Anthony McPartlin

The pair first formed a partnership as the characters, PJ and Duncan, in the BBC children's drama series Byker Grove. Their friendship continued off-screen as well as on and after they left the TV series they turned their hand to pop music, releasing (under the name "PJ and Duncan") songs such as Let's Get Ready to Rhumble which included the lines "Watch us wreck the mic, watch us wreck the mic, watch us wreck the mic, psyche!" which briefly caused the use of the word "psyche" as a synonym for "not", presumably coming from "I was only psyching you out", in the playgrounds of Britain. (Using "not" at the end of a sentence to negate its meaning had already been popularized by Wayne's World not long previously.) In total they released three albums - Psyche, Top Katz and The Cult of Ant & Dec.

Later the duo moved into television presenting. They enjoyed success fronting ITV's Saturday morning childrens programme SM:TV Live and subsequently moved to Saturday evening to present fare aimed at adults such as Friends Like These, Pop Idol and Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. Their highest audience figures to date were obtained whilst presenting I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! in February 2004.

In 2002, at the age of 27, Ant and Dec received a joint Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Television Awards.

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