Byker Grove
In 1989 a revolutionary and immensely popular new teen drama hit British telly. It was called Byker Grove and was set in Newcastle at a time when most shows were shot and set around London. It aimed to tackle the real-life problems and issues facing teens of the day. Dec was one of the original cast, joining the show aged only 12 and played the character of Duncan. He was a well-liked character but it was not until a year later, when Ant joined the cast, that they both became two of the most popular actors on the show. Ant was painfully shy when he first joined Byker Grove, and as a result was a bit isolated from the others. Dec said at first he thought that Ant was a 'miserable git', but once the two started talking and realised a shared passion for Newcastle United, a firm friendship began. In fact, Ant sent Dec a christmas card asking him to go to a Sunderland vs. Newcastle United game, an invitation Dec obviously accepted, and they have been inseparable ever since (according to an recent ITV interview the boys have not been apart for more than a month in over 17 years!). The chemistry between the two on-screen was immediate and the writers changed their storylines to mimic the real-life friendship.
Ant and Dec remained on Byker Grove until 1993, when both aged 18, they left the show. Ant's character PJ was blinded in a freak paint ball incident and much of their final season together revolved around this storyline. PJ left to attend a school for the visually impaired and Duncan, followed shortly after. They briefly reprised their roles in 2000, for a special reunion episode, to attend the character Geoff's funeral. In this special episode viewers learnt that PJ and Duncan remained friends since leaving the Grove and were running a charity for disable youths together.
[»» Visit the Byker Grove forum for more information/discussion]
Pop Stars
In their last episodes of Byker Grove Ant and Dec's characters had started a band and the single performed on the show (Tonight I'm Free) gained popularity and was eventually commercially released. After leaving Byker Grove Ant and Dec, released 2 more albums under their Byker Grove pseudonyms and the last under their own names. It was a very profitable, but rather short-lived career as pop-stars, before they returned to their first love, television.
In 2002 they temporarily renewed their pop careers releasing the official England song for the football world cup - We're on the Ball.
[»» Visit the Music forum for more information/discussion]
- Psyche (released 1994)
-- included the massive hit Let's Get Ready to Rhumble.
-- It reached number 5 on the charts. - Top Katz (released 1995)
-- included Stuck on U.
-- It reached number 11 on the charts. - The Cult of Ant and Dec (released 1997, and for which this site is named)
-- included Shout.
-- It reached number 15 on the charts.
They also released a variety of singles, often including tracks where the boys interviewed each other, eponymously named the 'PJ and Duncan show'.
Television
The Ant and Dec show started as the boy's pop careers wound down. It was a rather short-run sketch show which aired in the CBBC (children's BBC) time slot. It was aimed at children and young teens, and while was not ultimately successful, gave the duo the chance to hone their comedic and presenting skills. It caused controversy for the segment Beat the Barber in which children from the audience were asked a series of questions to win prizes, but if were unsuccessful had their hair cut off. It never seemed to cause any grief except to the adult viewers, but was one of the contributing factors which ended the show.
Ant & Dec Unzipped
Aired: C4 (1997)
Ant and Dec Unzipped was their first foray into adult television and had the much coveted Saturday night time slot. With a much latter airtime it allowed far more flexibility and less scrutiny to their content. It was a comedic sketch show, with their material quite often venturing towards the crude or dubious taste. However, it was meant to be a show hosted by two young lads, aimed at a laddish audience. The advertising and billing, however, was trying to appeal to older viewers when their core audience was obviously meant to be much younger. This mixture of message saw it miss its key audience and resulted in its failure to achieve the success promised and was dropped by Channel 4 after a single season.
