Ant and Dec show star quality in Bushtucker Trial for charity

The duo have braved the “celebrity cyclone” in an effort to raise £100,000 for ITV1’s charity show Text Santa, to be screened on Christmas Eve.

Despite ribbing contestants repeatedly since the hit series launched in 2002, the tables have not been turned on the pair until now.

They filmed the challenge before heading home from Australia, where they had been presenting the most recent series, earlier this month.

However, they did not have to face creepy crawlies or munch their way through stomach-churning offcuts. Instead they had to make their way up a slippery slide, touching a giant star down on four markers, each worth £25,000. They were blasted with water, wind, plastic balls and high-powered foam to hinder their progress.

“It was so much harder than we had expected it to be,” said Ant. “It has certainly made us appreciate the efforts of the celebrities that take part in the show and do trial after trial.”

Dec added: “We were exhausted at the end of it. We really enjoyed it though and the crew certainly took delight in seeing us suffer. We never thought we’d do a Bushtucker Trial, but we couldn’t turn down such a great opportunity to raise so much money for the Text Santa campaign.”