TV presenters Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly have apologised for impersonating people of colour on their popular show Saturday Night Takeaway.
The award-winning hosts issued an apology for using “blackface” during their ITV prime time show Saturday Night Takeaway.
Taking to Twitter, the pair said they were sorry for doing the segments, and had stopped such impersonations in recent years.
“During past episodes of Saturday Night Takeaway we impersonated people of colour in the undercover segment of the show,” their statement read.
— antanddec (@antanddec) June 10, 2020
“We realise this was wrong and want to say that we sincerely sorry to everyone that was offended. We purposely stopped doing this several years ago and certainly would not make these sketches today.
“We had already taken steps to ensure footage was taken down and have again recently confirmed with.
“ITV that these segments, and any other historical content, that could cause offence, does not appear on either the ITV Hub or the Saturday Night Takeaway YouTube channel,” the statement read.
The duo often go undercover on the show, wearing wearing prosthetics and disguises to trick celebs and members of the public.
As the black lives matter movement continues to go global, screen shots of the pair doing ‘black face’ during an episode back in 2003 resurfaced.
In the episode Ant and Dec dressed up as Jamaican women Patty and Bernice as they secretly appeared as extras on the set of Emmerdale.