Friends Like These
Aired: BBC (1997-1998)
With the tag line -'Let a mate decide your fate' - Friends Like These was the boys first big success at cracking the Saturday night time slot. The premise was simple, two teams of friends would battle it out for a luxury holiday. A challenge would be announced and each team would have to volunteer a person to win the challenge pitted against the other team, with winners earning a point for their team. There were four challenges in this manner, and as each team member can only compete once, it saw the two final competitors from each team going head to head in the Decider to win a maximum of five points. Whichever team had the most points at the end wins the tickets for the holiday.. but there is a catch... each team member has to earn the holiday ticket for one of the other team members. It was simple and terribly captivating telly and showed off Ant and Dec's brilliant quick wit, commentary and flawless timing when presenting together. They remained on the show for two seasons, until the BBC thought they had run their course and let them go. They were quickly snapped up by ITV, who were to be their greatest supporters and their meteoric rise to fame began.
SM:TV and CD:UK
Aired: ITV (1998-2001)
Undoubtly one of their most successful programmes to date, SM:TV (Saturday Morning TV) was billed as a children's cartoon show, but drew just as many teens and adults, as it did children each week. Ant and Dec were joined by a co-host, the beautiful Cat Deeley, and with a fantastic mixture of cartoons, sketches and competitions, all performed live, SM:TV became an instant hit (dethroning the then rulers of children's telly, the BBC) It included segments such as Wonkey Donkey [clip available in the media section] where children had to ring in to guess the rhyming description of a particular animal (e.g. twee bee, smitten kitten etc.) The ridiculous answers and the rants, particularly of Dec, were wonderful to watch.
Other segments included the Postbag, where letters from the public were read out, and all manner of strange and disgusting things were sent in; such as the largest potato crisps etc. (the audience would try to get Ant to eat them... he quite often had a nibble). This segment included the wonderful Postbag dance when all the presenters and guests for the week lined up to dance along to the Beatles - Mr Postman. It also caused controversy when it appeared once during the dance Dec had collapsed with the show quickly cutting to the cartoons as a nurse ran on. During the break audiences across the country rung in concerned, only to be told when the show resumed it was an April Fool's joke.
There was also had a segment called Captain Justice (Ant) where eponymous superhero would tell the audience how to 'right consumer wrongs' usually with ridiculously elaborate schemes before meekly replying on how to write to your local MP (and always keep your receipts!). This segment was hilarious in its homoerotic undertones, playing on the rumors of a relationship between the boys, with Captain Justice trying to pull Dec, before claiming he had 'miss-read the signs'.
The show also joined the nation's obsession with Pokemon, with Dec happily singing (and Ant and Cat miserably joining in) the Pokemon rap and dancing around in their Pinkachu jumpers. They also had a satire of the popular US show Friends called Chums.
CD:UK (Countdown UK) Was ITV's version of Top of the Pops and was aired straight after SM:TV, hosted again by Ant, Dec and Cat. It had the biggest stars of the day clamoring to perform, interactive pop charts as well as the official top ten from the UK and the world.
A great deal of the humor of both shows, was embedded in the double entendres the older audience enjoyed and the silly antics which appealed to the younger viewers. When Ant and Dec left in a teary and star-studded finale in 2001, Cat remained hosting both SM:TV and CD:UK, but neither show enjoyed the same success as when hosted with Ant and Dec and were cancelled in 2003 and 2006 respectively.
[»» Visit the SM:TV/CD:UK forum for more information/discussion]
Pop Idol
Aired: ITV (2002-2003)
The original (and best) of all the pop shows. Ant and Dec hosted the annual search for Britain's next big talent for 2 series. They were hilarious in their commentaries of the performers, stood up against the mighty Mr Nasty (Simon Cowell) when they thought he was being too harsh and were brilliantly supportive to the young hopefuls. The winner of the first season, Will Young, released his second single a cover of the Door's, 'Light My Fire' in 2002, which ended up beating the boys' own single 'We're on the ball' to the top of the charts!
