'Britain's Got Talent' judges open up about Ant McPartlin's return and tearjerker auditions

Fans of Anthony McPartlin are looking forward to seeing him return as a host on Britain’s Got Talent on Saturday 6 April and it turns out they’re not the only ones who are thrilled about his comeback.

Ahead of the new series, panel judges Amanda Holden, David Walliams, Alesha Dixon and Simon Cowell appeared on Lorraine to discuss how great it feels to see McPartlin working alongside longtime collaborator Declan Donnelly again.

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“It’s like it never happened,” Cowell told Lorraine‘s resident entertainment journalist Dan Wootton. “That’s when you know it’s comfortable because it’s just like we are all back together again, we are all friends.

“These things happen. I really did miss him… it’s the happiest I’ve seen him for a long, long time.”

Holden added that McPartlin – who previously stepped down from Britain’s Got Talent and fellow ITV show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! to seek out professional help for his addiction struggles last year – “looks really healthy.”

And that’s not all the foursome touched on during the first instalment of a two-part interview; they also looked back on their most memorable auditions from the upcoming episodes. Walliams’ face was unexpectedly tear-jerking.

“It takes a lot to make me cry,” he noted. “But there was just an act which was just so beautiful so life affirming, so joyous. It was one of those strange things where it’s like happy tears, but you are absolutely sobbing.

“Actually it wasn’t just me. Stephen Mulhern [host of ITV2 follow-up show Britain’s Got More Talent] said there were grown men in the audience sobbing throughout it. I think it’s one of the most magic moments we have ever seen on the show.”

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At that, Holden and Dixon chimed in, recalling how seeing Walliams getting uncharacteristically emotional set them all off. “He broke me,” the latter admitted to Wootton while Dixon described the moment as “really moving.”