Ant & Dec’s ‘I’m A Celeb’ Origin Story

While the boys have been away, the answer machine has been filling up - it’s time to get stuck into your voice notes… The boys spill some juicy ‘showbiz gossip’ about the shows they’ve turned down, they take a trip down memory lane to their Irish dancing tour days, and we find out what they like to listen to in the shower… Plus, Ant reveals the damage he’s done to his TOES over the years, Dec shares his favourite podcast to listen to, and we uncover the origin story of Britain’s Got Talent! As always, keep your correspondence coming to [email protected]. Sign off your email with the name you’d like us to use. If you’d rather we didn’t mention your surname, simply leave it out. And if you’d like a full-name shout-out, throw the whole thing in there! 00:00 - Ant & Dec watch viral AI videos of themselves 00:45 - Ant banana rates Disclosure Day 03:25 - Ant & Dec’s favourite sandwich fillings 05:45 - What podcasts do the boys listen to? 08:30 - Dec’s Irish Dancing advice! 12:50 - Who’s made the boys most starstruck on I’m A Celeb? 16:10 - Why not ‘Dec and Ant’? 18:25 - Ad break 21:05 - Ant and Dec share some showbiz gossip…. 22:25 - Ant & Dec turned down Britain’s Got Talent Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Observe. The North American Dad. 50s. Great polo collection. He enters his vehicle information on Carvana. An offer appears in minutes. Remarkable. He squints, reads it again, smiles and says, dang, that's a good offer. The highest form of approval. No haggling, no hassle. No one called him boss. He's still on the couch. Astonishing. Sell your car today on carvana.com. Pickup fees may apply.

• 0:31Speaker 01

  Parenting unlocks some pretty impressive skills. Like carrying grocery bags, a soccer ball and a sleepy kid all at once. Good thing the newly designed Chrysler Pacifica has a few tricks of its own. Hands-free power sliding doors and liftgate, rear seat entertainment and stow and go seating and storage that adapts faster than your family's weekend plans. Visit Chrysler.com to learn more. Chrysler is a registered trademark of FCAUS LLC.

• 1:00Speaker 02

  Payday bars have a bone to pick with the other candy bars. Enough with the toppings and layers and stuff, kay? Payday bars are just salty crunchy peanuts and sweet caramel. Delicious. Payday Peanut Caramel Bar.

• 1:15Ant McPartlin?

  Come and remake this one. Hold on. I know the one that you're gonna remake.

• 1:19Declan Donnelly?

  Not the AI?

• 1:19Ant McPartlin?

  This one.

• 1:25Declan Donnelly?

  I just wanna see you do like that.

• 1:27Ant McPartlin?

  I wanna see Steven Spielberg do that. You, it's funny, you actually dance like this. Like that, with your hands. Doesn't he? Doesn't he dance like that?

• 1:38Declan Donnelly?

  Not at all.

• 1:38Ant McPartlin?

  Steven looks great there though.

• 1:40Declan Donnelly?

  Oh yeah, he's not happy with that.

• 1:43Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, that's funny, man. Shall we still on the podcast?

• 1:47Declan Donnelly?

  Shall we do it?

• 1:47Ant McPartlin?

  Shall we? Otherwise I'll just keep watching AI videos of ourselves.

• 1:51Declan Donnelly?

  Now don't do that.

• 1:52Ant McPartlin?

  Come on then.

• 1:54Declan Donnelly?

  Let's get going.

• 1:54Ant McPartlin?

  Alright.

• 1:57Ant McPartlin?

  I watched on the flight back from Canada.

• 2:00Declan Donnelly?

  Yes.

• 2:00Ant McPartlin?

  Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg.

• 2:02Declan Donnelly?

  What did you think? I wanna see this. Is it worth it?

• 2:05Ant McPartlin?

  Eight Bananas.

• 2:08Ant McPartlin?

  Eight Bananas.

• 2:08Declan Donnelly?

  Is it really?

• 2:09Ant McPartlin?

  I really loved it. I think it's proper, old school.

• 2:13Declan Donnelly?

  Spielberg.

• 2:14Ant McPartlin?

  Steven Spielberg where it starts and there's no kind of preamble. You just get on with it. I'm not even gonna give anything away, but it just starts and you're into it straight away. Like something happens and you're like, oh, I'm intrigued as to why that's happened. And then this chase happens and then it's just, it's non-stop action all the way through.

• 2:32Declan Donnelly?

  He knows what he's doing, Spielberg, doesn't he?

• 2:34Ant McPartlin?

  I loved it. I loved it. And the subject matter is obviously very topical. Aliens, UAPs and all that kinda, all that kinda stuff. But it's Emily Blunt's brilliant in it, as is Josh O'Connor. Very good. It's a good cast, good film, eight bananas.

• 2:50Declan Donnelly?

  Wow, put that on your poster. Spielberg.

• 2:54Ant McPartlin?

  He should.

• 2:54Declan Donnelly?

  I'm gonna, I'm gonna watch that. What's her name?

• 2:57Ant McPartlin?

  Jemima. She's always worked with the podcast very, yeah?

• 3:00Declan Donnelly?

  No, no, no, the woman, the blind woman who does all the predictions.

• 3:03Ant McPartlin?

  What has she said?

