Ant and Dec have been crowned best celebrity friendship by parents in the UK for a new survey from children's brand Thomas & Friends, beating the likes of Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield to first place! The results were released ahead of annual UN International Day of Friendship on 30 July. The multi-award-winning comedy TV duo, who have been best friends both on and off screen for over 27 years since meeting on the set of children's drama series Byker Grove, gained nearly 3 in 5 of all votes from 2,000 parents with kids aged 2-5 years old, who took part in the Thomas & Friends International Friendship Survey.
Ant and Dec have been voted the best celebrity friendship by UK parents
This Morning host Holly came second and third place in the survey – her friendship with fellow host on the show Phillip Schofield received 34% of all votes in the runners-up position and her friendship with broadcaster Fearne Cotton came in third place with 18%. The two other celebrity friendships completing the top 5 are David Beckham and Gordon Ramsay and Billie and Sam Faiers, which were both highly rated in the new study, which ran in 8 major countries and also questioned 12,000 parents about their views on their children's first friendships.
This Morning's Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield came in second place
A love of Newcastle United and films first brought Ant and Dec together as friends. They had seen one other on the set of Byker Grove but paid little attention to each other. Reportedly Ant hated Dec's jokes and Dec thought Ant was miserable. But soon the pair became inseparable as their characters found themselves in more scenes together, so a friendship grew. "We'd never met before but the two characters became friends so ultimately we would be hanging around on set waiting for our scenes to be done or hanging out in the Green Room, or sitting next to each other when we were getting tutored," recalled Dec in a recent interview about their friendship.
"We then got to be in scenes together and honestly it was sat there talking about Newcastle United and the games and who our favourite players were and who we didn’t like – it’s the same chat as we have now to be honest, 25 years on – that’s how we bonded really," says Ant.
UK MUMS & DADS' TOP 10 BEST CELEBRITY FRIENDSHIPS
1) Ant & Dec2) Holly Willoughby & Phillip Schofield3) Holly Willoughby & Fearne Cotton4) David Beckham & Gordon Ramsay5) Billie & Sam Faiers6) Gregg Wallace & John Torode7) Nick Grimshaw & Harry Styles8) Victoria Beckham & Eva Longoria9) Beyoncé and Gwyneth Paltrow10) Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman