Ant and Dec accidentally bought the same Christmas gift for each other

Ant and Dec are so in tune they accidentally bought each other identical Christmas presents.

The pair, Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, got each other a games console that can be used to play games on an iPad last year after seeing it during a trip to New York.

Dec said: "I remember seeing it and thinking Ant would like that and I would like one myself.

"And we ended up buying it for each other. We did laugh a lot when we realised."

The pair are joining other stars including Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby to host ITV's Christmas charity show Text Santa next month.

The show, which raises money for charities including Barnardo's and the British Heart Foundation, is broadcast on Friday, December 20.

It will include Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan teaming up with the cast of Coronation Street for a song, Fairytale of Weatherfield, and a special version of dating show Take Me Out for the over-50s.

Dec said presenting the show can be tough, adding: "When you hear some of the stories, they really do make your heart ache.

"I do well up. Most of us are having a really good time with family and friends at Christmas, but not everyone is as lucky and so it is a really nice thing to be able to help people at that time of year."

 

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.