• 3:03Declan Donnelly?

  She says, well, you, you saying that it's.

• 3:06Ant McPartlin?

  She couldn't have watched it.

• 3:07Declan Donnelly?

  No, she doesn't see this.

• 3:11Ant McPartlin?

  Did she predict I was gonna go to eight bananas? No, she's good.

• 3:15Declan Donnelly?

  She's blind and she's dead, so she definitely hasn't watched it.

• 3:18Speaker 05

  Baba Vanga.

• 3:19Declan Donnelly?

  Baba Vanga.

• 3:19Ant McPartlin?

  There you go.

• 3:20Declan Donnelly?

  Baba Vanga, with you saying that this is very timely.

• 3:24Ant McPartlin?

  Yes.

• 3:24Declan Donnelly?

  Baba Vanga has predicted that there will be contact with aliens this year.

• 3:30Ant McPartlin?

  Yes. That's what everyone's talking about. Bill?

• 3:34Speaker 05

  November.

• 3:35Declan Donnelly?

  November. We'll be in Australia.

• 3:37Ant McPartlin?

  But you know this, this thing.

• 3:39Declan Donnelly?

  We'll be well out of the way.

• 3:41Ant McPartlin?

  No, they're gonna come into every country on earth at the same, at the same time.

• 3:45Declan Donnelly?

  That's not what Baba Vanga said.

• 3:46Ant McPartlin?

  You know that there's this conspiracy theory about Project Blue Beam. Have you heard about this?

• 3:52Declan Donnelly?

  Project Blue Beam?

• 3:53Ant McPartlin?

  Blue Beam. Where the next kind of battle will be not just between different countries.

• 3:59Declan Donnelly?

  No, no.

• 4:00Ant McPartlin?

  But between us and the aliens. But that's what they want you to think, to distract you.

• 4:06Declan Donnelly?

  Who wants us to think that?

• 4:07Ant McPartlin?

  The, the government.

• 4:08Declan Donnelly?

  The Matrix.

• 4:09Ant McPartlin?

  The.

• 4:10Declan Donnelly?

  The Establishment.

• 4:10Ant McPartlin?

  The Establishment. They want us to feel, they want us to think that aliens are real. So we're too busy, we're too distracted with the aliens that we don't focus on the economy crumbling before our very eyes.

• 4:24Declan Donnelly?

  We have the big yellow telephone in front of us, the banana phone.

• 4:27Ant McPartlin?

  And the answer phone.

• 4:28Declan Donnelly?

  So it must be a voicemail episode. Shall we see?

• 4:32Ant McPartlin?

  Well done, Poirot.

• 4:34Declan Donnelly?

  Shall we see what the first message is?

• 4:38Speaker 06

  Hi, Ant and Dec. It's Caitlin from Newcastle. And my question is, what is your go-to fill-in for a sandwich?

• 4:48Ant McPartlin?

  She kinda ran out of steam there, didn't she? As she was asking that.

• 4:50Declan Donnelly?

  She's not even convincing her own question.

• 4:53Ant McPartlin?

  Now that was like question three of five, I reckon.

• 4:56Declan Donnelly?

  Do you think?

• 4:56Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 4:58Declan Donnelly?

  I really wanna send the question to the podcast, but I can't think of one.

• 5:01Ant McPartlin?

  I can't really be bothered to finish the question.

• 5:03Declan Donnelly?

  Hi Caitlin. Good to hear from you.

• 5:05Ant McPartlin?

  Thank you for your, what?

• 5:07Declan Donnelly?

  Egg.

• 5:08Ant McPartlin?

  No, it's not.

• 5:09Declan Donnelly?

  Egg meal?

• 5:11Ant McPartlin?

  No, it's not.

• 5:12Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, egg and onion.

• 5:13Ant McPartlin?

  No, it's not. It's not.

• 5:15Declan Donnelly?

  It is.

• 5:16Ant McPartlin?

  Well, don't eat that around my house. Or in the car when we're travelling together.

• 5:20Declan Donnelly?

  Two boiled eggs, mash them up, bit of meal, bit of salad cream. Chop up a spring onion.

• 5:26Ant McPartlin?

  When do you have this?

• 5:27Declan Donnelly?

  Stick that in. I have it.

• 5:28Ant McPartlin?

  On public transport?

• 5:29Declan Donnelly?

  No.

• 5:29Ant McPartlin?

  You better not.

• 5:30Declan Donnelly?

  No, I'll have it, I'll have it on the weekend.

• 5:33Ant McPartlin?

  The weekend? Shut up, man, will you?

• 5:35Declan Donnelly?

  I do. I love an egg sandwich.

• 5:37Ant McPartlin?

  Shut up.

• 5:38Declan Donnelly?

  Even better on white bread.

• 5:42Declan Donnelly?

  I love an egg sandwich. Egg and onion sandwich. It's a very Irish thing, egg and onion sandwich.

• 5:47Ant McPartlin?

  Is it?

• 5:47Declan Donnelly?

  Hmm. Very Irish. They always have it at a wake.

• 5:52Ant McPartlin?

  They have an egg and, hold on, at a wake? When you're grieving someone who's passed on?

• 5:57Declan Donnelly?

  They'll come around with a.

