until they joined Byker Grove.

[edit] Ant

Anthony David McPartlin was born on 18 November 1975 and is the eldest of three children, having a younger sister called Sarah and a younger half sister called Emma. When his father walked out on the family, Anthony was left as very much the man of the house and helped greatly with family chores.

He attended Rutherford Comprehensive High School achieving 2Bs, 2Cs, 2Ds and 1E. He had always loved acting from a young age and was recommended by his drama teacher to the scouts who attended his school in search for children to take part in Byker Grove.

[edit] Dec

Declan Joseph Oliver Donnelly was born on 25 September 1975 and is the youngest of seven children. Being the youngest, he admits he had everything done for him and uses this excuse for why he is such a bad cook. He has three sisters; Patricia, Moira and Camila; and three brothers; Eamon, Martin and Dermott. Dermott was a role model to Declan as he became a priest, a career Declan briefly considered before he went into acting.[citation needed]

Declan attended St Cuthbert's High School achieving 3Bs, 2Cs, 1D, and 2Fs, which he got in Art and Physics. He saw an advertisement for Byker Grove auditions in a local paper and immediately rang up for a part.

[edit] Children's TV

Although young Ant had built some television experience with a brief stint on the children's classic, Why Don't You?, Declan was the first of the duo to acquire his place on the BBC children's drama series Byker Grove, playing Duncan. A year later (in 1990) Ant joined the cast playing PJ (Peter Jenkins). Their friendship began when their storylines collided together creating a lifelong friendship offscreen as well as on.

One of the most famous storylines of the show saw PJ suffering with blindness having been shot in the eyes whilst paintballing.

There was also the controversial storyline of both PJ and Duncan's pursuit of Debbie. PJ and Debbie's love scene caused many irate parents to write to the show.

[edit] Music career

After they left the TV series, they turned their hand to pop music, releasing (under their Byker Grove character names "PJ & Duncan") songs such as Why Me? (Is It Justified), Our Radio Rocks and The Monkees cover Stepping Stone. Their most famous hit was the Brit Award nominated Let's Get Ready to Rhumble which included the infamous lyric "Watch us wreck the mic, watch us wreck the mic, watch us wreck the mic. Psyche!". In total, they released and helped write three platinum albums and sixteen singles, see PJ & Duncan discography for further information.

The duo never had a number one hit in the UK; even their World Cup 2002 song "We're On The Ball" reached number three, ironically beaten by Will Young who was on the show Pop Idol which the duo presented.

However across seas in Japan the duo's song "Eternal Love," was number one for several weeks as well many other singles and all three of their albums. Success also struck in Germany and many other EU countries.

Ant & Dec were also successful with the hits "When I Fall In Love" in 1996 and "Fallin'" in 1997, which achieved greatest success in South East Asia..

[edit] Television Presenting

During their music career they also helped present the children's show Gimmie 5.

Later the duo gained their own sketch comedy show, ideally titled (The Ant & Dec Show) on Children's BBC in 1995, as well as an early evening show on Channel 4 (Ant & Dec Unzipped) in 1997.

After presenting various other BBC programmes such as Friends Like These, the BBC believed the duo had run their course and decided to let them go. A regret that lives with them to this very day as their rivals ITV saw the potential and quickly signed the lads on in 1998.

They enjoyed success fronting ITV1's Saturday morning children's programmes SMTV Live and CD:UK alongside fellow successful TV personality Cat Deeley.

SMTV Live was voted number 27 in the 100 Greatest Children's Television Shows that aired on Channel 4.

They subsequently moved to Saturday evening to present Pop Idol, PokerFace and Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. Their highest audience figures to date were obtained whilst presenting I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here! in February 2004.

[edit] Award Winning Presenters

They are good friends, and have achieved such popularity as a duo that they are hardly ever seen apart on screen. This leads to them receiving joint nominations for many awards, for example in 2002, at the relatively young age of 27, they received a joint Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards. It is a running joke that many people do not know which of them is Ant, and which Dec. In fact, a 2004 Daily Mirror poll found that 70% of viewers could not tell them apart [1]. As a result, photographs of the duo are now almost always taken with Ant on the left and Dec on the right.

