From their Bykerdays with Geoff man they've been tackling "the issues", Duncan getting addicted to fruit machines and then mixed up with that Psychandrics business and PJ's pirate radio interfering with the ambulance signals and of course famously the dangers of paintballing.

As we all know the Grove matrix lead to pop megastardom for the boys and 3 top owlbums as PJ and Duncan and later as Ant and Dec :

Phsyche - top choones like lets get ready to rhumble, If I give you my number, Our radio rocks and the shockingly rude self penned I want you along with other filth.

Topkatz - U Krazy Katz, Stuck on you and a top cover of Stepping stone.

and finally "The cult of Ant and Dec" - they do that almost cover and little Dec tries to play a geetar.

Their pop megastardom and tours round the country where preteens and me screamed our earts out were mixed with their fantastic TV show a surreal thing which featured celebrity guests such as Cheryl Baker, Bernie Clifton and Sue Pollard.

hTheir top turns in the Ant and Dec Show won them awards and shocked fans as they saucily announced that Katie Hill, annoying Blue Peter presenter, was "up for it" strangely this caused less of a fuss than "beat the barber". An inspired quiz, answer three questions and a celebrity baldie is revealed strip by strip, kid guesses correctly and walks away with a top prize, they get it wrong and Stan the barber walks away with their hair. Stan was an odd tall thin man who was greeted each week with a chant of "hello Stan where's your van?", my favourite response was "Parked in a multistorey". Beat the barber was top but after a few weeks they cut away before the hair was cut off and it was all a bit of a scandal. Far more disturbing however, was the appearance of Russell Grant from which I've never quite recovered. On another personal note, an episode of the second series of the "Ant and Dec show" along with a Pizza from lucky's once cured me of a very bad cold.

The series left CBBC and they moved to 6pm on channel 4, here sadly things went downhill and the pure smut just wasn't the same now it wasn't snuck on before neighbours.

However, it was just a matter of time before Saturday morning frolics remembered from their days on ITV's Saturday show while on Byker would get them SMTV:live. Along the way they somehow found time to tread the boards in a groundbreaking performance of Snow white with Ricky D from SUN FM! Their time on SMTV and CDUK got them plenty much respect and while live n kickin' fell by the wayside they kept going on strong till they left for the bright lights of prime time.

The boys won the hearts of many being the nice ones on Pop Idol, well them and that Nicky bird, their world cup single, "we're on the ball" has been played at least once on national radio and has been praised by someone, probably. Mind you, it did rocket into the top three which is better than the top notch lets get ready to rhumble did I spose.

The boys have been pretty busy really, and although Donna Air has found some success with "the club", what a talent, the nations favourite Geordies have done byker proud with their lifetime achievement award in the bag at 27. They fronted quiz show "Friends like these" where boys played again girls for the chance of a holiday. They graciously handed over to "it'll be all right right right on the Ian Wright" in November 2000. The boys also landed "Ant and Dec's Secret Camera Show" but got into bother for showing a scantily clad lady looking like she was serving milk from a boob at 5 o'clock.

They moseyed over to ITV to make Slap Bang, a blend of chat and showbiz guests and stuff, they got another slapped wrist for pretending to shoot Ken Barlow off Coronation Street in that one. They did regularly feature Angie Watts off Eastenders though so surely it can't have been all bad. Can it?

BUT luckily that wasn't the end of the tale and the boys returned with Saturday night takeaway. The first series was a bit ropey but luckily they tried again and with a tiny bit less cheese and a bit more oddness they've got a show that makes me smile. Anything that features lovely Ant singing with madness looking like the happiest boy in the world has to be good news. Even the cute kids little ant and dec are pretty good. All in all a thumbs up.