Ant and Dec loved making Mark Wahlberg "uncomfortable" on ‘Saturday Night Takeaway’.
The hugely popular ITV entertainment show – which has first hosted by the Geordie duo in 2002, and returned in 2013 after a three year hiatus – will be back on screens this weekend after taking a break last year while Ant McPartlin focused on his sobriety.
And ahead of the programme’s comeback, the pair have revealed how a round of ‘Get Out Me Ear’ – where the Hollywood actor had to say exactly what they told him to say at his Covent Garden branch of his Wahlburgers restaurant – made the ‘Ted’ star feel "slightly" uneasy.
Speaking to Chris Moyles on ‘The Chris Moyles Show’ on Radio X on Friday (21.02.20), Declan Donnelly shared: "We met him in his restaurant in Covent Garden, Wahlburgers, and we give him the ear-piece in the beginning and we say, ‘Look Mark, here’s your ear-piece, do you promise to do and say everything we tell you to?’.
"He took the ear-piece and looked us in the eye, never cracked a smile and went, ‘By the end of this, you two will be saying and doing everything I tell you to do.’ "
Ant admitted they also had a "worrying 10 minutes" after he threatened to give them a taste of their own medicine.
However, Dec said: "But it’s turned out really good, basically because he’s so uncomfortable doing it. It’s a really good show tomorrow, I think you’ll enjoy it."
Ant agreed: "It’s actually better that he’s slightly uncomfortable because you like seeing those faces where he’s just like, ‘Nope, not doing that, I’m not doing that.’"
When Chris said he likes to see "amazing outtakes that you’ve never shown and they’ve made you burn the tape in front of their very eyes", Dec admitted: "There’s a lot of tape on the cutting room floor, let’s just say."
Ant confessed that the pair don’t like to "make people look bad", but they do love to see them on edge, with the exception of their ‘In For a Penny’ segment host Stephen Mulhern, who they love to embarrass.
He said: "We never want to make people look bad. We want to make them look uncomfortable and we want to make them squirm a little bit but what you don’t want is to just humiliate someone. The only person we like to humiliate is Stephen Mulhern."
Dec said: "But he’s asking for it."
Tune into The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X, week days from 6:30am – 10am and Saturdays 8am – 11am.
‘Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’ returns tomorrow night (22.02.20) on ITV from 7pm.
Ant and Dec enjoyed making Mark Wahlberg ‘uncomfortable’