[»» Visit the Pop Idol forum for more information/discussion]
Saturday Night Takeaway
Airs: ITV (2002-present)
This gem saw the return of variety, family TV on a Saturday night. With the tag-line 'don't just watch the ads... win them!' it sees members of the 
audience winning the contents of the ad breaks during some of ITV's shows. They also have a variety of segments each week (varying from season to season) such as 'Beat the Boys' where they compete against other celebrity duos, 'What's next?' (seasons 1-3) where they participate in 5-10minutes of unscripted telly (and madness... mmha!). One of the more popular segments in recent years is 'Ant v Dec' where the boys go head-to-head in a series of challenges each week. This segment has seen Dec win the last 3 years, but not without hardship. In season 5 he had a nasty fall from a motorbike during a jump and cracked his elbow and broke his thumb and in the last season he had a nasty fall during a speed skating challenge, badly spraining his ankle.
[»» Visit the Saturday Night Takeaway forum for more information/discussion]
The Likely Lads
Aired: BBC (one-off 2002)
In the 1960s-70s, two other Geordie lads ruled the radio and telly - Terry Collier (James Bolam) and Bob Ferris (Rodney Bewes). The Likely Lads was the first serial to be set in Tyneside and to feature northern actors, and revolved around the two friends Terry and Bob trying to 'get a job, have a pint and pull a girl'. The contrast between the straight-laced Terry and reckless Bob and the down-to-earth northern humor had the nation in stitches. Ant and Dec had been lifelong fans of the series and pushed to star in a one-off remake, believing that the problems and issues the characters faced were still just as relevant (and funny) today as it was 30 years ago. With Ant portraying Terry and Dec as Bob, the tribute remake of the episode 'No hiding place' from 1973 aired in 2002 on the 
BBC. While there were positive reviews for the boys' portrayal, critics were unkind in their reviews believing that the classic should not have been remade. Despite this, it was considered commercially successful.
Engie Benjy
Aired: ITV and Nick Jr.(2002-2004)
Engie Benjy is a blue-haired boy who is a mechanical whiz. He fixes all his friend's machines and keeps the local farms running smoothly. The show, an animation series aimed at preschoolers, has the boys lending their vocal talents, with Dec as the boy-genius and Ant his K9 pal, Jallop and Trucker Troy (series 2 onwards). When the series was syndicated in Germany, the duo learned (enough) German to still provide the character's voices.
I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here
Airs: ITV (2004-present)
One of their most popular shows, it has run for 4 series thus far (5th season confirmed for 2008) and still draws millions of viewers every night. Each season the duo and a selection of "celebrities" head to the Australian "outback" (actually near where I grew up and not so wild) to participate in a variety of horrific/disgusting/terrifying Bush Tucker Trials, trying to earn food for camp and avoid being voted off by the British public. The celebs are hilarious in their discomfort but the boys acting as presenters steal the show every year with the fantastic one-liners and un-relenting mickey-take of the "stars". The air dates for this show have meant that Ant usually celebrates his birthday overseas.
[»» Visit the I'm A Celebrity... forum for more information/discussion]
Ant and Dec's Gameshow Marathon
Aired: ITV (2005)
The Gameshow Marathon was a special series of 7 episodes celebrating ITV's 50th birthday. The boys hosted remakes of seven of the most popular gameshows that had been presented on the network since its airing, and featured celebrity guests competing in a series-long competition to raise money for their nominated charities. The featured games included: The Price is Right, Take Your Pick, The Golden Shot, Sale of the Century, Play Your Cards Right, Bullseye and Family Fortune.
The series was remade in 2007 with Vernon Kay (one of the celebrity competitors in series 1) as host and has also been remade in the US, France, Germany, Mexico and Turkey.
Poker Face
Aired: ITV (2006-2007)
Poker Face is not only hosted, but is also produced and created by the boys. Each episode sees 6 strangers meeting and 'grilling' each other to try and determine who is trustworthy. Individually the contestants have to answer a series of questions, earning money for each correct response. Their total money earned is kept hidden from the other contestants. Each round the strangers have to try and determine who did well, and who is struggling, thus a successful competitor must have a good 'poker face'. At the end of each round a contestant must be eliminated. A countdown begins and one of two things happen. 1) A person believes they have the least amount of money and will select to eliminate themselves keeping the money they have so far won, and all other contestants are safe or 2) no one eliminates themselves and the person with the lowest accumulated total is eliminated and leaves with nothing. Quite often a person who has done poorly can bluff their way through the entire game, with others electing to eliminate themselves thinking they have the lowest amount of money. Hilarious! The winner of each episode walks away with £50 000 and a place in the £1 000 000 final.
