Ant and Dec have said they had to adapt to not standing side by side as they filmed the final episode of Saturday Night Takeaway from their homes.
The duo will host the last instalment of the series from their living rooms to comply with social distancing guidelines.
Dec, real name Declan Donnelly, told Dermot O’Leary on BBC Radio 2: “It’s very different, it’s that whole thing of we are used to being next to each other so I’ve got him (Ant) on a video conferencing line just out of shot and you just pray all the technicals hold up and you’re trying your best.
Family group chats across the UK right now 😂 #SaturdayNightTakeaway pic.twitter.com/kOwntGSRHz
— Saturday Night Takeaway (@itvtakeaway) April 2, 2020
“You want to just feel like it’s free and easy and you’re at home and ‘welcome to my home’ but actually there is a huge amount of nerves of ‘is all this going to hold up? Is my Wi-Fi going to hold up? Everybody off the Wi-Fi!’.”
Ant, real name Ant McPartlin, added: “It looks dead easy and you go back and forward but it’s not, there is a lot more that goes into it and you try to use the best part of your house, the best corner to show off.
“You don’t want to show too much off but you want it to look good and it has given us the chance to still broadcast and be on air, it’s a privilege to be on.”
However, Dec said he was concerned at how low-tech the whole set-up is, saying: “It’s me, literally, with a mobile phone. We’re doing it on a mobile phone from my living room! You’d think it would be more technical than that!”
Can we just stay in our trackies forever? #SaturdayNightTakeaway pic.twitter.com/obqk28OC9K
— Saturday Night Takeaway (@itvtakeaway) March 30, 2020
Describing how they made the decision to record from home, he said: “The week before last we were there (in the studio).
“We said we’re gonna try and continue to bring the show to everybody for as long as we are able and as long as we’re allowed.
“But it got to the point where we couldn’t carry on bringing that number of crew into the studio, it was impossible to maintain social distancing and to do the show.
“Ant and I stand next to each other but to then start standing next to each other two metres apart, we couldn’t do it anymore.
“We sent all the crew home and we prerecorded the last two shows of the series and we got home and said wouldn’t it be great if we did them from our living rooms, so that’s what we’ve done. We bought a couple of new mobile phones and we’re broadcasting to the nation.”
The duo also said the Britain’s Got Talent auditions will be broadcast later this month but the live shows will be postponed to later in the year.
Ant said: “The auditions start next Saturday, a week tomorrow, which we have already shot and they are looking great.
“There is some great talent again this year and then I think we are going to do the lives later in the year hopefully, depending on the world.
“You can’t really make any firm plans at the moment, everything is slightly up in the air, but later in the year, probably, for the lives, I think.”
Saturday Night Takeaway, which will see the duo introduce clips of some of the show’s funniest moments from over the years, is on Saturday at 7pm on ITV.