• 5:59Ant McPartlin?

  And you'll have stinky egg and onion sandwiches.

• 6:02Declan Donnelly?

  Not stinky, they're just egg and onion sandwiches.

• 6:04Ant McPartlin?

  Your breathless be stinky.

• 6:05Declan Donnelly?

  Not mine.

• 6:08Ant McPartlin?

  Mine's sausage.

• 6:10Declan Donnelly?

  A sausage sandwich.

• 6:11Ant McPartlin?

  Stinky sausage sandwich, my favourite.

• 6:13Declan Donnelly?

  Brown or red sauce?

• 6:14Ant McPartlin?

  Well, I normally always have brown if I have sausages that aren't in a sandwich, right?

• 6:20Declan Donnelly?

  Right.

• 6:20Ant McPartlin?

  So if I have a, if I have a fry-up and I have sausage and bacon and everything, I have brown sauce.

• 6:25Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 6:26Ant McPartlin?

  Bacon sandwich, brown sauce.

• 6:27Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 6:28Ant McPartlin?

  However, if I have a sausage sandwich, I do a little bit of brown, a little bit of tomato and loads of mustard.

• 6:37Declan Donnelly?

  Mustard's a great shout.

• 6:38Ant McPartlin?

  Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes.

• 6:41Declan Donnelly?

  Good English mustard.

• 6:42Ant McPartlin?

  See. Old man's mustard.

• 6:44Declan Donnelly?

  Good English mustard.

• 6:46Ant McPartlin?

  And yeah, sausage sandwich is my favourite. Love it.

• 6:49Declan Donnelly?

  Sausage, bit of onion in it, maybe?

• 6:51Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, if I could be bothered.

• 6:53Declan Donnelly?

  Bit of fried onion?

• 6:54Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, fried onion. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 6:56Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, fried onions.

• 6:56Ant McPartlin?

  I like a boiled onion as well. Do you like boiled onions?

• 6:58Declan Donnelly?

  I like a boiled onion.

• 6:59Ant McPartlin?

  Right. Next question.

• 7:03Speaker 07

  I'll eat the lads. It's Lee from Chorley, Lancashire.

• 7:06Ant McPartlin?

  Alright.

• 7:06Speaker 07

  Longtime listener, first time voice noter. I wanna know, basically because the two weeks that you had off, you left us all in the lurch and we were all bored, Steph. I really missed you guys.

• 7:18Ant McPartlin?

  Oh, me.

• 7:19Speaker 07

  I realised how much the podcast really means to me. So I was wondering, what podcasts are you guys obsessed with? And what you're listening to at the minute? Respect, guys. Lee.

• 7:29Ant McPartlin?

  Respect, Lee. What a lovely message.

• 7:32Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, I'm sorry we left you in the lurch.

• 7:33Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, I'm really sorry about that.

• 7:34Declan Donnelly?

  About that. We're trying not to do that again. But thank you for listening and thank you for your lovely message. What, I, I listen to a lot of football podcasts.

• 7:43Ant McPartlin?

  You do, don't you?

• 7:44Declan Donnelly?

  I listen to the Everything is Black and White podcast.

• 7:47Ant McPartlin?

  Pod on the time?

• 7:48Declan Donnelly?

  Pod on the time, True Faith podcast. So that's like five podcasts for every match. And that's, and that's just one provider. Then you've got the other two that I listen to as well. I do a lot of.

• 7:59Ant McPartlin?

  How do you find the time?

• 8:00Declan Donnelly?

  I listen to them everywhere. I've got one of those speakers you put in the shower.

• 8:03Ant McPartlin?

  Mine's.

• 8:04Declan Donnelly?

  So I'll put it in the shower, have a listen to it while I'm washing my hair.

• 8:10Declan Donnelly?

  It's not that exciting.

• 8:12Ant McPartlin?

  Sometimes it is.

• 8:13Declan Donnelly?

  Only if we've won.

• 8:16Declan Donnelly?

  But yeah, I listen to a lot. And then when I, if I ever run out of podcasts, I listen to an audiobook.

• 8:22Ant McPartlin?

  That's not a podcast.

• 8:24Declan Donnelly?

  No, but I'm just giving you an insight.

• 8:26Ant McPartlin?

  Right.

• 8:27Declan Donnelly?

  If I run out of podcasts, I'll maybe pop on an audiobook at the moment. I'm listening to Bob Mortimer, The Satsuma Complex.

• 8:32Ant McPartlin?

  Oh, as good as that. I've got a book of that.

• 8:34Declan Donnelly?

  It's very good.

• 8:36Ant McPartlin?

  Cool.

• 8:37Declan Donnelly?

  Podcasts?

• 8:37Ant McPartlin?

  I don't really listen to them anymore.

• 8:39Declan Donnelly?

  Do you not?

• 8:39Ant McPartlin?

  I did for a period when I.

• 8:42Declan Donnelly?

  Cause if you get out of the habit.

• 8:44Ant McPartlin?

  Then, yeah.

• 8:45Declan Donnelly?

  Hard to get back in.

• 8:45Ant McPartlin?

  The rest is entertainment I really like. I used to, I really like, I watch a few on YouTube now. The overlap I like.

• 8:55Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 8:56Ant McPartlin?

  I like watching that.