Britain's Got Talent
Aired: ITV (2007-present)
Hosted by Ant and Dec and judged by Simon Cowell Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden, the show traveled the country 
trying to find the best and brightest new acts from all fields of performing. In true variety theatre style they saw singing, dancing, magic and all other tricks in between (including yoga, the worlds worst magician a singing pig, a Michael Jackson singing and dancing monkey, a fantastic transvestite singing group and a lady a bit obsessed with her cats).
The show premiered in June 2007, with the judges slowly eliminating acts around the country to eventually reach finalists whom the public could vote for. Amazing talents such as six year old Connie Talbot who performed 'Over the Rainbow' so well it left Simon Cowell speechless, and Paul Potts the opera singer and eventual winner who worked for Car Phone Warehouse by day, were unearthed.
The show has been syndicated overseas, including an American version, but none have enjoyed the same success as the original. A new UK season is underway for a June 2008 airing.
[»» Visit the Britain's Got Talent forum for more information/discussion]
Film
Love Actually (2003)
The boys first foray onto the silver screen. In this star-studded film, Ant and Dec have a cameo appearance as themselves where they interview Bill Nighly's character, Billy Mack, on his recent success and return to the pop world. Playing upon the statistic that 70% of the great British public cannot tell which one is Ant and which one Dec (Ant is always on the right by the way and they look nothing alike!), Billy refers to Dec and 'AntorDec'.
Alien Autopsy (2006)
This saw the boys first staring role in a film. It received mixed reviews, but overall was well received. It describes the "true" story of Ray Santilli (Dec) and Gary Shoefield (Ant) who cause chaos in the mid 90s, by claiming to have an authentic video of an Alien Autopsy. In real life Ray and Gary have always claimed that it was a real film, but now have come clean that it was not genuine, but rather a remake of a film that was accidentally destroyed. A brilliant comedy, the boys chemistry and natural timing shone through, and though it did not achieve commercial success, I believe that it will gain popularity as time goes on.
[»» Visit the gallery for screen caps or the Alien Autopsy forum for more information/discussion]
Awards & Charity
As they work together so often, their awards are jointly given and include:
» The Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards for their contribution to television (aged only 27).» Best Entertainment Presenter(s) at the National Television Awards (every year since 2001)
» Best Entertainment Programme for Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway several times at the NTA's.
» Best Reality TV Programme for I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and Pop Idol at the NTA's.
» The TV Times Awards for Presenters and Entertainment Programme.
» Six awards to date at the British Comedy Awards.
The pair have also done extensive charity work. They presented Soccer Aid, a charity football show and the Golfing All Star Cup, a 
weekend long golf show. They have also funded a lot of programmes for youths back in their hometown of Newcastle.
In 2006 the both went to Kenya as part of the Red Nose Day fundraising efforts, highlighting the abject poverty and suffering in that part of the world. Both boys ended up in tears when they visited a woman trying to raise 13 children, some with HIV, with no income and little hope for the future.
More recently, several of their shows, amongst others across most UK networks, were found to have swindled views out of millions of pounds in phone-in competitions they had no chance of winning. The boys have both denied any knowledge that this was happening, which has been confirmed by ITV execs. However, they are terribly upset by it all, and have donated all the profits from the new season of Saturday Night Takeaway (2008) to charity.
References & Caveats
References: Information garnered from: ITV, BBC, Channel 4, Wikipedia and Virginia Blackburn's biography of the boys. A big thank you also to msmac (a brill friend of mine) for helping me with the Pop Idol section!
Caveat: All efforts have been made to ensure information on this page is fair and accurate, but I cannot confirm its authenticity as I have no personal contact with the boys. If there are issues of accuracy, please get in touch via the forum.
