Tom Davis' Embarrassing First Meeting with Ant & Dec... and The King

Things are getting spooky in the studio as Ant & Dec turn into Reluctant Vampires, and none other than Tom Davis drops by for a little trick or treat! Tom spills the beans on his nerve wracking comedy gig for the King, and how he almost ended up giving a scaffolding quote for Buckingham Palace. Dec reveals his inner Halloween grinch, and we find out all about Ant’s spillage. Plus, the boys tell the story of receiving their OBEs, Tom reveals a trick of the trade and we answer YOUR listener questionsAnd if you have a question or a story you'd like to share with us, send it 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 - Vampires in The Studio01:45 - Dec’s a Halloween Grinch04:45 - A Ghostly Golfer06:00 - Tom Davis is Here!09:00 - Pumpkin vs Turnip Vs Swede13:50 - Ghost’s Galore20:35 - Reluctant Vampire23:40 - Scaffolding Buckingham Palace30:30 - Tom’s Comedy Tour: Spudgun31:47 - Performing For The King35:50 - Tom on Fatherhood38:55 - Tricks of The Trade41:50 - When Young Tom met Ant & Dec49:26 - Listener Broadcast Questions 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

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• 1:01Speaker 01

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• 1:30Ant McPartlin?

  Come along on the show. Big Tom Davis pops in.

• 1:34Declan Donnelly?

  He tells us all about scaffolding Buckingham Palace.

• 1:36Ant McPartlin?

  And the hardest gig he's ever had, following the king.

• 1:40Declan Donnelly?

  I reveal the one official occasion where Dec came before Ant.

• 1:45Ant McPartlin?

  We get spooky together, but is Dec a Halloween Grinch?

• 1:50Declan Donnelly?

  Yes, he is.

• 1:52Ant McPartlin?

  Happy Halloween!

• 1:53Declan Donnelly?

  Enjoy the show!

• 2:06Declan Donnelly?

  Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the hangout for another hanging out with him and me. Happy Halloween.

• 2:11Ant McPartlin?

  Happy Halloween.

• 2:12Declan Donnelly?

  We've got our Dracula capes on in case you're just watching, listening.

• 2:17Ant McPartlin?

  But no makeup or fangs. I'm quite disappointed. I'm very disappointed. I think we should go large. That's it now. This is half. This is half-assed, isn't it? It's half a job.

• 2:29Declan Donnelly?

  I was quite thrilled there was no makeup.

• 2:31Ant McPartlin?

  What would I be? Well, if I was gonna do this, I've dressed as Dracula before and just proper slicked back hair, fangs, white face, full on like waistcoat, little cravat. I could have, if you'd give me a bit of a heads up, I would have went for it. Him on the other hat, look, it's not.

• 2:46Declan Donnelly?

  Somebody had given you the heads up that it was Halloween?

• 2:48Ant McPartlin?

  I didn't think we were gonna be even doing this. I thought we were just doing a normal pod. And then obviously someone bought us some capes.

• 2:56Declan Donnelly?

  Can I take it off yet?

• 2:57Ant McPartlin?

  What?

• 2:58Declan Donnelly?

  I hate dressing up, you know that.

• 3:00Ant McPartlin?

  I know you hate dressing up, but it's Halloween.

• 3:02Declan Donnelly?

  I'd hate it even more for Halloween.

• 3:04Ant McPartlin?

  The viewers love it, the kids love it.

• 3:05Declan Donnelly?

  Do they? Do you?

• 3:06Ant McPartlin?

  They love it. I saw somebody dress up as their boyfriend's internet search history.

• 3:11Declan Donnelly?

  Dangerous.

• 3:11Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, it was. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh my God. That's spooky, isn't it? That's spooky.

• 3:18Declan Donnelly?

  Someone's just fallen off the bookcase behind us.

• 3:20Ant McPartlin?

  Are you getting into Halloween?

• 3:22Declan Donnelly?

  Yep.

• 3:23Ant McPartlin?

  You've, why have you taken off already?

• 3:25Declan Donnelly?

  I don't want it on.

• 3:26Ant McPartlin?

  It's Halloween!

• 3:27Declan Donnelly?

  It's getting on my nerves already.

• 3:29Ant McPartlin?

  What a grouch.

• 3:31Declan Donnelly?

  I don't, I, I, I've never liked Halloween. I've never loved it.

• 3:34Ant McPartlin?

  Well, you're gonna have to get into it now. Your kids not love it?

• 3:37Declan Donnelly?

  Love it. Love it. Jack wants to be a skeleton this year. I don't know what Ayla wants to be, but Jack is fixated on skeleton.

• 3:43Ant McPartlin?

  But do they not want you to dress up?

• 3:45Declan Donnelly?

  They've never said so.

• 3:46Ant McPartlin?

  Of course they do.

• 3:47Declan Donnelly?

  So I've never offered it.

• 3:48Ant McPartlin?

  They've never said so. What an earth.

• 3:51Declan Donnelly?

  They've never said so, so I've not offered it.

• 3:52Ant McPartlin?

  Or do you just walk around the house going, girl, I hate dressing up? So they're too scared to mention it now? I think that's what it is. They've picked up on that. Do you do anything Halloweeny in the lead up to Halloween?

• 4:02Declan Donnelly?

  Try not to.

• 4:03Ant McPartlin?

  What do you mean?

• 4:04Declan Donnelly?

  We do a bit of pumpkin stuff.

• 4:07Ant McPartlin?

  I went pumpkin picking yesterday.

• 4:09Declan Donnelly?

  Did you?

• 4:09Ant McPartlin?

  Wilder. Went to this, I tell you what, these farms round near me are having it off. I swear to God. Went there, right?

• 4:18Declan Donnelly?

  How much is a pumpkin nowadays?

• 4:20Ant McPartlin?

  The pumpkins, that's small fry. That's, they're the cheapest thing. So you turn up, you get, you got your entrance money, you've got money that you've got to pay to do the trail, right? Which, which granted is lovely, but then we saw a queue for the tractor into the pumpkin picking field. So we then had to pay for that.

• 4:38Declan Donnelly?

  Is that more?

• 4:39Ant McPartlin?

  That's more, obviously.

• 4:40Declan Donnelly?

  Oh gosh, everything's on top.

• 4:41Ant McPartlin?

  Had to pay for the tractor. It's get over to the pumpkin field. Then you've got to pay for your pumpkin. Then he goes, hungry daddy. So I was like, okay, I'll queue and get him something to eat. Kids' cheese toasties, $6.95, which was literally, literally that bit of bread, right? Halfed to make a sandwich with a bit of cheese in and some veggie straws. Having it off, I'm telling you. So we've got to go big on Halloween because we've got to earn some money back. We can just do tours through here.

• 5:10Declan Donnelly?

  Only like only open one week of the year?

• 5:13Ant McPartlin?

  Oh, this is good couple of weeks, lead up this is. And then they do like a Christmas thing. Then you do like a spring thing. You can just, I was talking then. What have you noticed? You've noticed how you interrupt a lot?

• 5:23Declan Donnelly?

  I've noticed a lot of houses around me are decorated now, like a week in advance.

• 5:28Ant McPartlin?

  Oh yeah, longer, yeah.

• 5:29Declan Donnelly?

  They're decorated a long time in advance.

• 5:31Ant McPartlin?

  People love it, man. You've got to get on board.

• 5:34Declan Donnelly?

  Mad, isn't it?

• 5:35Ant McPartlin?

  I resisted for a long time, but you've just got to get on board. My girls love it. Daisy loves it. She will talk about what she's gonna wear for Halloween in the summer, on summer holidays, and start ordering stuff.

• 5:46Declan Donnelly?

  Give over.

• 5:47Ant McPartlin?

  She will. I'm telling you, man. He's not even dressing up for his own podcast. Is this such a thing as a Halloween Grinch? There is, there must be. You're like a Grinch. You're the Halloween Grinch.

• 5:57Declan Donnelly?

  Let us know if I am alone in how I feel about Halloween.

• 6:00Ant McPartlin?

  Well, of course you're not gonna be alone. There's gonna be more people like that.

• 6:03Declan Donnelly?

  Well, I am in here and I'm feeling slightly persecuted.

• 6:06Ant McPartlin?

  Persecuted?

• 6:07Declan Donnelly?

  Hanging out at ButlerBox.com. Let me know if you hate Halloween too.

• 6:11Ant McPartlin?

  Let us know if you're a Halloween Grinch.

• 6:15Ant McPartlin?

  I've got a present for you.

• 6:17Declan Donnelly?

  What?

• 6:17Ant McPartlin?

  Not that you deserve it, you miserable old Grinch.

• 6:20Declan Donnelly?

  A Halloween present?

• 6:21Ant McPartlin?

  Well, kind of, yes. So my neighbour knocked on my door the other day, yesterday.

• 6:29Declan Donnelly?

  Trick or treat?

• 6:30Ant McPartlin?

  Uh, no, no, just for a cup of tea. But she brought these round for you.

• 6:36Declan Donnelly?

  For me?

• 6:36Ant McPartlin?

  Yep.

• 6:37Declan Donnelly?

  Both of them?

• 6:37Ant McPartlin?

  Yep. But they, if you can look on there, they are Halloween themed.

• 6:43Declan Donnelly?

  I love Halloween. I absolutely love it.

• 6:47Ant McPartlin?

  It's good, isn't it?

• 6:47Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, I love Halloween.

• 6:48Ant McPartlin?

  Can you get a close up of that? What have you got on this one? This is like a ghostly golfer. Can you see it on there? That's a, that's a ghostly golfer on the back of the 60 degree. And on the back of your sandwich is?

• 7:01Declan Donnelly?

  A pumpkin.

• 7:01Ant McPartlin?

  A linked pumpkin.

• 7:03Declan Donnelly?

  I love Halloween. I always have. Free stuff.

• 7:09Ant McPartlin?

  Nice though.

• 7:10Declan Donnelly?

  They are lovely.

• 7:10Ant McPartlin?

