Ant and Dec
Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, better known as Ant and Dec, have been appearing together on UK television for the last 23 years.
Originally PJ and Duncan in Byker Grove ("PJ, Noooooooooooo!"), they moved onto music after their Fake Band on Byker Grove became Defictionalized. As pop duo "PJ & Duncan" (and later releasing further music under their actual names), they never really hit it big and soon moved onto presenting children's TV on the BBC; their first show was a Sketch Comedy called The Ant & Dec Show.
After the BBC felt they had run their course and released them from their contracts, they switched to Channel 4 for an evening show aimed at adults entitled Ant and Dec Unzipped. It didn't last long but ITV moved in and snapped them up, placing them as the presenters of Saturday Morning Kids Show SM:tv Live (and sister show CD:UK). Blessed with brilliant writers and allowed to let their natural charisma and Improv skills shine, Ant & Dec's popularity shot upwards and soon got them mainstream gigs like presenting Pop Idol and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.
At this point they felt like they had outgrown SM:tv, so they left the world of children's television to crack the mainstream, hosting a Prime Time Saturday night Variety Show on ITV called Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, which remains their "trademark" show. Since then they've only increased their popularity, winning several awards and hosting many more Prime Time shows.
Ant is the taller one with black hair and usually stands on the left. Dec is the shorter one with the lighter hair and usually stands on the right. They are seen together so often, they share an article on The Other Wiki, are both insured against the other's death, and jokes are made about not being able to tell them apart, e.g. in Love Actually:
 |
Billy Mack: Thank you, Ant or Dec. |
 |
- SM:TV and CD:UK both examples of the Saturday Morning Kids Show
- I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here
- Britains Got Talent
- Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway (where you can win the entire contents of an ad break)
- Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon
- Both of the previous two shows were involved in the British Phone in Scandal.