Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly

Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly met at the age of thirteen on the set of the hit BBC children’s drama, Byker Grove. Their characters, PJ and Duncan, were mates in the show and Ant & Dec soon became firm friends in real life.

In 1993 the series led to the guys signing a record contract and over the course of four years notching up fourteen top twenty hits including ‘Let’s Get Ready To Rhumble’, Stepping Stone’ and ‘Shout’, not to mention three multi platinum albums and a shelf full of awards. British, European then World tours followed until they called time on their music career in 1997.

Alongside their music career they continued making TV shows. The BAFTA award winning Ant & Dec Show’ran on BBC1 for two series before they crossed to Channel 4 to make Ant & Dec Unzipped which also won a British Academy Award.

In December 2000 Ant & Dec signed their first exclusive contract with ITV1 and went on to host a variety of sIn Autumn ’98 their own company, Ant & Dec Productions, launched SM:TV Live and CD:UK, mixing music, comedy and cartoons and co-hosted with Cat Deeley. The show won over fifteen awards, was a massive ratings hit and became the first Saturday morning show to beat the BBC in six years.

In December 2000 Ant & Dec signed their first exclusive contract with ITV1 and went on to host a variety of shows such as Pop Idol, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, Britain’s Got Talent and I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! They have been signed exclusively to ITV1 in the UK for the last eleven years. In 2007 the duo re-signed to the channel securing the biggest UK TV deal in history.

Since their move into peak time entertainment, Ant and Dec and their shows have won a staggering 39 National Television Awards (including Most Popular Entertainment Presenters for the last 18 years in a row), 13 BAFTA’s and a variety of other industry accolades.