  There you go. I'm in your bag. There you go.

• 7:14Declan Donnelly?

  She doesn't have anything to do with paddle, does she?

• 7:16Ant McPartlin?

  She doesn't have anything to do with paddle. Why do you want to send you some paddle?

• 7:19Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, I'm gonna paddle now.

• 7:21Ant McPartlin?

  Oh, you don't, I'll take these.

• 7:22Declan Donnelly?

  No, no, no, no, I meant to go off as well. Oh.

• 7:26Ant McPartlin?

  Hello?

• 7:27Declan Donnelly?

  We've got trick or treaters now!

• 7:29Ant McPartlin?

  You're gonna have to pretend to be in the window. Hello?

• 7:31Declan Donnelly?

  Let me, let me.

• 7:32Ant McPartlin?

  Ah, it's Tom Davis!

• 7:37Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, we're good, are we?

• 7:38Speaker 04

  I've dressed up as Halloween. It's Tom Davis.

• 7:41Declan Donnelly?

  Hi, Tom.

• 7:42Speaker 04

  That was most terrifying costume I've ever seen.

• 7:44Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, grammat化, I love you, mate, for.

• 7:47Declan Donnelly?

  Are you a fan of Halloween?

• 7:49Speaker 04

  Um, no, no, I, I try to get into it now as a dad. Like, we're doing trick or treating this year. We're, I'm forced to, I'm forced to dress up.

• 7:58Ant McPartlin?

  What will you dress up as?

• 7:59Declan Donnelly?

  I'm there.

• 8:00Speaker 04

  I wish, I wish.

• 8:01Ant McPartlin?

  You've got the alpha of the whole, right?

• 8:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, I take all my costumes home with me.

• 8:07Speaker 04

  My daughter's kind of obsessed with me going as Chewbacca.

• 8:09Ant McPartlin?

  That's a good one.

• 8:11Speaker 04

  Which is quite nice. That'd be, by the way, that's a role I'd have loved.

• 8:14Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 8:15Speaker 04

  No lines to, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 8:18Ant McPartlin?

  You just open your mouth and somebody has to do the nice.

• 8:22Speaker 04

  That's not fatal, but you've got no fight really as Chewbacca. You're just sort of lurking about in the back.

• 8:26Declan Donnelly?

  Well, that's quite a good one in the fact you can hide yourself as well.

• 8:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's, that's the thing.

• 8:31Ant McPartlin?

  That's what you need.

• 8:32Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 8:32Ant McPartlin?

  That's what you need.

• 8:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's what you've got to do.

• 8:34Ant McPartlin?

  You think you'd be into it more if you could do that?

• 8:36Declan Donnelly?

  If I could go and just go.

• 8:37Ant McPartlin?

  Isn't the fact that you're gonna get recognised dressed up?

• 8:39Declan Donnelly?

  Maybe.

• 8:40Ant McPartlin?

  Like an embarrassment factor. You've got to shake this embarrassment off.

• 8:43Declan Donnelly?

  What would be?

• 8:43Ant McPartlin?

  Why so fast? We should talk about this.

• 8:45Declan Donnelly?

  A ninja?

• 8:45Ant McPartlin?

  Ninja's good.

• 8:46Declan Donnelly?

  I'd make a good ninja.

• 8:49Speaker 04

  My daughter's now like coming up to five and she's got, so she said, I think, yeah, we were looking for a costume. She said, you should go as this Chewbacca. I said, oh, would you want to go as Newok? And she went, no. What? And I went, well, obviously then we've got a theme. And she's like, I'm gonna go as K-pop demon.

• 9:05Ant McPartlin?

  God, shit.

• 9:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, of course. And I was like, you know, that makes no sense. Why is she back at Hangout with a K-pop demon on her?

• 9:12Speaker 04

  I know, he's trying to nick a bit of work, but.

• 9:14Ant McPartlin?

  I do agree, though. You do need a theme.

• 9:15Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 9:16Ant McPartlin?

  We were all Ghostbusters last year and it worked.

• 9:18Speaker 04

  That's good.

• 9:18Ant McPartlin?

  Well, even the little one, he's two and a half now. He was one and a half then. We got a tiny little Ghostbuster outfit. Worked.

• 9:25Speaker 04

  That's beautiful.

• 9:25Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, it was great.

• 9:26Speaker 04

  That is, that's what it's about for me.

• 9:28Ant McPartlin?

  I, I, I do agree with that. I do agree that, like, a fancy dress party, for a fancy dress party's sake, I'm not a fan of.

• 9:34Speaker 04

  Yeah. And then also the racket around it now.

• 9:37Ant McPartlin?

  Oh, my God.

• 9:38Speaker 04

  It's like, the insanity of like, it, I mean, the Christmas decorations are already going up, we're not in, but it feels like Halloween, it's sort of like, when we were kids, it was a sort of, you know, you might go trick or treating and, and you might just put on a cape.

• 9:49Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 9:49Speaker 04

  And that was enough.

• 9:50Declan Donnelly?

  We used to put on a bin bag.

• 9:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 9:51Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, we did. And a plastic mask.

• 9:53Speaker 04

  Or, or a sheet and just go as a ghost.

• 9:55Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 9:55Speaker 04

  Do you know what I mean? There was a gentler time.

• 9:57Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 9:57Speaker 04

  Everything is financially, like, and, and the place.

• 9:59Ant McPartlin?

  Industry now, yeah.

• 10:00Speaker 04

  And like you, like the pumpkin field thing.

• 10:02Ant McPartlin?

  Oh, my God.

• 10:03Speaker 04

  Picking, it's just a racket.

• 10:05Ant McPartlin?

  It is.

• 10:05Speaker 04

  It just feels like every time you turn around, there's a fiver here, a tenor here.

• 10:08Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 10:09Speaker 04

  And it's just like, this is, the, you know, the scariest thing is about the money we spent on a pumpkin. It's four quid in Tesco's. And then when they go, you're picking it, I thought, oh, at least you'll get some idea about agriculture. We'll go and actually dig it up. They're already dug up. It's sitting on top of the soil.

• 10:23Ant McPartlin?

  They just left on the grass.

• 10:24Speaker 04

  You're literally walking up and going, oh, there we go.

• 10:26Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, that one.

• 10:27Speaker 04

  That's seventy quid, please.

• 10:29Ant McPartlin?

  You know, when we were younger, uh, in Newcastle, we didn't, pumpkins weren't the thing. Never got pumpkins growing up. We used to hollow out a turnip, which, honestly, I'm not saying we were so poor as a kid. It's not one of those monkey finding sketches. Honestly, a turnip.

• 10:44Declan Donnelly?

  Didn't get pumpkins anyway.

• 10:45Ant McPartlin?

  We didn't get them. So we honestly, we have a turnip. And you know how hard a turnip is to hollow out?

• 10:50Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 10:50Ant McPartlin?

  It takes days and, and really easily kind of biodegrades. It just degrade, like, kind of falls in on itself. But you carve the little face in it. And you put a candle in the middle.

• 11:00Declan Donnelly?

  And by the time you've walked around with a little taillight in it, you can smell the turnip cooking as you're trick or treating.

• 11:06Speaker 04

  Turnip, it's, for me, most underrated vegetable. I think a turnip is, I think, really, the turnip is the messy of, of vegetables.

• 11:13Ant McPartlin?

  I love it. I do like a turnip.

• 11:15Speaker 04

  I love a turnip in a, in a stew. I think uplifts any meal. You put a turnip in it. I'm like, okay, now you're talking.

• 11:21Declan Donnelly?

  I got confused when we moved to London though, because everybody calls it Swede.

• 11:24Speaker 04

  No, no, turnips, Swedes are different, right?

• 11:26Declan Donnelly?

  Are they?

• 11:26Speaker 04

  Yeah. Swedes are a different thing from a turnip.

• 11:28Ant McPartlin?

  Swedes dinner.

• 11:29Speaker 04

  Swedes are big, all right?

• 11:32Speaker 04

  Orange. And turnips are those small little things.

• 11:34Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, no, we're talking about.

• 11:35Ant McPartlin?

  No, we're talking about.

• 11:36Speaker 04

  You're talking about Swede.

• 11:37Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 11:37Speaker 04

  You're talking about Swede. So a turnip's a, that's why I was genuinely thinking there, like, a turnip's a, a turnip's not that big.

• 11:44Ant McPartlin?

  Oh, they're not.

• 11:44Speaker 04

  Turnips are like that big. A Swede's like that. A Swede's more like a bit like, yeah.

• 11:48Ant McPartlin?

  Bit like a pumpkin?

• 11:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 11:50Ant McPartlin?

  So hold on, I've been hollowing out Swedes all these years.

• 11:53Speaker 04

  A turnip is about that big, right? A turnip's tiny. So when you were saying you're holding out a turnip and it took you days, I was like.

• 12:01Ant McPartlin?

  He's very weak.

• 12:05Ant McPartlin?

  What a weak child you are.

• 12:07Speaker 04

  And also so fiddly, like, scarily bigger than a tomato, you know?

• 12:13Ant McPartlin?

  We used razor blades. It was very artisanal.

• 12:17Speaker 04

  A prison sheep.

• 12:20Speaker 05

  Is that what you did?

• 12:21Declan Donnelly?

  Yes. What's that?

• 12:22Speaker 04

  That's a Swede.

• 12:23Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, we call that a turnip.

• 12:24Speaker 04

  Is that what you, okay. Yeah, I'll be careful if I go, I didn't know the language barrier was quite so big.

• 12:31Declan Donnelly?

  Are you, um, are you a fan of scary things in general?

• 12:34Speaker 04

  No, I'm, I, I, I'm genuinely terrified of most, like, any, that's my big, I like, so when we were filming King Gary, um, me and Ramesh were staying in rooms next to each other, uh, in this hotel. And the first day we got there, I was like, there, there's an area, there's a feeder, you know? Um, and, like, so the first night, I'm lying in bed and there's like a tap in on the window. I'm lying in there and I'm like, I guess probably a branch was there. I was just going to check. I go out, like, to, go to the window, check there's no, there's nothing near the window, so it can't be a branch or anything. And I'm like, what is that tapping? I get the alarm spiralling a little bit. Then the room goes like so, so cold, right?

