Ant and Dec have opened up about how they secured Jeremy Clarkson on their upcoming Saturday Night Takeaway show, which finds him fuming at a fake protest prank on his farm in Oxfordshire.
Ant McPartlin, 46, and Declan Donnelly, also 46, appeared on This Morning ahead of the new series of the popular weekend show and had hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary come into the glitzy ITV studio.
Dec said Jeremy, 61, had been on their Saturday Night Takeaway “hit list” for at least a decade, but they could never figure out how to get him on the show.
He said: “We always thought we’d never get him, but we got an in: his lovely girlfriend Lisa.
“We got her and she said yeah, I’ll help you do it. She said come down to the farm and we’ll set him up.”
The Grand Tour presenter has been with former model girlfriend Lisa Hogan, 48, for five years now and the pair star in the hit Amazon show Clarkson's Farm.
Ant weighed in, saying: “Honestly, he’s got a temper, as we all know, so we were very nervous about it.”
Ahead of Saturday’s show, ITV released a first look clip of Ant and Dec's fake protest prank, in which Jeremy can be seen arriving at his farm as 'protesters' chant: “No more toil, keep your soil” while holding signs.
“He looks very unimpressed,” Ant says while disguised as a protester.
Another woman says to Jeremy: “Hi, my name is Laura, I'm one of the…” before Jeremy cuts her off.
The Top Gear star says in a deadpan tone: “The thing about soil is that you can't hurt it.”
Dec, disguised in a bad wig, taunts the star by saying: "Maybe you should phone a friend" with a megaphone.
From a secret room, Ant tells another actor to handcuff themselves to Jeremy's car.
This Morning host Dermot asked the Geordie duo about the hit list of dream guests they referred to, saying: “When you say you’ve been after him for ten years, you've got a team of detectives who just pry in and you hope you’ll get an in like a girlfriend?”
Dec replied: “Absolutely. We’ve got a hit list of people, and we’re constantly looking at ways in - constantly working out who we can go through.”
Alison asked the double act who specifically they really want to get on the show next, but the pair played it coy.
Dec said: “We do have a hit list, but we honestly can’t tell you because there are still some we’re working on.”
This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV and ITV Hub.
