Ant and Dec issue an apology for blackface segment in Saturday Night Takeaway

Any episodes where the duo wore blackface have already been taken down.

Presenters Ant and Dec have issued an apology for using blackface in past segments of their show Saturday Night Takeaway. The pair impersonated people of colour multiple times by wearing prosthetics and changing the colour of their skin in order to prank famous people while wearing their disguise. In 2003, the Ant and Dec wore blackface when they dressed up as Patty and Bernice, two fictional Jamaican women, in an attempt to prank the Emmerdale cast, making faces in the background of one of the scenes being filmed. Then in 2004, the pair dressed up as Suki and Keiko, two Japanese girls, and confessed their love for Coronation Street's Todd Grimshaw, complete with an offensive fake accent. Following that, in 2005, they pranked Princess Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, by dressing up as Arab men. They had already taken steps previously to ensure all footage of those segments were taken down but confirmed it again recently with ITV in light of the recent protests and after Little Britain had been removed from the BBC iPlayer for also using blackface. https://twitter.com/antanddec/status/1270767582417760256 In their apology, Ant and Dec said:

"During past episodes of Saturday Night Takeaway we impersonated people of colour in the undercover segment of the show. We realise that this was wrong and want to say that we are 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steps to ensure footage was taken down, and have again recently confirmed with ITV that these segments, and any other historical content that could cause offence, does not appear on either the ITV Hub or the Saturday Night Takeaway YouTube channel."