Geordie duo Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly have been best pals ever since meeting on the set of Byker Grove, but they once fell out in a row which threatened to end their careers
Ant and Dec are once up again up for Best Presenter at the National Television Awards tonight in what would be an incredible 46th gong from the ceremony for the Geordie duo.
The plucky pair, both 49, have been best pals for years ever since meeting on the set of BBC teen drama, Byker Grove, in the nineties when they played the iconic PJ and Duncan.
They were so close, that they used to live on the same street in London and still holiday together with their respective wives, Ali and Anne-Marie and three kids, Jack, Isla and Wilder. However, in 1995 a boozy argument between the award-winning presenters threatened to end their friendship – and careers.
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On a drunken summer night in Spain, 30 years ago, Ant and Dec came to blows as as they admitted things ‘got ugly’ in their jointly written book, Once Upon a Tyne: Our Story.
Lifting the lid on their friendship and sharing some startling secrets about their shock feud, the presenters explained that the argument happened in the nineties when they were set to appear on GMTV’s Fun in the Sun with Anthea Turner. The show was being filmed live in Torremolinos, where Ant and Dec where promoting their latest musical offering at the time.
Ant wrote in the book: “It was a special summer holiday version of the ITV breakfast show, in 1995, we were promoting Stuck On U. Our tour manager Kim Glover told us we had the day to ourselves before appearing on GMTV the following morning… so we went to the pub.”
Getting in the holiday spirit, the boys ended up having a few too many drinks, and by 10pm, Dec wanted to go to bed because they had an early start the next day.
However, Ant wasn’t ready to call it a night as he remembers asking his pal: “What the hell are you going to bed for?” Dec “stumbled towards the lift,” which Ant admitted “incensed me and I lost it.” He fumed: “Don’t you dare walk away from me when I’m talking to you!”
Dec then began “ranting” at Ant, asking: “Who the hell do you think you are, talking to me like that?” Dec claimed his pal “was really pushing my buttons” as the pair kept arguing in the lift. However, when Ant tried to state his case, Dec put his fingers in his ears, singing: “La la la la, I can’t hear you.” Confessing “that made my blood boil”, Ant admitted he “punched Dec in the chest.”
Dec responded by trying to knock the cap off Ant’s head, revealing: “I didn’t quite hit the target and ended up just punching the peak of his cap.” Ant added: “I proved Dec is rubbish at fighting when he’s had a few.”
A mere two hours later, the pair were in makeup on the breakfast show, refusing to look at each other. But once the cameras were rolling, their closeness returned and the pair claim they have never fought since that drunken moment 30 years ago.
Speaking in 2013, Ant and Dec revealed the key to their firm friendship after spending a huge part of their life together.
Speaking from his home, which was three doors down from Dec at the time, Ant told the Guardian: “Fundamentally, we’ve got the same relationship you see on TV, and I think that’s what keeps us sane, because if we had pretended to be somebody else for this length of time, it would have all gone t*** up by now.”
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