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HJPR represents some of the biggest entertainment names in the business for PR and publicity.
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Ant and Dec
Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly met at the age of thirteen on the set of the hit BBC children’s drama, Byker Grove. Their characters, PJ and Duncan, were mates in the show and Ant & Dec soon became firm friends in real life.
In 1993 the series led to the guys signing a record contract and over the course of four years notching up fourteen top twenty hits including ‘Let’s Get Ready To Rhumble’, Stepping Stone’ and ‘Shout’, not to mention three multi platinum albums and a shelf full of awards. British, European then World tours followed until they called time on their music career in 1997.
Alongside their music career the guys continued making TV shows. The BAFTA award winning ‘Ant & Dec Show’ ran on BBC1 for two series before they crossed to Channel 4 to make ‘Ant & Dec Unzipped’ which also won a British Academy Award.
In Autumn ’98 their own company, Ant & Dec Productions, launched SM:TV Live and CD:UK, mixing music, comedy and cartoons and co-hosted with Cat Deeley. The show won over fifteen awards, was a massive ratings hit and became the first Saturday morning show to beat the BBC in six years.
In December 2000 Ant & Dec signed an exclusive contract with ITV1 and went on to host a variety of shows alongside SM:TV & CD:UK including ‘The BRIT Awards’ and ‘Comic Relief’ (BBC1).
After leaving SM:TV and CD:UK at the end of 2001, the following year saw them present the BAFTA award-winning ‘Pop Idol’, the format that went on to become a world wide hit. They also returned to acting and filmed a special episode of one of Britain’s best loved sitcoms, ‘A Tribute To The Likely Lads’. It addition to this they re-wrote and recorded the official World Cup anthem for the England Football team, ‘We’re On The Ball’, which reached No.3 in the UK single charts.
In June of 2002 the lads returned to Saturday night TV when they launched a brand new prime time ITV1 show – ‘Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’, where viewers were asked not to just watch the advert breaks but also win them! The series has since gone from strength to strength – running for five series and picking up every award going.
Another major project was ‘I’m a Celebrity….Get Me Out Of Here’. Launched in 2002 and based in the Australian rain forest, the two week programme proved another runaway success with Ant & Dec earning critical acclaim for their observational comedy and presentation. This has also run for five series and continues to be a major annual event in the TV calendar.
Autumn 2005 saw the lads host ‘Ant and Dec’s Gameshow Marathon’ as part of ITV1’s 50th birthday celebrations. They also formed a new production company, Gallowgate, which co-produced the hugely successful ‘All-Star Cup’ for Sky One, a celebrity version of golf’s Ryder Cup that featured among others, Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas.
In summer 2005, Ant & Dec took time out from television to make their first feature film ‘Alien Autopsy’, which opened in April This year. The film took well over £2 million at the box office and also hit number one in the DVD/video chart in its opening week.
Following the film Ant & Dec were asked to exclusively interview Princes Charles, William and Harry for the ‘50th Anniversary celebrations of the Princes Trust’. This interview went out in over 20 countries worldwide. May 2006 saw the lads present another new format, ‘Soccer-Aid’, where a celebrity and Legend England team lead by Robbie Williams took on a ‘Rest of the World Team’ lead by Gordon Ramsey. A week long build up culminated in a 3 hour live final at a packed Old Trafford, which rated over a 30% share on ITV.
2006 has seen their production company Gallowgate grow from strength to strength with the appointment of ex-Planet 24 boss Ed Forsdick as Managing Director. This appointment coincided with the commissioning of the ‘All-Star Cup’ for a 2nd run, but this time on ITV and with the boys presenting. The company was also commissioned by ITV to produce ‘Pokerface’, an entertainment gameshow show made by TalkBack Thames in association with Gallowgate. The show, an original idea from Ant and Dec, ran in a primetime slot and was stripped across a week in July to fantastic critical acclaim. Pokerface was a runaway success with the eventual winner taking home a staggering £1Million. The show is now set to be sold around the world through Freemantle Media.
Since their move into peak time entertainment, Ant and Dec and their shows have won a staggering eight National Television Awards (including Most Popular Entertainment Presenters for the last five years in a row), six British Comedy Awards, two BAFTA’s and a variety of other industry accolades.