Declan Donnelly has said the upcoming series of Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway will be “very different” because of coronavirus restrictions.
The programme, which he presents with Anthony McPartlin, returns to ITV on Saturday for a new series.
There will be no live studio audience present during filming.
On our way to #SaturdayNightTakeaway rehearsals 🎥 Excited to be back on the telly! Quick call with @gregjames @BBCR1 and also a @thismorning pit stop if you fancy seeing more of our faces 👋 pic.twitter.com/Xoi7sxj6CL
— antanddec (@antanddec) February 19, 2021
Donnelly said this year’s programme is “going to be quite different – we have no studio audience, which is such an important part of Takeaway”.
He added: “We’ll have a virtual audience but it’ll be very different, but hopefully no less fun and entertaining.”
The new series will be the 17th.
McPartlin said the pair can “keep it fresh because you can just introduce new things every year”.
He added: “But we’ve got some of the old favourites returning.
“We kick off with an item you two know very well – I’m A Celebrity, Get Out Of My Ear!
“We’ve got Harry and Jamie Redknapp doing that.”
The father and son duo of former footballers “giggles more than anyone who’s ever done this before”, he said.
“They were just in bits from the moment we started it,” he added.
Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway airs at 7pm on Saturday on ITV.