Yahoo News Ant & Dec tease Robbie and Dermot pranks
Saturday Night Takeaway is almost back for its 14th series, and from what Ant & Dec have told us, it's bound to be its best yet.
Not only will a host of celebrities appear in 'The Missing Crown Jewels', a follow-up to last year's 'Who Shot Simon Cowell?' serial, and Gogglebox favourite Scarlett Moffatt will be their new partner-in-crime for the series, but the boys have lined up some serious star pedigree for their collection of stunts and pranks.
Poor Dermot O'Leary will be put through 'I'm a Celebrity... Get Out of Me Ear' - the first to take place in public - while Robbie Williams and wife Ayda Field will also get the same embarrassing treatment.
"We've got Robbie and Ayda doing a 'I'm a Celebrity... Get Out of Me Ear'," Dec told Digital Spy and other press.
Ant explained: "They bought a pub, and they want to have a party so we get party planners round, and we're in their ear all the way through the interview process. It's random stuff like we bring out two ferrets and Rob has to walk the ferrets, and we named them after members of Take That. We know how far to push Rob."
"Which is quite far," Dec added. "We got as far as him on the toilet talking to the party planner, so that's quite fun!"
On Dermot's task, Ant said: "It's the first time we've done anything big like that with Dermot, isn't it?"
Dec replied: "And the first time we've done an 'In Your Ear' in a public space. In the middle of a supermarket, which was hilarious." Ant: "At first he's just a bit nice, isn't he? So we're like 'go and nick something out of that basket'. And he wouldn't do it!"
Dec: "He's sweating! Dermot's so nice to everybody." Ant: "He's going 'really? This woman?'" Dec: "Yep, Dermot, you've promised you'd do everything. He's absolutely sweating. At the end of it he went round and had to apologise to everybody and kind of helped everyone clear up and stuff."
Ant added: "Every person I said 'ask if you can have a bite out of their sandwich'. And everyone said no until this one woman with this kind of moistest awful-looking tuna melt sandwich and she went 'yeah, go on then!' And you could see his face thinking 'ah ffff...' He did it though! Fair play. I loved doing that with him."
Having acted in projects such as SM:TV Live skit Chums, one-off movie Alien Autopsy and the 2002 Likely Lads remake, Ant & Dec admitted they have enjoyed bringing back some comedy acting in their Takeaway serials.
Ant said: "It's kind of sparked something – we'd like to do more stuff in that vein in the future. Not necessarily in the immediate future, but it reminded us of Byker Grove and early days of being actors. It's a different discipline which is really enjoyable – very different, but still as enjoyable. So I think we might look at trying to do more bits like that."
Dec added: "And also something in the vein of the 'Who Shot' and 'Missing Crown Jewels', which is quite silly. I don't want to suddenly turn up as a detective on Silent Witness."
Could we ever see them do another Morecambe & Wise-style Christmas special?
"Yeah, funnily enough, yeah," Ant said. "We've talked a lot…We done one years ago. We did an Ant and Dec Christmas Show about eight years ago now and they still repeat it on ITV2. We love doing that, so that is something we might get to do in the future."
Dec said: "We've talked about it for a few years but we haven't had the chance with Text Santa because we've always been a part of Text Santa as well so just we haven't had time to do it. But now that Text Santa won't be around Christmas anymore, there might be more of a chance to do that. So definitely watch this space."
And how has Scarlett fared on the show so far?
"It was the first script read and stuff today," Ant said. "Bless her, she wants to be involved in every part of it. She doesn't just rock up and do her bits – she wants to learn and she loves telly. I said 'Are you excited?' and she went 'Yeah, I took a picture of me kettle. There's a kettle in the dressing room'. I said 'I know there's a kettle in the dressing room'. 'I got so excited about that I took a picture'."
Dec said: "It's a bit like inviting a competition winner to be a part of the team. She just brings that enthusiasm and she's watched the show since she was a kid so she's like 'Just to be part of it is so exciting'."
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway will start on Saturday, February 25 at 7pm on ITV.
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