• 13:12Speaker 04

  I go to the, like, yeah, it goes freezing cold. I then go to the radiator and the radiator's on, but the room is freezing. I lay in bed and I'm like, it feels like, it's pretty zang, so I think it feels like something's crushing my chest. And I'm like, oh. And then I start making, making deals with the room. I'm like, listen, I'm finally getting somewhere in my career. Things have got going right for me. Like, if you're out there, please just go easy on me. Whatever your, your intentions are, make them. Um, and I wake up in the morning and one of my T-shirts is on like, uh, a lamp, for no reason. All my clothes were like, in, in my suitcase and there's a T-shirt, I've taken it and it's on a lamp. And I've not like, like, taken my clothes off, like, yeah.

• 13:52Speaker 04

  Um, I'm in a Basinger film. I'm like, uh, and I'm like, oh my, and, and who's the worst person? And the next, first person I see, I come out of my room, Ramesh, he's like a sick cop, he comes out of his room. And I'm like.

• 14:02Ant McPartlin?

  Did he do the same?

• 14:03Speaker 04

  No, no. So I go, this place is haunted. And he goes, oh, shut up. And I was like, no, it's all genuine. I tell him what's happening. He's unwinding me up. And then I literally go, we, we're leaving the hotel. I turn around to a bloke and said, oh, has anyone ever said about this place being haunted before? He said, well, I should think so. It used to be like a church with, you know, and then, and then before that was a Bernardo's. Like, and I was like, oh my, what? Like, I was like, I was like, I can handle a ghost, but like a kid ghost coming up to your window and knocking on the, and I was like telling him, he said, oh, you know, we, we have quite a lot of stuff. So we go back and it all downset Ramesh's teasing me, completely, like, to me. And then the next night, something happens. I can't remember exactly what, something happened in his room. So he comes out the next day and he's like, okay, yeah. And we moved hotels.

• 14:44Ant McPartlin?

  Did you?

• 14:44Speaker 04

  Yeah. He's still to this day will go, oh, there was a, I, I still massively believe in, I'm like a proper believer in ghosts. So, and I'm so easily scared. I'm like, if, if I'm in a house of my own, like, my wife is like, you're six, seven. If a burglar saw you naked coming, that's enough. I mean, it will, there'll be some sort of laughter. I doesn't figure out.

• 15:08Ant McPartlin?

  He's holding the tiny treasure.

• 15:11Speaker 04

  Was he, was he, was he holding that a turnip?

• 15:18Ant McPartlin?

  Excuse me. I'm definitely telling me something I should do.

• 15:23Ant McPartlin?

  I, to one, yeah, we, uh, when we were doing Saturday Night Takeaway, we decided to do like a ghost hunting special. And we, we, we were shooting it in this old, um, um, it was not a stately home. How would you describe it?

• 15:39Declan Donnelly?

  It was like a, a, an old mansion house.

• 15:41Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, old mansion house. And the idea was, Dec played like this ghost hunter guy and we'd get celebrities in, genuinely, who thought they were going on a ghost hunt. Then I would dress as a ghost, hide them under the roof and scare them, right? Really good idea. I'm, I'm really, I'm good at that. We couldn't book it at the time. But we'd start the whole thing, have loads of, uh, prosthetic makeup on, look at this ghost, really white and this Victorian outfit. And then they would say, just go and hide in one of the rooms. But the idea of dressed, being dressed as a ghost with all of the lights off in the middle of winter, just hiding in one of these rooms, I absolutely.

• 16:16Speaker 04

  Well, it's not going into your way in at football.

• 16:20Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, it is.

• 16:22Speaker 04

  Actual ghost. We'll get a clock on in a minute. We better start.

• 16:28Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, somebody's turned up already.

• 16:31Speaker 04

  Who's the new fella?

• 16:34Speaker 04

  He's not even a gun. Like a mockery of the whole world.

• 16:38Ant McPartlin?

  Well, yeah, we had all of that kind of knocking and it did the temperature dropping.

• 16:43Speaker 04

  It's good.

• 16:43Ant McPartlin?

  Definitely. My mother really believes in it. She goes ghost hunting. She goes on genuine hunts.

• 16:47Speaker 04

  I, I, I wouldn't, I think I could, don't think I could do the hunt.

• 16:50Ant McPartlin?

  Well, she does the whole talk, like, if you ever go into a room with her and she says, I think there's something here. Hello? Hello? We're not here, aren't we? And a really broad Geordie accent. Everything on the armpits.

• 17:03Speaker 04

  My, um, bless him, my, my, my grandmother passed away last year and, uh, she lived, I think she was a hundred and seven. It's insane.

• 17:10Declan Donnelly?

  What?

• 17:10Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 17:11Ant McPartlin?

  Wow.

• 17:11Speaker 04

  But, yeah, um, but when my grandfather died, uh, me and, um, me and my mum, she was like, you know, I'd feel like I want to say goodbye and all this sort of stuff. I think I've got a proper chance. And he died quite suddenly. So we're like, you know, so Derek O'Corra was at Croydon Fairfield Arms.

• 17:27Ant McPartlin?

  Oh, yeah.

• 17:27Speaker 04

  So, um, it's not long to watch, uh, to watch, we take it, we're like, we'll take it along.

• 17:32Ant McPartlin?

  And what, how would you describe Derek? If those who haven't heard of him, he's like a medium.

• 17:36Speaker 04

  He was a medium. So he was almost the original medium.

• 17:38Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah. He was huge, wasn't he, for a period of time? Yeah.

• 17:41Speaker 04

  So he's, um, um, so he goes on stage. Yes, yeah. He goes on stage at Fairfield Arms. He goes, is there anyone in the room called Elsie? I was like, I think chances are it's gonna be an Elsie. There we go. Whilst that, and, and my, um, my, my nan goes, yes, yes, I'm called Elsie. And he goes, um, Elsie, hi, you're my love. And he's, he's like, yeah, yeah. You've lost someone recently. I said, again, she's a fucking, no, it's a good chance someone's gone. Um, and he went, someone special, someone close to you. And she went, yeah, yeah. And he said, um, he's gonna come and see you, Elsie. He's gonna come and see you. In fact, he's coming with lots of other people from your past. They're all gonna come and see you. And my grand went, how many of them, Derek? When are they coming? I've only got a little flat.

• 18:27Speaker 04

  You've got worry on her face. Oh, you've got a biscuit in. How many people did it in L B? How many are we talking? Twenty handed?

• 18:38Declan Donnelly?

  This episode is brought to you in partnership with Airbnb.

• 18:42Ant McPartlin?

  You know, you were talking the other day about your Uncle Bob.

• 18:45Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, no, I don't have an Uncle Bob.

• 18:46Ant McPartlin?

  Well, now you were, you were talking about him. You mentioned him last time we talked about this, your, your Uncle Bob.

• 18:50Declan Donnelly?

  It was a turn of phrase.

• 18:51Ant McPartlin?

  Well, I have a question for your Uncle Bob.

• 18:54Declan Donnelly?

  Not his name, but Faraway.

• 18:55Ant McPartlin?

  Okay, right. So he's the one.

• 18:57Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 18:58Ant McPartlin?

  Who lists his home on Airbnb when he travels for work, the Uncle Bob.

• 19:01Declan Donnelly?

  Yes, something like that.

• 19:03Ant McPartlin?

  Uh, so my question is, what happens when Uncle Bob is away for a long stretch? And there's a changeover of people staying in the house?

• 19:14Declan Donnelly?

  Sounds like he's got a jail.

• 19:15Ant McPartlin?

  Uncle Bob.

• 19:15Declan Donnelly?

  Right.

• 19:16Ant McPartlin?

  How is Uncle Bob meant to manage that?

• 19:17Declan Donnelly?

  Well, if you go away for a stint, say three months and you have changeovers and you, you're not physically there.

• 19:25Ant McPartlin?

  Yes.

• 19:25Declan Donnelly?

  What you do is you can get somebody nearby the property to come and help you with the changeovers. And they are what's known as a co-host.

• 19:33Ant McPartlin?

  A bit like us.

• 19:34Declan Donnelly?

  Yes, yeah, like us, but we're not available to go around and do the turn, turnaround for your Airbnb. Just want to make that clear.

• 19:41Ant McPartlin?

  Right.

• 19:42Declan Donnelly?

  And of course, there's the money you're getting from listing your home as well.

• 19:46Ant McPartlin?

  So what about welcoming guests, cleaning?

• 19:49Declan Donnelly?

  Yes.

• 19:50Ant McPartlin?

  You're making sure the house is in order.

• 19:51Declan Donnelly?

  Yes.

• 19:52Ant McPartlin?

  Sounds good. Okay.

• 19:53Declan Donnelly?

  There you go. And, and Bob's your uncle.

• 19:54Ant McPartlin?

  See, you keep saying it, but he's not my uncle. I don't have an Uncle Bob.

• 19:58Declan Donnelly?

  He's not my uncle either, but.

• 19:59Ant McPartlin?

  But Terry, Terry and Bob should get together.

• 20:04Ant McPartlin?

  Thinking about hosting, but need a little extra help? Find a co-host on airbnb.co.uk/host.

• 20:11Declan Donnelly?

  I might try and find a new co-host.

• 20:15Ant McPartlin?

  This next bit is an advert for Gemini, Google's AI app. I wonder who the viewers think is better at golf, me or you?

• 20:23Declan Donnelly?

  Hmm, probably me.

• 20:25Ant McPartlin?

  Why would, why would you say that?

• 20:26Declan Donnelly?

  Lower centre of gravity.

• 20:27Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, that doesn't work. The taller you are, the better.

• 20:29Declan Donnelly?

  Shall we, um, see who has got the best swing at the moment?

