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Ant and Dec: Tell TV times about fake pandas, huge prizes and more in this series of takeaway

Recently winning the TV Presenter prize at the National Television Awards for the 19th (!) consecutive year, and with over 30 years of telly experience, you’d think Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly would find fronting their ITV series Saturday Night Takeaway a breeze.

So we’re a bit surprised when the I’m a Celebrity… and Britain’s Got Talent hosts tell us Takeaway, as they like to call it, is the show that makes them most nervous.

And there’s even more at stake when it returns for its 16th outing this week with a host of exciting new celebrity guests, more surprises and the biggestever prize giveaway on British TV.

Here, Ant and Dec, both 44, tell TV Times why we should cancel our Saturday-night plans…

You took a year off from Takeaway in 2019. Are you coming back with a bang?

ANT: Yes, we both said we want this one to be the best ever and so far things are looking good. But we’re always nervous with Takeaway because there’s always so much going on. One minute you’re singing and dancing, the next minute you’re abseiling down the building, after that we might be surprised by Stephen Mulhern or be doing an audience surprise. It’s like you’re a ringmaster!

DEC: Yes, we’re more nervous doing the live Takeaway shows than anything else!

You’re both used to live TV…

DEC: But we’re always making changes up until the last minute – we’re always losing bits or adding bits. We’ve also had times where we’ve planned an elaborate surprise for someone and they haven’t turned up and suddenly we’ve got eight minutes to fill!