• 8:56Declan Donnelly?

  Stick to football?

• 8:57Ant McPartlin?

  Stick to football and the rest is football occasionally. But yeah, apart from that, nah. Not the habit. Or any suggestions? We should do some banana ratings on podcasts as well.

• 9:09Declan Donnelly?

  On other podcasts?

• 9:10Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, we should.

• 9:10Declan Donnelly?

  Oh yeah, let's, let's rate them all really low.

• 9:12Ant McPartlin?

  Let's.

• 9:13Declan Donnelly?

  The week with the highest.

• 9:14Ant McPartlin?

  If you've got any recommendations which aren't like in the top 10, cause I always find that the ones that are always in the top 10, you know about.

• 9:21Declan Donnelly?

  Yes.

• 9:22Ant McPartlin?

  You've listened to. But if there's some obscure podcasts like, like Scand, what was the scandal?

• 9:27Declan Donnelly?

  British Scandal.

• 9:27Ant McPartlin?

  I used to love that one.

• 9:28Declan Donnelly?

  I love British Scandal.

• 9:31Ant McPartlin?

  That's really good. We should talk about podcasts on a, on a, on a, on a podcast. We should talk about podcasts on our podcast.

• 9:38Declan Donnelly?

  Any really good reviews of podcasts we haven't listened to? Any hidden ones out there? Let us know. Hangingoutatbellebox.com. Don't forget your question, Lee. Great one.

• 9:47Ant McPartlin?

  Next one.

• 9:48Speaker 05

  Hi, Ant and Dec and Heckler's Corner. My name is Clara and I've been doing Irish dancing since I was three years old.

• 9:54Ant McPartlin?

  Wow.

• 9:54Speaker 05

  I'm currently 11. I heard from my dad that Dec used to do Irish dancing.

• 9:59Ant McPartlin?

  He did.

• 9:59Speaker 05

  A little bit. And here's my question for you. Did you ever win any competitions? And if so,

• 10:04Speaker 06

  You still have the medals and the trophies. I also have a class fashion coming up soon. Any tips? Also, if you remember some of your old steps, there's an over twenty-one competition that you'd be welcome to join.

• 10:16Ant McPartlin?

  Yes.

• 10:17Speaker 06

  I live in Dubai. We have an ensuite bedroom, free wifi and your entertainment is world Irish dancing. Respect, guys. To Clara and Dad.

• 10:27Ant McPartlin?

  That's a great, great, great, great question.

• 10:30Declan Donnelly?

  There's a lot to unpack in that one, isn't there?

• 10:32Ant McPartlin?

  So, yes, you used to Irish dance. Yes, we've established that on the pod before.

• 10:36Declan Donnelly?

  Yep, I used to do a bit of Irish dancing. Yes, did competitions.

• 10:39Ant McPartlin?

  Did you win anything?

• 10:40Declan Donnelly?

  I did win some medals. Um, don't know if I won trophies. I definitely won medals. Can't remember if I won trophies. I've still got my medals somewhere in my mum's house up in Newcastle.

• 10:50Ant McPartlin?

  Right.

• 10:51Declan Donnelly?

  So there will be. I'll try and dig them out at some point.

• 10:52Ant McPartlin?

  Bringing them down.

• 10:53Declan Donnelly?

  I will. I'll dig them out. But I didn't do it for an awful long time. I did it for maybe two years and then I started playing football for the school.

• 11:01Ant McPartlin?

  Right.

• 11:01Declan Donnelly?

  So Irish dancing competitions were on a Saturday morning and so were my football matches.

• 11:05Ant McPartlin?

  Ah, right.

• 11:06Declan Donnelly?

  So I chose football.

• 11:07Ant McPartlin?

  One or the other.

• 11:08Declan Donnelly?

  So I thought I was gonna be a famous footballer. Maybe I could have been a famous Irish dancer.

• 11:11Ant McPartlin?

  Maybe you could have been.

• 11:13Declan Donnelly?

  I doubt it.

• 11:13Speaker 05

  Maybe you still can be.

• 11:15Declan Donnelly?

  Well, I'm famous and I'm an Irish dancer. So does that, does that qualify?

• 11:19Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah. We'll change your wiki.

• 11:22Ant McPartlin?

  Do you think the over twenty-one Irish dancing competitions is a bit like the, the over twenty-five category in X Factor? Where we're all, we're all a bit like, yeah, go on, you can still do it. Good for you. Go for it, you plucky old thing.

• 11:36Declan Donnelly?

  I'd be much more interested in the over fifties category. I think I could win that.

• 11:39Ant McPartlin?

  Do you reckon?

• 11:40Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, I think I could win the over fifties.

• 11:41Ant McPartlin?

  You do pretty well at that.

• 11:42Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, but keep it up. It's brilliant and.

• 11:45Ant McPartlin?

  Any tips?

• 11:46Declan Donnelly?

  Any tips? Or you don't need tips from me. If you've been doing it since you were three and you're now eleven.

• 11:50Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, you don't need tips from me.

• 11:51Declan Donnelly?

  You don't need tips from me. I did it for, for two years. The only tip I ever got was people shouting at me, keep your back straight.

• 11:57Ant McPartlin?

  Right.

• 11:57Declan Donnelly?