• 20:33Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 20:33Declan Donnelly?

  We could use Google Gemini.

• 20:35Ant McPartlin?

  Okay.

• 20:35Declan Donnelly?

  See who's got the best swing.

• 20:36Ant McPartlin?

  Go on, stand up there then.

• 20:37Declan Donnelly?

  Okay, there you go.

• 20:38Ant McPartlin?

  Get yourself ready. Do you need any warm-up stuff?

• 20:40Declan Donnelly?

  No, straight into it.

• 20:42Ant McPartlin?

  Gemini, can you rate Dex's golf swing out of bananas? Eight being the best, zero being the least. Go.

• 20:54Declan Donnelly?

  What does Google Gemini say about that?

• 20:56Speaker 06

  I'd give Dex's swing about two bananas out of eight.

• 20:59Ant McPartlin?

  What?

• 21:00Declan Donnelly?

  What?

• 21:01Ant McPartlin?

  Okay, do me, do me, do me. No second chances, no second chances.

• 21:04Declan Donnelly?

  I want to know how to improve. Gemini, rate Anne's swing out of bananas, eight being the best, zero being the worst.

• 21:14Speaker 06

  I'd give it about three bananas out of eight.

• 21:16Ant McPartlin?

  Three bananas. I got three bananas. You got two bananas. Ayo, ayo, ayo.

• 21:23Declan Donnelly?

  I mean, neither of us have covered ourselves in glory.

• 21:25Ant McPartlin?

  Well, even Stevens, there's a point in it. Bit like golf yesterday.

• 21:29Declan Donnelly?

  That's so annoying.

• 21:30Ant McPartlin?

  Point for me, uh, today. A point for you yesterday.

• 21:34Declan Donnelly?

  With Gemini, you can chat live with a truly helpful AI assistant. You can jump in, get some holiday tips, ask for more details or even show it what you're talking about by sharing your screen or camera as well. It's there for a real chat, not just a quick question and done.

• 21:50Ant McPartlin?

  Download the Gemini app today to unlock the power of Google AI on your phone.

• 21:55Declan Donnelly?

  Check your responses, setup required, compatibility and availability varies. Eighteen plus.

• 22:02Ant McPartlin?

  You must have wore this a lot.

• 22:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, but that's a vampire.

• 22:06Ant McPartlin?

  I think we should talk about Relentless Vampire because it's brilliant.

• 22:09Speaker 04

  Oh, thank you.

• 22:10Ant McPartlin?

  It's really good. Was it fun to do?

• 22:11Speaker 04

  It was. The cloaks were about, the cloaks are a pain. As soon as I saw you both in them.

• 22:16Ant McPartlin?

  More expensive than these.

• 22:17Speaker 04

  Yeah, they're more expensive, but also weirdly, as soon as you're doing a scene in a cloak, especially that one where it's up.

• 22:22Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, yeah.

• 22:23Speaker 04

  And there's a lot of work that went into just making sure the cloak was in the right place. But, um, yeah, it was, it was a fantastic, it's, it's a lovely thing to do something like that. I think you, again, when you, when you become a parent and you're sort of, your choices become a little bit different in the stuff you want to do. And I think, you know, having done like Wonka and Paddington, Paddington Two and things like that, you, you actually realise like my daughters now watch them. And actually doing stuff where, you know, she's probably a little young for that to happen, but she watched the first.

• 22:49Ant McPartlin?

  But it'll be around and she'll.

• 22:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, and she can watch it and, and I think it, and it's really, you, you boys are the best at it, to navigate that world of being family friendly, but where, where you can have a, a certain like sort of tongue in cheek and you can be there. So a little joke here, you guys navigate it so brilliantly. And then, but then also it feels like the whole family. And I think that's, when we was all growing up, I think it was a really special time where you could, you'd, and there was something about a family being together, watching television. I think we've almost lost that. I think people on phones and devices. And best you can, I think if you can try just to have those little moments where you all sit in laughing together. Uh, they're probably some of my happiest memories as a kid.

• 23:27Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 23:27Speaker 04

  More of the wires or Dad's Army or Fools or whatever. I think to sit and watch those things. I think that's the thing that, and, and to read something, I think the jokes in it, I think were so brilliantly written by the Gibbons Brothers.

• 23:37Ant McPartlin?

  We're saying that, weren't we?

• 23:38Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, script's great.

• 23:39Ant McPartlin?

  The script's really tight. It's really good. The cast is brilliant. You and Lenny Roche and like Ross Noble and Bill Bailey playing the gogos.

• 23:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, and those two have got really starstruck on there. And at first, I think, because there's a stand-up. I think Ross is one of those people where people just, I don't, maybe not enough, not enough people in the mainstream just know how, what genius he is.

• 23:58Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, he's great. We went to college with Ross.

• 24:00Declan Donnelly?

  Did you?

• 24:01Ant McPartlin?

  In Newcastle, yeah.

• 24:01Declan Donnelly?

  Did you? He was in our year at BTEC performing arts in Newcastle College.

• 24:05Ant McPartlin?

  What?

• 24:05Declan Donnelly?

  And, and we used to go to the pub after, after college and we'd be there and Ross would be there in the pub riffing away.

• 24:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:12Ant McPartlin?

  Being quite abstract and you know where he is and he flights of fancy.

• 24:15Declan Donnelly?

  And he'd go around and there'd be groups of people kind of sitting, having, having a beer and Ross would be over doing a bit. And the most common thing you know is, go away, man, Ross.

• 24:24Ant McPartlin?

  Shut up, Ross, I'm trying to have a pint.

• 24:26Declan Donnelly?

  He was so surreal and abstract and it was out there and people were going, Ross, man.

• 24:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 24:31Declan Donnelly?

  Shut up, man, will you?

• 24:32Ant McPartlin?

  But when we saw him kind of, uh, his career take off and he started putting all those bits together, he's really funny.

• 24:39Speaker 04

  He's so fa, and, and so brilliant in that. And that's it. Then he got Joe Wilkinson as, as a charity and, and Sushant Clifford is, is, it's a really like, uh, and then obviously Lenny, who I think is, I think is just incredibly talented. He's phenomenal. He's like, you know, he'll go as far as he wants to go in this, this industry. And yeah, so it was one of those things and, and the character straight off the page, you read it and you're like, I know this feels like a really fun thing to be a part of and

• 25:03Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 25:04Speaker 04

  I hope it goes again.

• 25:05Declan Donnelly?

  Cause you were saying about, um, being fairly new to the industry.

• 25:08Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 25:08Declan Donnelly?

  Because you, you had a career before this and you had jobs before you, you, you're doing what you're doing now. So you were working on a building site. You were, uh, were you a roofer or a scaffolder?

• 25:19Speaker 04

  Scaffolder.

• 25:20Ant McPartlin?

  Didn't you do, well, because we met at the, we met at Buckingham Palace one year.

• 25:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 25:25Declan Donnelly?

  And they had, they had scaffolding, you're having some work done.

• 25:28Speaker 04

  Yeah, I did, I did, yeah. So I'd done the scaffolding on Buckingham Palace years before.

• 25:33Ant McPartlin?

  And then we were, we were all King's Trust ambassadors and we, we went there for.

• 25:37Speaker 04

  Well, you guys got me into it. It was like, I, so I got a call and, because my whole thing has been, and knowing the, you know, your guys' background before, you know, the, the world that you come from as well, and how hard this industry is to get into if you, you, you come from all of our background. Oh yeah, I did the scaffolding. You said, um, oh, you should say to the king. As the king came past, I said, uh, he said, uh, you know, welcome to Buckingham Palace. I said, I've been here before. So I said, yeah, I did the scaffolding there. And then, and then we got in this weird conversation with him and the guy who works with, like, I don't know what he was like. And he was like going through different problems with, that, that might be, but like, like I was there at price for job.

• 26:17Speaker 04

  On the left wing, we've got a little bit.

• 26:20Ant McPartlin?

  Dump over there and the roof coming in over there.

• 26:23Speaker 04

  It's like genuinely going back and going, I thought it was lovely of Alan Deck to bring along that friend. He's just probably, I was like leaving the industry. I've got about five grand's worth of work at Buckingham Palace. What are you doing? How's this been? I'm dry lining the kitchen at Buckingham Palace.

• 26:38Speaker 04

  Doing the toilet, doing the plastering on the long street.

• 26:42Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's, uh, yeah, so, um, so it's a weird, but it's a weird thing that was kind of, wow, this is quite surreal. And then, but that's the career, right? I came into this at thirty, thirty, thirty-two and, uh, from, yeah, bu, building sites and tried my hand at shit. I tried my hand at doing a lot of things that I failed at. So I sort of, um, I came into this industry quite aware that it could just all be a bit of a waste, but it'd be fun.

• 27:04Declan Donnelly?

  But also lovely to come in with some real life experience.

• 27:07Speaker 04

  Yeah, I think that's the thing when you, when you're first gigging and, and like the alumni of, of the people I started out with are now, what's beautiful to see is there's a lot of people I did, I did my first gigs with are now household names. Uh, and we all came in through slightly different path, whereas me and Ramesh, I think, became very close very quickly because we'd had this life outside and, and like, you know, and, and, and most people, but I think my, I was that little bit older and I was a little bit, I remember gigging with Chris Ramsey and he was just like, how have you, you have got so many mad stories. And I was like, I'm twice your age. And, um, and, and I've just, I, I, I, I had a life before where I, I kind of had, I left school young, I had no G C, I had no, I had no forward plan. I didn't live my life with some sort of like grand scheme, this is going to happen. So

• 27:51Speaker 04

  if someone, before I was getting drunk in a bar on a Friday and someone says, oh, let's all just go to Dublin. I go, I haven't got anything to do. I don't have to be anywhere for the next 20 years. So, uh, so I just sort of, I, I, and I kind of didn't take my life ever so seriously. Until I got a little, and it's probably actually really until I became a dad. I think that's the moment that I, I went, okay, now I've got to lock in here a bit. You know, but, um, it's, yeah, it's, it's a mad thing. I, I still find it, you pinch yourself and, and all the time.

• 28:19Declan Donnelly?

  And did you harbour any ambitions to be a performer?

• 28:21Speaker 04

  No, I mean, I was, was never a kid that would be picked for school plays or, or if I was, it would be like quite a small little part or, or play a bit of set, a tree.

• 28:32Speaker 04

  Um, I had a massive growth spurt when I was nineteen.

• 28:36Speaker 04

  I was normal till then. Um, I had a, but, but I remember teachers saying, oh, you won't learn any money out of this institute. It'd been silly. And, you know, I think, I so I had this thing of, of constantly just, and, and then you become very like, not, you know, you just, you, yeah. It wasn't something I looked at and think, oh, this happens to people like me. I, I, I wouldn't have known a way in. I wouldn't have, uh, had any idea of how to get to this place. And it was really only just going to a gig, watching Mickey Flanagan and thinking, oh, he's a mate that, how do you?

• 29:06Ant McPartlin?

  Didn't Mickey take you for lunch the next day?

• 29:08Speaker 04

  No, no, I saw him at a bar. It was in Bethnal Green. And after he, he finished his gig and he'd never remember, I've sort of said this to him, but he, I, you know, I'm sure loads of people have done that. And Mickey was one of the best, before Mickey became the, the, arguably one of the best comedians we've ever had in this country. He was just this amazing club comic. I remember seeing him do his stuff and just then, I was at the bar buying a round and he came and he finished his set. And I was just like, how do you do, you know, how do you get into this? And he was just like, you know, he sort of gave me a bit of advice and did it. And about two weeks, two weeks later, I booked a gig and then just fell in love with it. And that just became a thing where I was like, you know what? Like, all, like, my whole life, I've sort of done this thing where I've, I've had like a trade or whatever. And, you know, even in the world where of, of building or anything, I hadn't, it wasn't like I was sort of like,

• 29:53Speaker 04

  scaffolding wise, like, it was like I was evolving. I was pretty much labouring still and I've been doing that for almost twenty years. So I thought, well, let me just try this. And even if it doesn't go anywhere, it's not a career. At that point, it was, it was just before comedy blew up. It was just before McIntyre and John Bishop and, and, you know.

• 30:08Ant McPartlin?

  But they'll stop playing arena.

• 30:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah. And that became like, you know, it was just as that was happening. Yeah. I just thought this would just be a fun thing to do at a weekend. And it keeps me out of the pub. And, and then slowly just became obsessed with like getting out and I just loved it. I had so many failures early on. It just, I got into my late teens. I was like, well, it's just something else you'll be crap at. Yeah. And it's like, what's the worst that could happen? You're gonna look a bit of an idiot. So I just, that became the thing that, yeah, it, it's, and it's stood me in quite good stead, I think, to go into situations. And, and when you do the King's Trust and you talk to young people, it's like, you don't be, don't be too concerned about your failures and things that go wrong.

• 30:42Declan Donnelly?

  As long as you learn from them.

• 30:43Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, you're, you're, you're a wally if you're going out and going, God, I keep doing this same thing.

• 30:50Speaker 04

  I keep, I keep dropping this hod. Cause I rolled it in my left hand. But then you're right.

• 30:55Declan Donnelly?

  But that's one of the things we say on, on our course, on the making it immediate with the King's Trust is that, don't be afraid to fail.

• 31:00Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 31:00Declan Donnelly?

  Just make sure you learn from your failures.

• 31:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 31:02Declan Donnelly?

  And gain that experience.

• 31:03Ant McPartlin?

  And like you said, you, you, you've been lucky enough to, as we have, to work with some wonderfully gifted people.

• 31:10Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 31:10Ant McPartlin?

  And you've got to just kind of, you've got to be a sponge, you know what I mean? We were quite annoying when we were, you know, uh, young kids on by the go. Cause we just asked questions all the time.

• 31:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, but you should.

• 31:20Ant McPartlin?

  Cause I was just interested in, in how it worked, you know, how the lighting worked, how cameras worked, how this worked. So you kind of, you either have that in you or you don't. And I think we should all allow ourselves to always ask questions and,

• 31:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 31:32Ant McPartlin?

  Ask other people how things are done because that's how you'll find out how the, the, whatever business you're in, how it works.

• 31:38Speaker 04

  There's a certain amount of stuff that will get you through the door, but then you have to just graft and you have to make sure that you.

• 31:42Declan Donnelly?

  Grab the opportunity.

• 31:43Ant McPartlin?

  When you're, when you're through the door, make sure that.

• 31:45Speaker 04

  There's nothing worse than, than getting through the door and then going, well, this guy's, he's learned everything he's learned in his life and he could be bothered to be here. I only thought I had to come through the door. I didn't know I had to do anything once I was through.

• 31:55Declan Donnelly?

  I made it, I made it.

• 31:57Speaker 04

  I'm all right now, right? Well, I'm glad you guys are work.

• 32:01Ant McPartlin?

  You're busier than ever, aren't you? Like what you.

• 32:03Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 32:04Ant McPartlin?

  You've got two, you're on tour at the minute.

• 32:05Speaker 04

  Tour, the tour's like the thing that, um.

• 32:07Ant McPartlin?

  Spud Gunn.

• 32:08Speaker 04

  Spud Gunn.

• 32:08Declan Donnelly?

  Great name.

• 32:09Speaker 04

  I had no idea why. Um, I was called it for a long time on a building site. And then you have this weird thing. I was gonna, I can't remember, we, we were gonna call it something else. And then someone else had called a tour that, and we had to change it. And we had, like, it was going to print and you had like about an hour to change. And I went, I've just called it Spud Gunn. Um, cause I, people on building sites called me that. And, uh.

• 32:26Declan Donnelly?

  But did it come from somewhere or?

• 32:28Speaker 04

  Uh, so I, there's a, there's an idea that it comes from, uh, potato water is a bit like.

• 32:38Declan Donnelly?

  I wish I'd known.

• 32:39Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, we'll look at that, my friend.

• 32:42Ant McPartlin?

  When, when we come and see you, uh, until we find out what.

• 32:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, no, come along. It'll be amazing.

• 32:49Declan Donnelly?

  Well, you did a, you did a, a tight ten minutes at the King's Trust.

• 32:52Speaker 04

  Yeah, that was the hardest gig of my life. By the way, you two were incredible for that. I, I'd never got to talk to you afterwards. Well, you're incredible, but also it's maybe the biggest [BLEEP] behaviour I've ever seen in my life. So you were the, the nicest guys and have been throughout my whole career. I remember like getting a message from you, I think during Murder is Successful, you were really fine to me. You were so lovely. And, and you were sitting, throughout, whenever I've had any interaction with you, you're two of the most supportive. And that's, but then, so then you asked me to do this King's Trust thing. And they were like, oh, can you do some stand up? I was like, that's a big ass. That's a big ass. Uh, and essentially a kind of, not a roast, but a roast of the like, a version of the king.

• 33:26Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 33:27Speaker 04

  So I'm like, okay, this is quite, um.

• 33:28Declan Donnelly?

  We thought that would be a good idea.

• 33:29Speaker 04

  Um, so then they're like, I get the running order and you're like, oh, you're going out in the first half. And I went, okay, cool. Then I'm a very anxious performer. So I was like, cool. You both come up and you're, you're doing rehearsals. We were standing there watching Rod Stewart and I just didn't, yeah, and Jules Holland.

• 33:43Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 33:44Speaker 04

  And I'm like, they're doing, they're doing songs. Anyway, I'm like, this is, okay, cool. Um, so then I, I'm sitting in this bar, like sitting there like, George Clooney's in there. I'm just mad with different people lurking about. I'm thinking, oh God, this is terrifying. I'll be on in a minute.

• 33:59Ant McPartlin?

  Get me on, get me on.

• 34:00Speaker 04

  And then someone comes and goes, oh, actually we're gonna push you in the running order. And I went, okay, they're gonna go in second half. And then there was like, we're gonna push you again. And then they're like, well, Anna Decker is gonna say some things. And then the king is gonna come and do a speech. And then, and then you're right to come on. I went, follow the king on his birthday. On his birthday. What an insane situation.

• 34:24Speaker 04

  I was like, yeah, I mean, I can't really say no, it'd be awful. You'd go, no, I, I think, yeah. So, um, so the king comes out, you two did, and then king does this beautiful speech. And then, uh, and then I had come on and do this right. And it was, the audience were lovely and it, and it went better than.

• 34:41Ant McPartlin?

  It was really funny.

• 34:42Speaker 04

  What I didn't know by the way, was that Jules Holland was on stage the whole, the whole of my set. He couldn't get off and play on the piano. So he got stuck on stage. And it wasn't until they showed, they sent me some, and then I looked at the thing, and Jules Holland, it's almost like he goes, get up. And someone goes, wait, and he's going.

• 35:03Speaker 04

  I was like.

• 35:06Speaker 04

  Blue Dream baby. Um, yeah, it's, uh, but it was, yeah, lovely.

• 35:10Ant McPartlin?

  It was very, it was a very funny set. But I did feel, cause, cause we kept hearing that they're running order. Cause things just ran on and people's speeches were longer and, you know, on those, those occasions, it just runs away with you a little bit.

• 35:22Declan Donnelly?

  And the king had a hard out.

• 35:23Ant McPartlin?

  Push Tom later, push Tom later.

• 35:24Declan Donnelly?

  We've got to move this, we've got to move this. And then like, we're moving Tom later. And I'm like, all right, okay, okay, we're moving Tom. And then the king's got to be out by this time. He's got a hard out here. So Tom's gonna go after the king. We've got that. We were like, oh boy.

• 35:37Speaker 04

  No, you came walking past me. You just laughed. And you came walking past me and you're ready for this big man? I went, what do I die of? I'm glad to be, am I? Like tumbleweed, just like, who's this fellow?

• 35:51Speaker 04

  Mate, mate staging the king.