In 2005, as part of the ITV Network's 50th birthday celebrations, they were back on television fronting Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon, a celebration of some of ITV's most enduring gameshows from the past 50 years.

In 2006, a celebration to the show Spitting Image saw Ant and Dec having their own puppets made. They have also been made into cartoon characters on the comedy show 2DTV, and face masks in Avid Merrion's Bo Selecta. Wax works of the duo can also be seen in London's Madame Tussauds.

[edit] Passion for Acting

Besides Byker Grove, Declan Donnelly played a farm worker in the adaptation of the novel The Cinder Path, in his teenage years.

They have, albeit infrequently, returned to acting. They played themselves in the film Love Actually (in which Bill Nighy's character referred to Dec as "Ant or Dec"). They have returned to their Geordie roots in a one-off tribute to The Likely Lads ( in which they remade one of the classic episodes) and also by returning to Byker Grove for Geoff's funeral.

Their latest acting project was the film Alien Autopsy released in April 2006. The film gained mixed reviews about the storyline but the lads received a majority of great reviews for their acting abilities which many people had doubted, as they are so well known as presenters.

[edit] Recent Projects

They have also presented the charity football show Soccer Aid and the weekend long golfing show All*Star Cup. Their next major TV series was a game show called PokerFace which aired on ITV1 on 10 July 2006.

As well as these new projects, 2006 has also seen another series of Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here!.

In November 2006, the duo presented the sixth series of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here!. Stars including David Gest, Myleene Klass and Jan Leeming competed in the Australian rainforest, all battling to become King or Queen of the jungle. The show remains to be one of Ant & Dec's, and ITV's, most successful shows.

[edit] Trivia

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  • Declan broke his arm, thumb and gained a concussion whilst doing a stunt for his show Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway in 2005. In the section called Ant vs Dec, the incident involved learning how to ride a motorbike and jump through a ring of fire. Not pulling enough on the throttle caused the bike to topple over and send Declan flying falling on his head. The accident caused the boys to miss Comic Relief two days after the accident.
  • On September 16, 2006, in the first episode of the new series of Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Ant and Dec abseiled down the side of the 22-storey London Studios.
  • They are each insured against the other's death, although the amount is unknown. [3]
  • They follow the 180 degree rule; almost all their TV appearances have Ant on the left and Dec on the right.
  • Declan broke his nose when he was playing football on the set of Byker Grove. He says his nose is his worse feature, and that he considered having a nose job until he found out what was involved.
  • Both Ant and Dec enjoy football and have taken part in Soccer Six and golf.[citation needed]
  • Ant wedded long-term girlfriend, Lisa Armstrong, in mid 2006 with Dec as the best man. Ant met her on tour when they were known as PJ & Duncan whilst she was a member of the 1990s pop band, Deuce.[citation needed]
  • When Ant and Dec were nominated for a Brit Award, they decided to arrive in an ice cream van. However they got stuck in traffic on the way, so by time they'd got there, everyone had gone and the show had begun.[citation needed]
  • Ant and Dec lived two doors apart in Chiswick until Ant moved into a larger house with wife. However, the house is only a few miles from Dec's residence.[citation needed]
  • The duo are known for their friendship, but have admitted they have fallen out several times. They once had a fight in a lift, which involved Ant punching Dec in the stomach for failing to listen to him. Dec retaliated but only ended up knocking Ant's cap off.[citation needed]

[edit] Awards

The lads have won a great number of awards over the years such as BAFTAs, as well as awards for Best New Act during their singing career.

They have also gained:

  • Famously, The Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards, for their contibution to television at the young age of 27.
  • The TV Times Awards for Presenters and Entertainment Programme.
  • The 2006 Newcastle Supporters Association, "Favourite Jacket Wearers" award.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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