  That was the only tip I ever got. Cause I think I used to start off like that and then as I got tired, I'd go like that.

• 12:02Ant McPartlin?

  Right.

• 12:02Declan Donnelly?

  And they go, get back straight. So that's the only thing I can, can remember them shouting at me.

• 12:07Ant McPartlin?

  We did it for Saturday night, too, though, didn't we?

• 12:09Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, we did.

• 12:10Ant McPartlin?

  And we toured. I think that's what ruined my knee, Irish dancing.

• 12:13Declan Donnelly?

  Do you think?

• 12:13Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, I do. And my big toes, I've told you, I've told you about this before.

• 12:18Declan Donnelly?

  I've seen them on Wiki feed. They get highly, they're highly, they're highly rated.

• 12:22Ant McPartlin?

  Or kind of locked place now.

• 12:25Declan Donnelly?

  Ready to Irish dance?

• 12:26Ant McPartlin?

  No, well, yeah, since Irish dancing, cause I never had this issue before Irish dancing.

• 12:33Ant McPartlin?

  And I find it very hard to bend my big toes now. It really hurts.

• 12:38Declan Donnelly?

  Really?

• 12:38Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, I've got a real, like, you know, when we were in Canada, we'd done a little bit of yoga, I think we talked about on the pod. It was only after doing yoga, after, you know, quite a few times, that I got a little bit of relief. Whereas before that, if I don't do a lot of moving, they just lock. And I reckon it's all that Irish dancing. I do, wearing those shoes, having not done anything like that as a kid. Then suddenly you're kind of forced into these shoes, you've got to rehearse Lord's, then you do the live show, then we took it on tour.

• 13:07Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 13:07Ant McPartlin?

  And we're doing it like twice a day for however many weeks. Why are you laughing? It's a serious issue. It's my toes we're talking about. Toes.

• 13:19Declan Donnelly?

  The weirdest thing about doing Irish dancing and about doing the rehearsals, and you can vouch for this, is you don't really dance to a count.

• 13:28Ant McPartlin?

  No.

• 13:29Declan Donnelly?

  So it's not like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

• 13:32Ant McPartlin?

  No.

• 13:33Declan Donnelly?

  They just go, dadly, dadly, dadly cha, dadly, dadly, dadly cha.

• 13:37Ant McPartlin?

  Da da da da, da da da da, da da da da. And you're meant to know what that means in terms of steps. They're like, what? And she said, didn't she, our Irish dancing tutor at the time, she was like, well, you know, when it gets to the diddly dee bit, you do this.

• 13:52Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 13:52Ant McPartlin?

  And I say, it all sounds like diddly dee to me, all that music.

• 13:56Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, keep it up. You'll be much better than I am.

• 13:58Ant McPartlin?

  Apologies if we didn't answer all of the questions.

• 14:01Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, I can't remember what the rest of them were.

• 14:02Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 14:02Declan Donnelly?

  But thanks for, thanks for calling. Let's have another one.

• 14:05Ant McPartlin?

  Press it.

• 14:06Speaker 05

  Hi guys, Rose here from Myland. You two are obviously very famous. Um, but you also host a little show called I'm a Celeb. And I just wondered, um, are there any celebs from I'm a Celeb that have ever made you feel really starstruck when you've met them? Respect, guys.

• 14:24Ant McPartlin?

  Great question.

• 14:25Declan Donnelly?

  Thanks, Rose. Great question.

• 14:27Ant McPartlin?

  Very good question. Um.

• 14:28Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, I think there are, I think there's been a few over the years.

• 14:30Ant McPartlin?

  There must have been over the years, definitely.

• 14:32Declan Donnelly?

  Do you remember we had John Lydon from The Pistols? And because I think part of it as well was he's quite a unpredictable character. So you never quite knew what he was gonna do and he was a, he's a punk. So he was kind of.

• 14:46Ant McPartlin?

  Listen here, punk.

• 14:47Declan Donnelly?

  Listen to me, punk. But he was a punk, so he was kind of anti-establishment and. We never quite knew every morning going into camp what he was gonna be like. So that made you, put you a bit on edge and I suppose that was a bit of star, being starstruck.

• 15:00Ant McPartlin?

  He said the C word.

• 15:02Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, he did.

• 15:03Ant McPartlin?

  Live. On ITV.

• 15:05Declan Donnelly?

  When we went into camp.

• 15:06Ant McPartlin?

  We said, you know, when we go in and we go, um, when we're saying who's doing the Bush took a trial.

• 15:11Declan Donnelly?

  No, who's, who's being voted out.

• 15:13Ant McPartlin?

  Always voted out.

• 15:13Declan Donnelly?

  It was because he wanted to go.

• 15:15Ant McPartlin?

  That's it. And then we're like, John, it's not you. And he went, oh, you, C word.

• 15:22Declan Donnelly?

  F-ing C words.

• 15:26Ant McPartlin?

  And apparently I just went, oh, John. Like really annoyed at him.

• 15:33Ant McPartlin?

  Annoyed at the punk for using the C word.

• 15:35Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, that was.

• 15:36Ant McPartlin?

  But we saw him again not long after that, where he was on the show and after that incident. And he was, it was at the British Comedy Awards, do you remember?

• 15:45Declan Donnelly?

  No.