• 35:53Declan Donnelly?

  And then you've got a Guy Ritchie thing?

• 35:54Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 35:55Declan Donnelly?

  Is it Wife, Wife and Dog?

• 35:56Speaker 04

  And Dog, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was like.

• 35:58Ant McPartlin?

  Who's in that with you?

• 35:59Speaker 04

  Anthony Hopkins.

• 36:03Speaker 04

  Rosamund Pike, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paddy Consadine, Cosmo Jarvis and James Norton.

• 36:10Declan Donnelly?

  Wow.

• 36:11Speaker 04

  It's a real stacked cast. And Guy is like, for me, he's like my bard. He's the guy that I just, just look stock, snatch, the gentleman I, I.

• 36:19Ant McPartlin?

  I saw you in The Gentleman.

• 36:20Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 36:21Ant McPartlin?

  You're great in that.

• 36:21Speaker 04

  I manifested that. I saw the first series and I was like, I have to be in, this, this show is just, I was very few things, you know, you're watching, oh mate, it'd be amazing to be. And then we filmed, did, did the film and then they got in touch and were like, this is part here if you're up for it. And, and I was like, yeah, I jumped in. And, and that, but that again, it's like.

• 36:39Ant McPartlin?

  Brilliant. You look well in that as well. Were you training a lot?

• 36:42Speaker 04

  Yeah, I was training. I lost, I was, I think I looked too skinny. I looked too slight. Um, I, I, I sort of don't, I didn't, I watched it. It was like, wow, yeah, I've, I've, I'd over egged it there. I was going on holiday and I wanted to have a six pack. Still can't, still can't at our age. Doesn't matter how long, if everything else goes, you've still got a gut and a pair of moves. Still got a body that's like Homer Simpson's face.

• 37:03Speaker 04

  You know, you feel very lucky. You're like constantly pinching yourself and going, this is just a lovely situation to be in. And you just gratitude and you try and pay it forward.

• 37:11Declan Donnelly?

  It's brilliant, Tom. You're absolutely killing it. Like.

• 37:14Ant McPartlin?

  Good for you.

• 37:14Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, it's great.

• 37:15Speaker 04

  Yeah, I find it.

• 37:16Ant McPartlin?

  Long may it continue.

• 37:18Speaker 04

  Hopefully touch.

• 37:18Ant McPartlin?

  We love you.

• 37:19Declan Donnelly?

  And then the most important role of all.

• 37:21Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 37:21Declan Donnelly?

  Is that of, of being a dad.

• 37:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 37:23Declan Donnelly?

  And Grace is what, nearly five?

• 37:25Speaker 04

  Nearly five, yeah.

• 37:26Declan Donnelly?

  It's great, isn't it? What a great age.

• 37:28Speaker 04

  It's, it's just, it's the blessing, man.

• 37:30Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 37:30Speaker 04

  That's the one where you're like, and she's at a time now where she's just, uh, I mean, look, I'll be quite honest, without her, I wouldn't be able to have enough material for a tour.

• 37:40Ant McPartlin?

  Did you tell her that she, uh, is part of the?

• 37:42Speaker 04

  No, she came to watch.

• 37:43Ant McPartlin?

  Did she?

• 37:44Speaker 04

  So, she watched a lot of it because of the language, but, uh.

• 37:46Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 37:47Speaker 04

  I did this open air Brighton Festival thing. She came to watch. So for context, she doesn't quite understand what I do.

• 37:54Declan Donnelly?

  Well, that's what I was gonna ask. Is she, is she kind of there yet?

• 37:56Speaker 04

  So she, she went to, uh, school. We, my, my wife showed her Paddington too. And then she went to school and she told the teacher that she went out, they said, oh, what you, you know, do you, would you daddy there? She was, oh, he was in prison with Paddington.

• 38:09Speaker 04

  Ten strings together. I'm robbery.

• 38:14Speaker 04

  Um, so, um, so, uh, my, her teacher was like, Grace has been, and she, she clearly hadn't seen the film. And I said, oh, no, she wouldn't, you know, she's got quite the imagination. I said, oh, no, I was in prison with parenting and more. But yeah, it's, it's, you know what? It's, it's an honour of a job. It's the best thing ever. I look at her and it's, um, being busy and being in a good position is, is then making sure you're putting in the hours as a parent. As a dad, as a husband. You want to make sure you're doing all that stuff because that's, that's the important thing.

• 38:42Ant McPartlin?

  You've always got to check in on that kind of stuff.

• 38:44Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 38:45Ant McPartlin?

  Because you don't want to miss those moments.

• 38:47Speaker 04

  No, no.

• 38:47Declan Donnelly?

  I'm sure you're like us as well as that, you know, you, you work a lot, you're away a lot. But ultimately for me, when I'm away and when I'm working, I can't wait to get back to them.

• 38:57Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's everything for me. I find the maddest thing is she's going for an age now where you go, don't talk to strangers, that, you know, the whole stranger danger. And then you're walking through the street and some guy comes around, I goes, all right, mate, what a big man, get a picture. What, mate, how you doing? All right, how's the golf? You're all right, you're playing all right. You seen Rosh Ramesh recently? And you're going, oh, yeah, yeah, I know, mate, yeah, you're chatting. So I always try and be, then I walk off and she'll go, who's that? I've got no idea. I thought you said not to talk to strangers. He's a stranger, what are you doing? He could run off if he'd said he's got some puppies in the car.

• 39:26Speaker 04

  What's up, dad?

• 39:29Declan Donnelly?

  My two do that. Why did that man want a photo with you, daddy?

• 39:32Speaker 04

  My dad says it. My dad will come out and I'll be, yeah, I'll be in a garden centre with me. I love a garden centre. I'm in a garden centre with my dad, so I'll go, all right, get a picture. And, and my dad goes, who's he? I don't know. Who is he? I said, that's, that's a phenomenal idea.

• 39:46Speaker 04

  Why did he want a picture? Why is he? And I go, I just want a picture. He said, hey, I'm your dad, I've not even got any pictures. He still does a thing where, where, like Reluctant Vampire or a show comes out, my dad will call me and he'll go, um, how you doing, mate? You all right? He says, I'll go, yeah. He said, show's out, isn't it on Sunday? I said, yeah. He said, I've told everyone. So you should have some comment. Mate, he's gonna have a real knock on. Been down to betting shop, down to pub, down to the club on a Sunday. Okay, right, uh, yeah. So now Tom's got a show, everyone's got to be in at six forty. He now drives the numbers out. Good figures are through the roof.

• 40:20Ant McPartlin?

  Thanks, dad.

• 40:21Declan Donnelly?

  Particularly in one area.

• 40:25Speaker 01

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• 41:51Declan Donnelly?

  We've been doing this thing, Tricks of the Trades, where people have been getting in touch with us, giving us tricks of their particular trades.

• 41:57Speaker 04

  Amazing.

• 41:58Declan Donnelly?

  And a little bit of an insight into their jobs. I'd be interested to see if you've got any from the entertainment industry. Well, let's have a listen to one that we've got in this week. Who's this?

• 42:06Speaker 04

  Hi guys, I've got a trick of the trade for the hardest job of all, being a parent. So last Halloween, we told our daughter a witch would take her sweets in the night if she was naughty. She was extremely well behaved and went to bed, but we were watching a film and fancied a little something. The next morning, our daughter came into our bedroom crying because some of her sweets had gone missing. And we made up that it must have been because she took too long getting dressed the day before. Since then, without fail, she's always got her clothes on as soon as she's out of bed. Oops, but also result. Respect, guys. Anonymous.

• 42:42Ant McPartlin?

  When, when did you do that?

• 42:45Ant McPartlin?

  This is a very you think, isn't it?

• 42:46Declan Donnelly?

  It wasn't me, but it's a great idea.

• 42:48Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, it is a good idea.

• 42:49Declan Donnelly?

  We do, we do pom poms at home. Do you do that? We've got like jaws.

• 42:52Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 42:53Declan Donnelly?

  And if you do a good thing, you get pom poms and pom poms get taken away as well.

• 42:57Speaker 04

  I've got one quite similar to this. So we were away on holiday and my daughter was being very, very cheeky, quite naughty. And, uh, I was like, you know, I'm struggling. I've got no disrespect, she's got no respect for me. It's, she's already, it's like, you, you, yeah.

• 43:12Declan Donnelly?

  Mum's the enforcer.

• 43:13Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. She'd just roll her eyes if I say, say something. So I was like trying to sort of like, oh, you know, you shouldn't do that, you know? Uh, and then we're sitting there and you know the security, like she get with the little red lights on them. So she goes, um, what's that? What's that? And I said, oh, that's Santa Claus. And she said, what? She said, he has these all over to watch you and see how you're behaving. And right now, if he's watching, he's not going to be very happy with you, is he? She then like butts her eye down, there's, starts being quite good, always watching these things. And then my mum had a babysitting, my mum comes downstairs, like, you know, she goes, what have you told Grace about Santa Claus? She, she says, um, I'm really scared because Santa Claus is always watching me. And so she went, you've played Santa Claus, so that's something weird I'm not.

• 43:57Speaker 04

  She's absolutely terrified of him. And I went, well, I think there's an element of Santa Claus that has to have like, you know.

• 44:04Ant McPartlin?

  He's omnipresent, he sees everything.

• 44:05Speaker 04

  How about you do your job? And let Santa do his. Santa's a bringer of joy. And, and, you know, so, yeah, that's been, um, yeah, that's probably my one closest. And that back, back, backfired massively. Because my, my, my daughter is not scared of Halloween, but Christmas Day's looming and she's going, is, is Santa Claus coming? It's a horror movie. I'm sitting there with popcorn when she kicks around the world like.

• 44:29Speaker 04

  Go him on the naughty list.

• 44:31Ant McPartlin?

  Oh, gosh.

• 44:32Declan Donnelly?

  Uh, that's amazing.

• 44:33Ant McPartlin?

  Uh, listen, we could talk all day, but we know you've got to get on and we really appreciate you calling around, mate.

