Ant and Dec admit they've had 'several U-turns' on Saturday Night Takeaway future

Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly have admitted they have had 'several U-turns' on the future of Saturday Night Takeaway as they prepare to air a special episode tomorrow night

Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly have hinted they might not be ready to retire Saturday Night Takeaway just yet after all. The iconic Geordie presenting duo are set to broadcast an extraordinary two-hour grand finale tomorrow evening to celebrate the conclusion of the 20th and final season.

Despite their initial decision to rest the ITV series, they've since confessed to multiple changes of heart. While appearing on This Morning, Ant shared that it's been a particularly emotional week for them, stating: "I'm sure there'll be tears. It's been quite hard this week, knowing that it's the final week of rehearsals and script meetings. We've tried to keep a lid on it until now - until we got here and saw the stage, it makes it all seem quite final."

When asked if they ever reconsidered their decision to rest Saturday Night Takeaway, Dec revealed: "When we first came about the decision to rest it, and we did so because it was 20 series, and we told our management first that we wanted to rest it - but we told them we reserve the right between now and then to change our minds several times and we have."

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Reflecting on the decision, Ant McPartlin expressed: "I think we know in our heart of hearts, it's the right thing to do - for the show and for us personally. It was the right thing at the right time, but we have wavered quite a lot," while adding: "We wanted to go out on a high. There's not many shows where you get a chance to end it on a high - because most shows just get taken off air. We're very lucky it's been loved for so long."

Ant had earlier confessed that they felt it was an appropriate juncture to pause Takeaway. In past he explained: "Part of the reason we're pausing Takeaway is we need a break ourselves, and we need to spend some time with our family. We've both got children that we need to spend time with for a little bit.", reports the Mirror.

"We need time to think and, and time to step back and look at the bigger picture and just see where we are now. Like I say, we're turning 49, and what do we want to do next? What's the next phase of our career? And we've got lots of ideas and lots of offers on the table, lots of options of things we can do. But it's working on what we do next and where the next chapter begins. So that's what we're gonna do when SNT is out of the way. We'll sit down, take a bit of time, and re-evaluate everything."