• 15:45Ant McPartlin?

  And he came out to present an award and he looked down in the front row at us two and there's my mates, Ant and Dec. And I was thinking, we're mates. It's quite nice that we're mates. Thanks, John.

• 15:58Declan Donnelly?

  He didn't call us mates when we walked in.

• 16:00Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 16:00Declan Donnelly?

  Um.

• 16:01Ant McPartlin?

  But there's been people over the years that would be like, oh God, I can't wait to meet them when they're in there. But we never really get to meet them when they're in there because we're always telling them that they're doing a trial or they're eating this or whenever we. There's people that we've known as well as friends in the industry. And we've spoken to them and we said, would you ever do the show? And they say, absolutely not. And the next thing we'd know is we're meeting them in Australia at a trial. Or at the walk-in when they, when they all meet on the, you know, no, it's normally the villa or the back of the yacht or whatever. And we're like, and you can't get that chance to say, you told me you'd never do it because they're there doing it. So we've just got to kind of go along and present the show. So you never really get a chance to kind of have catch-up time with them when you're doing it.

• 16:45Declan Donnelly?

  Remember when Caitlin Jenner did it?

• 16:47Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 16:47Declan Donnelly?

  And that was a really big booking. So having her on at that point because she'd been in the news so much as well.

• 16:55Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 16:55Declan Donnelly?

  That was quite a big, that was quite a starstruck moment to meet Caitlin.

• 16:59Ant McPartlin?

  Well, there's always a rumor, the Kardashians are gonna be at the end of the bridge when she gets voted off. That's never gonna happen. This'll be C twenty-six.

• 17:08Declan Donnelly?

  Is it really?

• 17:10Ant McPartlin?

  Amazing, isn't it?

• 17:10Declan Donnelly?

  God. And I still look like I couldn't have been around that long, like.

• 17:15Ant McPartlin?

  Sorry, what?

• 17:16Declan Donnelly?

  I still look twenty-six.

• 17:17Ant McPartlin?

  What were you saying?

• 17:19Ant McPartlin?

  Press the button.

• 17:20Declan Donnelly?

  Let's have another one.

• 17:20Ant McPartlin?

  Get us out of here.

• 17:21Declan Donnelly?

  Let's have another voice though.

• 17:24Speaker 05

  Hello, this is Annie from Edinburgh.

• 17:26Ant McPartlin?

  Hello.

• 17:26Speaker 05

  I've been wondering whether you ever considered being not Ant and Dec, but Dec and Ant. Thank you.

• 17:33Ant McPartlin?

  We discussed this, Ally, numerous times. We've been over this. No.

• 17:40Declan Donnelly?

  It was a thing at the beginning and said, let's, let's flip-flop every year. I'll be, it'll be Ant and Dec for the first year and Dec and Ant for the second year.

• 17:47Ant McPartlin?

  No, I did not.

• 17:48Declan Donnelly?

  And then it was like that agreement that Gordon Brown and Tony Blair had. And as soon as he got his name first, he's like, no, I'm staying.

• 17:56Ant McPartlin?

  Horse.

• 17:58Ant McPartlin?

  Hogwash, Declan. Hogwash.

• 18:00Declan Donnelly?

  No.

• 18:01Ant McPartlin?

  No, I think when people started calling us Ant and Dec and then it just stuck.

• 18:06Declan Donnelly?

  Decanant. Decanant is, I mean genuinely.

• 18:09Ant McPartlin?

  No, that's gonna be, that's gonna be our aftershave.

• 18:11Declan Donnelly?

  Decanant.

• 18:12Ant McPartlin?

  Decanant.

• 18:12Declan Donnelly?

  Decadent.

• 18:13Ant McPartlin?

  Decanant, do you remember?

• 18:14Declan Donnelly?

  Decadent from Decanant.

• 18:15Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, that's it.

• 18:16Speaker 05

  Your aftershave, decanter.

• 18:17Ant McPartlin?

  That was, that it? Decanter?

• 18:19Speaker 05

  That was it. In a horse shaped bottle.

• 18:20Declan Donnelly?

  Speaking of decanters, the eagle-eyed viewers who are watching this may see behind us is my decanter daxen.

• 18:29Ant McPartlin?

  Can you get it out?

• 18:30Declan Donnelly?

  What? Can I, can I get one out?

• 18:32Ant McPartlin?

  Your decanter?

• 18:32Declan Donnelly?

  Oh yeah, it's here.

• 18:33Ant McPartlin?

  I know, but it was, that was there on the last pod as well.

• 18:36Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 18:36Ant McPartlin?

  And we never talked about it because Stephen Mulhern talked so much.

• 18:40Declan Donnelly?

  So there you go. I've got me, um.

• 18:42Ant McPartlin?

  Look at that.

• 18:42Declan Donnelly?

  My doggy decanter.

• 18:43Ant McPartlin?

  That is brilliant. And we, uh.

• 18:44Declan Donnelly?

  So if you're just, if you're just listening, I've got my doggy decanter that I swapped on Famous Guy Swaps Things. Uh, it's arrived here in the hangout.

• 18:52Ant McPartlin?

  Don't break it.

• 18:53Declan Donnelly?

  That one doesn't stay on very well.

• 18:54Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just leave, leave, leave.