• 44:38Speaker 04

  Thank you very much.

• 44:39Declan Donnelly?

  Good luck with everything you've got going on.

• 44:41Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 44:41Declan Donnelly?

  And everything.

• 44:42Speaker 04

  Do you know, actually, I've got to finish that. I've got one of my actual maddest stories ever. So I was sitting just backstage there, I was chatting to Amanda I'm with. This is such a mad thing of like where I am sitting now. I remember years and years ago, near here, I think, I was scaffolding, it's probably a 20 odd years, maybe even longer. And I'm doing some scaffolding and you two come walking out of these flats, right? And I get starstruck. I've got, but I've got all these scaffolding tubes on my shoulder. And I walk past you both and you both come out and you're sort of chatting away. And I went, right, and you went, oh, mate. And I was completely lost for what to say. I went, just doing the scaffolding next door.

• 45:21Speaker 04

  The way you were so lovely, but you went, all right, mate.

• 45:26Ant McPartlin?

  You don't say.

• 45:28Speaker 04

  Yeah, no, I think you were genuinely like, oh, really?

• 45:31Ant McPartlin?

  Oh, someone else on, oh, yeah, good for you.

• 45:33Declan Donnelly?

  You should tell the kid that.

• 45:35Speaker 04

  You could be a comedian. But yeah, it's a mad, uh. I'd never thought about it until sitting backstage there and you were just chatting and I was just like, oh, wow. Like, yeah, it was round here.

• 45:46Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, my God.

• 45:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyway, yeah, that's, that's, yeah, even then. So, yeah, cheers. Thank you for, and thank you for being so kind over here, genuinely.

• 45:53Ant McPartlin?

  Honestly, we love, we love you. To send you on your way.

• 45:56Speaker 04

  Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 45:58Declan Donnelly?

  You came for sweets?

• 45:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 46:00Ant McPartlin?

  What would you like? Do you like a tamphastic?

• 46:02Speaker 04

  I'll have some tamphastic.

• 46:03Ant McPartlin?

  And some parlor. Yeah, there you go.

• 46:05Declan Donnelly?

  What about a little bit of chocolate?

• 46:06Speaker 04

  Yeah, a little bit of chocolate.

• 46:07Declan Donnelly?

  M and M's. M and M minis.

• 46:09Speaker 04

  Oh, thank you so much.

• 46:11Ant McPartlin?

  M and M minis, that's all, that's all he eats. You can't eat the full one.

• 46:15Speaker 04

  I'm just gonna go off to off menu now.

• 46:19Declan Donnelly?

  See what they've got.

• 46:20Ant McPartlin?

  Tom, do you have some more? I'll be treated, treated. Thanks for popping in.

• 46:25Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, we love Tom.

• 46:27Ant McPartlin?

  He's great, isn't he? He is, he's so great and I'm so chuffed for him. How well his career's going.

• 46:33Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 46:34Ant McPartlin?

  Because a lot of times you're quite envious and annoyed.

• 46:37Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, I'm very, very jealous of most people.

• 46:40Ant McPartlin?

  When, uh, their careers go well, but not Tom.

• 46:42Declan Donnelly?

  Not Tom.

• 46:43Ant McPartlin?

  All power to him. More on?

• 46:45Declan Donnelly?

  Yes, please.

• 46:47Ant McPartlin?

  I love having him on.

• 46:48Declan Donnelly?

  What a treat.

• 46:49Ant McPartlin?

  It really is, isn't it?

• 46:50Declan Donnelly?

  I always laugh such a lot when we've got Tom.

• 46:52Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 46:53Declan Donnelly?

  In our life.

• 46:54Ant McPartlin?

  In our life.

• 46:56Ant McPartlin?

  I've already worked out playing golf with him.

• 46:57Declan Donnelly?

  Oh, you've done that already?

• 46:58Ant McPartlin?

  I've done that already, yeah, swap numbers, we're playing golf.

• 47:00Declan Donnelly?

  Oh.

• 47:01Ant McPartlin?

  If you're around, feel free to join. Uh, do you know what we haven't done in a while?

• 47:05Declan Donnelly?

  What?

• 47:06Ant McPartlin?

  Agony Anton Day.

• 47:07Declan Donnelly?

  We haven't actually.

• 47:08Ant McPartlin?

  We have not done it.

• 47:08Declan Donnelly?

  We should do one. I'll get the postbag, you do the bits.

• 47:11Ant McPartlin?

  I'll do the bits. This podcast is sponsored by Santander, who understand that making confident decisions with your savings can help you feel more in control of your future. Was that my bits done?

• 47:21Declan Donnelly?

  That was your bits. Right, first one. Hi, Agony Anton Day, I'm hoping you can help me. My sister has just sprung on the family that she's getting married and wants to have.

• 47:30Ant McPartlin?

  Congratulations. Like the way you said it was like married.

• 47:34Declan Donnelly?

  Congratulations. And wants to have an expensive destination wedding. I've accepted this fate because she's my sister and I love her. But as if that's not enough, her maid of honour, which I'm annoyed, isn't me.

• 47:47Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, fair point.

• 47:48Declan Donnelly?

  Not, not me.

• 47:49Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, yeah, okay, right.

• 47:50Declan Donnelly?

  This is Amy talking.

• 47:51Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 47:51Declan Donnelly?

  Not me.

• 47:52Ant McPartlin?

  I said, you can't be a maid of honour, you know that.

• 47:54Declan Donnelly?

  Has also planned a high-end hen do.

• 47:57Ant McPartlin?

  Uh, mm, okay.

• 47:59Declan Donnelly?

  I've been trying to get my life together by building up my savings and giving myself some financial security, but I also want to be a good sister. How do I stop this wedding from setting me back?

• 48:10Declan Donnelly?

  That's from Amy.

• 48:11Ant McPartlin?

  Unfortunately, you can't. You can't. It's your sister, she's getting married. Enjoy her happiness, revel in it, go with it. You know, she'll hopefully only get married once in her life and you can see you're there and you are there in spirit, in mind, in body, in everything. You've really kind of enjoyed every aspect of it. And that means the hen do, that means the wedding, that means the expensive destination.

• 48:42Declan Donnelly?

  And these things are gonna come up in your life.

• 48:44Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 48:44Declan Donnelly?

  Where you, you are gonna have to spend a bit of money and.

• 48:48Ant McPartlin?

  There'll be other weddings, right?

• 48:50Declan Donnelly?

  Where you don't, where you don't have to.

• 48:51Ant McPartlin?

  Where you don't have to.

• 48:52Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 48:52Ant McPartlin?

  There'll be other weddings that aren't your sister. There'll be other ones who are like friend of a friend, where you can go, do you know what? I'm busy. Because you can't say no to these things, I've found.

• 49:01Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 49:01Ant McPartlin?

  You know, you, you spend, I think in your twenties and stuff, you spend a lot of time just saying yes to everything.

• 49:06Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 49:06Ant McPartlin?

  Then you get a bit older and go, God, I probably should have said no to half the things I said yes to.

• 49:11Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 49:12Ant McPartlin?

  Because I didn't enjoy them. I knew I wouldn't enjoy them and I didn't enjoy them.

• 49:15Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 49:15Ant McPartlin?

  And I spent a load of money doing it. Um, so, but with this one, you can't offend your sister.

• 49:21Declan Donnelly?

  The only other option is to try and put a spanner in the works and split her and her fiance up.

• 49:27Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, I think that's a bit harsh.

• 49:29Declan Donnelly?

  Is that too, too much?

• 49:32Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, no, I don't think we should go that far.

• 49:34Ant McPartlin?

  What, like, so she kisses the fiance and there's like a love triangle?

• 49:37Declan Donnelly?

  Not necessarily kiss the fiance.

• 49:38Ant McPartlin?

  Well, I just think in a summer I turn pretty love triangle kind of way, Fiona, you'd like that. And we could film it. Well, Maitre will film it and then we'll make some kind of docu-series out of it. It'll go viral. Yeah. And then she can make some money back. That's the only other option I can see. How this could, how this could work. Uh, next one?

• 49:58Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, I don't think we're, I don't think we're advising that though, Ian.

• 50:01Ant McPartlin?

  So what we are advising is go with it, not the sabotage.

• 50:07Declan Donnelly?

  Okay.

• 50:08Ant McPartlin?

  Fun and filmable.

• 50:09Declan Donnelly?

  We've just got time for one more here from Nick.

• 50:11Ant McPartlin?

  Hi, Nick.

• 50:12Declan Donnelly?

  Hi, agony aunt and dare. Help me agony aunt. My partner likes to live in the moment, which is a lovely way of saying they're not afraid to spend money.

• 50:20Ant McPartlin?

  A little bit like that.

• 50:21Declan Donnelly?

  But at the same time, I'm trying to be sensible and save up for a house and our more long-term family goals. I obviously want us to be happy and enjoy life now, and I don't want to be the partner whose middle name is basically no, no, no. But I feel like one of us has to think about our long-term future. How do I strike the balance between thinking about the future and not being tight? That's from Nick. It's about balance, isn't it?

• 50:45Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 50:46Declan Donnelly?

  It's about a little bit of what you fancy does you good.

• 50:48Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 50:49Declan Donnelly?

  A little bit of both.

• 50:49Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, you've got to.

• 50:50Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah. And do you think there's part of it as well could be, let's look at our month, this month and go, right, we look, we can live in the moment here, here and here. But that means we can't do this, this and this.

• 51:02Ant McPartlin?

  Absolutely.

• 51:02Declan Donnelly?

  So we've got to prioritise and we've got to make sure that we can live in the moment when we really, really want to, but just not live in every single moment.

• 51:10Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 51:10Declan Donnelly?

  That exists. Cause we still have to plan for the future.

• 51:12Ant McPartlin?

  Don't go out for dinner every night. Don't, don't go for drinks every night after work. Stay, stay in a few nights.

• 51:17Declan Donnelly?

  Another good thing as well is to share with you and your partner about having a long-term goal and go, this is our goal.

