Ant and Dec’s plan for a silent comedy series

Geordie duo Ant and Dec have re-iterated plans to make a TV comedy series.

Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, whose Saturday Night Takeaway show re-launched on ITV this week, say they want to leave a legacy by making a silent sitcom.

In an interview for the Radio Times, Ant said: “We’ve talked a lot about the future this year. We love I’m a Celebrity, Britain’s Got Talent, Saturday Night Takeaway, but they’re all live shows.

“The difference between doing a live show and a sitcom is that a sitcom can live on.

“If you do it well, it can leave a legacy, whereas most of our live work never gets repeated because it’s final, it’s done, you start again.”

He added: “We’re developing a silent comedy idea at the moment. It will take a couple of years and we might never get there, but it’s the way we’d like to go.”

Ant and Dec’s lucrative ITV deal ends this year, though in the unlikely event the duo leave the broadcaster they could develop the show through their production arm, Gallowgate.

Ant and Dec started out together as 14-year-olds on Geordie teen drama Byker Grove.