• 18:57Declan Donnelly?

  But yeah, you take the nose off and you decant your little drink into there.

• 19:01Ant McPartlin?

  And you, uh, where do you, how do you fill it up?

• 19:05Ant McPartlin?

  To the house?

• 19:06Declan Donnelly?

  Oh.

• 19:08Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, there it is.

• 19:09Ant McPartlin?

  There you go. You take his hat off.

• 19:12Declan Donnelly?

  You fill him up there and you pour it out with his little schnoz.

• 19:16Ant McPartlin?

  Thank you, Cheryl. That's a very good swap. And you've got something else to swap. You've got your onesie.

• 19:20Declan Donnelly?

  Got my onesie from Canada.

• 19:21Ant McPartlin?

  From Canada.

• 19:22Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah. If you want me onesie that I wore on the podcast in Canada, suggest a swap. Get it into us, hangingoutofbelltobox.com. We're going to give that away.

• 19:30Ant McPartlin?

  Next week.

• 19:31Declan Donnelly?

  Maybe next week, yeah.

• 19:32Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, let's swap it.

• 19:33Declan Donnelly?

  What was the question?

• 19:35Ant McPartlin?

  I can't remember.

• 19:35Declan Donnelly?

  What was the question?

• 19:36Ant McPartlin?

  Oh, a Decan thing.

• 19:37Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, Decanter, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 19:38Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, that's it. This next section is sponsored by Gemini, Google's AI app. Autumn, Declan.

• 19:46Declan Donnelly?

  Love Autumn.

• 19:47Ant McPartlin?

  It's a good time to get back into a routine.

• 19:49Declan Donnelly?

  You know who's not on a routine?

• 19:50Ant McPartlin?

  Who?

• 19:52Declan Donnelly?

  Rocky the dog.

• 19:53Ant McPartlin?

  Oh, really?

• 19:54Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 19:54Ant McPartlin?

  Rocky, well, how, why?

• 19:55Declan Donnelly?

  He hasn't quite got back into his routine since summer. I think summer kind of knocked him.

• 20:00Ant McPartlin?

  Is he still mentally on his holidays?

• 20:01Declan Donnelly?

  Mentally, he's still on his holidays. But he's like waking up in the mornings really early, asking for food. Going to bed late, which is not great for my routine.

• 20:11Ant McPartlin?

  No.

• 20:11Declan Donnelly?

  You know, he's 13 now as well. So he's finding it hard, I think, to get back into a routine since the summer.

• 20:17Ant McPartlin?

  Gemini, I have a 13-year-old Dachshund called Rocky.

• 20:23Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, my gosh, so do I.

• 20:25Ant McPartlin?

  Don't be silly. We need to get Rocky used to not being around us humans as much in the day again after the summer. Can you give me a gradual routine, please? Okay, there's a schedule.

• 20:42Declan Donnelly?

  Go on.

• 20:43Ant McPartlin?

  Week one, the I forgot my keys phase.

• 20:46Declan Donnelly?

  Right, yeah, I know this.

• 20:47Ant McPartlin?

  Showing Rocky that departures are completely normal and brief. So I forgot my keys, pop out the room, pop back in.

• 20:53Declan Donnelly?

  Back in.

• 20:53Ant McPartlin?

  You haven't forgot your keys.

• 20:55Declan Donnelly?

  No.

• 20:55Ant McPartlin?

  Just, you don't have to say that.

• 20:56Declan Donnelly?

  No.

• 20:57Ant McPartlin?

  Week two, the pop into the shops phase.

• 20:59Declan Donnelly?

  Right.

• 21:00Ant McPartlin?

  That makes sense. Getting Rocky used to slightly longer solo stretches. And lastly, the full re-rehearsal. So it's all about extending Rocky's alone time and getting his meals and naps regular. And he loves a nap. Do you ever wonder what dogs do when we're out the room?

• 21:17Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, all the time. What do they get up to? Or do they just sleep?

• 21:20Ant McPartlin?

  Do they watch TV?

• 21:20Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 21:21Ant McPartlin?

  Eat popcorn?

• 21:22Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 21:22Ant McPartlin?

  Like, just sit on the sofa?

• 21:24Declan Donnelly?

  Actually, that's a good idea.

• 21:25Ant McPartlin?

  What?

• 21:25Declan Donnelly?

  Why don't we ask and see if there are activities or things that I can leave him with?

• 21:30Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 21:30Declan Donnelly?

  To fill their time.

• 21:31Ant McPartlin?

  Gemini, could you give me some good enrichment activities I could leave for Rocky when we pop out for an hour?

• 21:40Declan Donnelly?

  And a half.

• 21:40Ant McPartlin?

  You've got stuff like, there's some examples here. Thanks, Gemini. The frozen lick mat, the snuffle mat safari. Have you heard of this?

• 21:48Declan Donnelly?

  No.

• 21:48Ant McPartlin?

  The soft rubber food pyramid. Do you know this?

• 21:51Declan Donnelly?

  No.

• 21:52Ant McPartlin?

  Rule of thumb, before you leave the house, give Rocky his enrichment toy five minutes before you walk out the door. If he's already happily focused on licking or sniffing treats, he won't even notice the front door click shut.

• 22:05Declan Donnelly?