• 51:23Ant McPartlin?

  Yep.

• 51:24Declan Donnelly?

  And this is how we're going to get there. So when you have goals, it's easier to save with that goal in mind.

• 51:30Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, it is. Well, you've been very good today. Well done us. Well done, well done us. Great advice.

• 51:35Declan Donnelly?

  Very good. Yes.

• 51:37Ant McPartlin?

  I think you'd agree.

• 51:38Declan Donnelly?

  So if you're putting money aside for longer term goals, Santander's fixed rate ISAs offer a guaranteed interest rate for a fixed term. So you know exactly what your money will earn.

• 51:49Ant McPartlin?

  For more information, visit santander.co.uk or search Santander Fixed Rate ISA. Santander, it starts here.

• 51:57Declan Donnelly?

  Now, over to Heckler's Corner for the Ts and Cs.

• 52:00Speaker 05

  UK resident, age 18 plus, minimum opening balance of £500. Ts and Cs and eligibility criteria reply.

• 52:06Declan Donnelly?

  Eligibility criteria is quite difficult to say. Well done.

• 52:09Ant McPartlin?

  He did it. He did it. Well done.

• 52:13Ant McPartlin?

  Uh, Tom Davies has eaten up most of our time today, I'm afraid. He's eaten it up. Nom, nom, nom. But he was very good, wasn't he?

• 52:21Declan Donnelly?

  It was worth it.

• 52:22Ant McPartlin?

  We love him. It was worth it. Just got time for a couple of your questions from the broadcast channel. If you want to send in any questions, Fiona will tell you how soon. Cause we can't figure it out.

• 52:33Declan Donnelly?

  You go to our Instagram, click on our bio, then in there somewhere it says.

• 52:39Ant McPartlin?

  Um, this is from Haley Lee's 87. What's your most favourite memory you have together?

• 52:46Declan Donnelly?

  Oh.

• 52:47Ant McPartlin?

  Well, that's a very, very nice question, isn't it? It's very nice. Very nice.

• 52:52Declan Donnelly?

  That is a lovely question.

• 52:53Ant McPartlin?

  Very nice question. Um, Haley, we don't, you don't share them. Memories are very personal. We can't hive mind a memory. But can I speak on behalf of both of us?

• 53:05Declan Donnelly?

  If you like.

• 53:06Ant McPartlin?

  When I say probably getting our OBEs at Buckingham Palace from the King.

• 53:13Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 53:14Ant McPartlin?

  That was a very, very special moment in our career, in our life. Um, so would it be that?

• 53:21Declan Donnelly?

  Yep. Have we told you the story about that day?

• 53:24Speaker 05

  No.

• 53:24Declan Donnelly?

  So we went along, you turn up Buckingham Palace and it's very special day. We're in tail coats, we're in the full rigalia. So you go along and, um, you get called into the side room where you get your briefing on what's going to happen for the first time in our career. I'm first, cause alphabetically I'm before him.

• 53:44Ant McPartlin?

  It was a disgusting day.

• 53:48Declan Donnelly?

  So we get briefed and I'm first and we get briefed and the, the thing is you wait for your name and then you walk over and the King's there. He was Prince Charles at the time, but the King, the now King, he stood there and you turn and you bow from the neck, not the waist. Right? So this is, this is, they're telling you all of this. And then you walk over and you don't put your hand out and then he will reach out for your hand. And then you, you shake his hand when he reaches for it and he pins the thing on you, pins your medal on you. And then, um, you're, and then you will know when it's over. That's what they said. You will know when your time is done. Cause I think he kind of, he shakes hand again, then he kind of lets go.

• 54:34Ant McPartlin?

  Let's go pushy back.

• 54:35Declan Donnelly?

  And then you could take a few steps back, bow again from the neck, turn and walk off. I forgot the lot. I was first. So get me name call. I walk over, walk over, hiya. Stick me hand out and he's like, he starts laughing.

• 54:52Ant McPartlin?

  Hiya, Charles.

• 54:53Declan Donnelly?

  He has a little giggle. He shakes me hand, puts it on. And then I'm so pleased with that. I just turn around and walk off at the end of it.

• 55:00Ant McPartlin?

  Pretty much.

• 55:01Declan Donnelly?

  Medal, thanks. Pretty much.

• 55:02Ant McPartlin?

  I think you kissed it. Did you kiss it as you walked up?

• 55:04Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, yeah, like, like kiss the badge. Kiss the badge. Uh, no, I just, I forgot the whole protocol and he remembered it all.

• 55:10Ant McPartlin?

  Course I remember it all, cause I watched him do it. I thought, ha, he's ruined it. He's ruined it.

• 55:16Declan Donnelly?

  I did make him giggle a bit though.

• 55:17Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 55:18Declan Donnelly?

  I got it so badly wrong.

• 55:18Ant McPartlin?

  You don't get it all off. But the thing is you get them. So you, it gets pinned on you by King Charles, Prince Charles, as he was at the time, like Dex said. And then you walk out the room, big smile on your face, you're thrilled. You go around the corner to pick up your presentation box. And they give you the box and they say like, take it off, pop it in there. So you pop it in there and then you go, you can never wear it again.

• 55:42Declan Donnelly?

  They took mine off me. Literally you walk out and they just went up off your lapel. They put it in the box, closed the box and then they go, there you go. And you, you're not allowed to wear out in public. So we, we've only worn it once since and we were allowed to wear it for the coronation.

• 55:55Ant McPartlin?

  That's it.

• 55:56Declan Donnelly?

  You get the big medal and then you get a smaller one, which you are allowed to wear.

• 56:00Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 56:01Declan Donnelly?

  But, uh, you get a little one.

• 56:03Ant McPartlin?

  And then there's a little lapel kind of pin that we wear, um, which you're allowed to wear, which symbolises the fact that you've got an OBE. Uh, we've got those. So we wear those. I ended up dropping a kind of fanta on my, um, I know how annoying. I'll tell you what it was. We were flying back from Blackpool. We're doing Britain's Got Talent auditions and we were meant to go the next day. But Simon Cowell said, he's, he's flying straight after auditions. Would you like to fly back to London with him? We're like, yeah, okay.

• 56:33Declan Donnelly?

  On his private jet.

• 56:34Ant McPartlin?

  Oh yeah, we'll come in his private jet. Yeah, great. Okay. So you've got to be quick. As soon as you finish auditions, you've got to finish that last chat. You've got to get off stage and get in. And we'd taken our OBEs up to almost gloat and show off.

• 56:48Declan Donnelly?

  To tone Simon Cowell, basically.

• 56:49Ant McPartlin?

  In our chat in the judges room, we held, held them up and we were kind of, I think we might've got them out. We didn't pin them on ourselves, but we got them out and showed them. And then as I was kind of throwing stuff in my bag to get in the car to get to the airport, I thought, I'm hungry. So I don't know what he's got on the private jet. So I'm going to put a can of fanta in, chocolate, some crisps. And I've obviously stuffed it too hard. And when I've put my bag down at security, I had to go, I just had, and this kind of fanta had popped in my bag. And went everywhere in my bag, which I can kind of cope with, but a lot of it I could kind of replace. But it was the presentation box that the OBE comes in is orange now.

• 57:31Ant McPartlin?

  And it was, it was, it was a lovely beige, you kind of silk. I probably should have brought that up with, um, the King at the.

• 57:38Declan Donnelly?

  At the, at the Albert Hall.

• 57:39Ant McPartlin?

  At the Albert Hall.

• 57:40Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah, maybe.

• 57:41Ant McPartlin?

  Very limited time though, don't we? You know, you've got to prioritise what you're talking about.

• 57:45Declan Donnelly?

  Yeah.

• 57:45Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah.

• 57:45Declan Donnelly?

  Maybe next time we see him, we'll bring it up.

• 57:47Ant McPartlin?

  Yeah, okay.

• 57:48Declan Donnelly?

  See what he says. Can I replace my physio B? Do you remember when we first, first met then Prince Charles? It was 25 years of the, of the then Princess Trust. And we were doing Saturday mornings at the time. We were asked to go to High Grove to interview him in the gardens. And so we went along. And, uh, we were really, really nervous and we sat in the garden with him and interviewed him about 25 years of the trust and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Got to the end of the interview and it went really, really well. And he got up and walked, was walking away and we're like, oh, well done. We breathed a sigh of relief and our producer at the time was there.

• 58:25Declan Donnelly?

  And he went, he went, oh, oh. And as we went, your Royal Highness. And he stopped and he turned around and he went.

• 58:33Ant McPartlin?

  Like nobody really shouts at royally, like, you know, like really shouted at him.

• 58:38Declan Donnelly?

  And he's walking away with all his assistants and his security and stuff. Your Royal Highness. And he turned around like that. He went, what time does the gift shop open?

• 58:48Ant McPartlin?

  He did.

• 58:49Declan Donnelly?

  Serious. I'm being serious.

• 58:52Ant McPartlin?

  Oh, we went beet red. Like what on earth are you doing? It was like, shut up dad.

• 59:00Declan Donnelly?

  And his PA stepped in and went, I'm, uh, I'll find out. I'll find out for you.

• 59:03Ant McPartlin?

  Get back to you. And that's it. Well, we don't even have that time for any more questions. Thank you so much for all watching. Um, get more questions to us on the broadcast channel or anything, anything at all. Hanging out at beltabox.com.

• 59:15Declan Donnelly?

  Uh, remember to give the podcast a follow wherever you get your podcasts from and give us a like and a subscribe on YouTube. That's it.

• 59:23Ant McPartlin?

  YouTube.

• 59:23Declan Donnelly?

  We'll be back on Monday with a, with a bonus, bonus podcast. But until then, happy Halloween and respect, guys.

• 59:32Ant McPartlin?

  Dead end. What time does the gift shop open?

• 59:36Ant McPartlin?

  Happy Halloween.

• 59:37Declan Donnelly?

  Happy Halloween. I love Halloween.

• 59:48Speaker 04

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