  That's a great call. Download the Gemini app today to unlock the power of Google AI on your phone. Check responses. Setup required. Compatibility and availability varies. 18 plus.

• 22:20Declan Donnelly?

  Right, time for one more quick one.

• 22:22Speaker 05

  Hello, Ant Dec and team. Is there a show that someone else has hosted that you've been asked to? Can you give us a little bit, just a tiny, tiny bit of showbiz gossip? That'd be great. Thanks, guys. Love you.

• 22:39Ant McPartlin?

  We nearly said no to I'm a Celebrity.

• 22:41Speaker 05

  Is it?

• 22:41Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah. And I tell you what, it was me and I was like, mm, because we'd just started, we'd done Pop Idol, which was huge for us because it was a big show in prime time and it kind of took us out of Saturday mornings. And we were developing Saturday Night Takeaway.

• 22:56Declan Donnelly?

  We were about to go on air with Takeaway.

• 22:58Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah. So we were like, Pop Idol and Saturday Night Takeaway, they're two big shows and do you need another show? You know, is that going to be too much? And I was like, do we, do we need this show? And I remember Declan saying, but if we see somebody else present it, would you be going to it? I was like, oh God, yeah, I would because it's a good show. I was like, well, should we just risk it and try it? So we did, and thankfully we did. But yeah, we must have been offered lots of stuff around that time.

• 23:26Declan Donnelly?

  We turned down.

• 23:30Ant McPartlin?

  I said, the name will never work. It's too long.

• 23:33Declan Donnelly?

  Changed the name.

• 23:33Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 23:34Declan Donnelly?

  Like, I love the show, but the name's awful. We've got to change the name.

• 23:36Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 23:36Declan Donnelly?

  And then we forgot about it and it made it, made it to end. 25 series later, it's still called the same thing. We turned down Britain's Got Talent about three times, four times, kept going back and saying no. And it kept coming back saying, no, no, you should reconsider this. They sent us some tapes of the very early US versions, which was being hosted by Regis Philbin. And Regis is a very old school, American host. He'd been around for years and years and he didn't really have a role on the show.

• 24:06Ant McPartlin?

  No.

• 24:07Declan Donnelly?

  He would just come out and introduce an act, then he would disappear for ages. And they sent us the clip and we were like, there is no role for a host. You don't need a host if it's, I haven't seen what Regis is doing in this day.

• 24:17Ant McPartlin?

  It was just a montage of auditions, really.

• 24:20Declan Donnelly?

  So we said no, and then they went away and offered us again. We said, no, there's still, there's still no real role for a host. Then they went, well, we're doing a pilot and Paul O'Grady hosted the pilot and it was called Paul O'Grady's Got Talent. So they did a pilot of the show and it was all set in a studio and it didn't really work. And so they shelved it. And then they went back to looking at doing it in theatres again. And then they said, they came back to us and said, if we develop the role for the host, would you reconsider it? We went, yeah, if you can make it so that we're actually part of the show.

• 24:53Ant McPartlin?

  And we said, if Simon's a judge, then yes.

• 24:56Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 24:57Ant McPartlin?

  Because he wasn't going to be a judge. But even before the American tapes, we sat with Simon and we talked about doing a Got Talent style, X Factor style, Idol style talent show.

• 25:11Declan Donnelly?

  There are two shows that we have done for 20 odd years that we turned down.

• 25:17Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 25:18Declan Donnelly?

  We turned down Saturday mornings as well, do you remember?

• 25:19Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, we did.

• 25:20Declan Donnelly?

  They wanted us to see what S M C L went down to on a Saturday morning. No way.

• 25:25Ant McPartlin?

  We turned down The Big Breakfast.

• 25:27Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, yeah. We got offered The Big Breakfast. We turned that down and then they gave it to Johnny Vaughan and Denise.

• 25:32Ant McPartlin?

  But we have turned down stuff recently, which I won't name.

• 25:36Declan Donnelly?

  One day.

• 25:36Ant McPartlin?

  It's not fair. One day.

• 25:37Declan Donnelly?

  We'll tell you one day.

• 25:38Ant McPartlin?

  In Stephen Mulhern's autobiography, maybe I'll mention it.

• 25:43Declan Donnelly?

  I think that's all we've got time for today.

• 25:44Ant McPartlin?

  That's it. That's it.

• 25:45Declan Donnelly?

  We'll be back on Thursday with the main show, where we'll be giving away my onesie from Canada, hopefully.

• 25:51Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, on Famous Guy Swaps thing. So please get in touch. If you've got any more swaps, just send them to me, hangingoutofbelltobox.com and I will.

• 25:59Declan Donnelly?

  F A O, Aunt.

• 26:00Ant McPartlin?

  Let Dec know.

• 26:01Declan Donnelly?

  We'll be back then. Remember to follow the pod wherever you get your podcasts and give it a like.

• 26:07Ant McPartlin?

  And all that on YouTube, all that stuff.

• 26:09Declan Donnelly?

  See you on Thursday. Until then.

• 26:11Ant McPartlin?

  Good stuff, guys.

• 26:12Declan Donnelly?

  See you later. Love you.

• 26:17Declan Donnelly?

  I said I love you.

• 26:29Speaker 06

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• 26:59Speaker 02

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