Ant and Dec Get Unprecedented Access to Royals

Chiswick duo host documentary celebrating 40 years of the Prince's Trust

Grove Park residents Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly are to provide a new insight into the Royal Family in an ITV documentary scheduled to be broadcast this week.

The Geordie pair are ambassadors for the Prince's Trust which is celebrating its fortieth anniversary and to mark this landmark unprecedented access has been given to the programme makers to help show the work the charity does.

Talking about The Prince of Wales, Ant says, " You can’t deny that the work he’s done with The Prince’s Trust…it just works, he’s helped people, he continues to help people and good for him."

Dec added, "There are those that will say he was born into this position of privilege and he can’t possibly empathise with the normal man on the street and the issues that face the ordinary man, but I think he can."

The 90-minute special, which was filmed over a year, sees Ant and Dec granted a real insight into the work of The Prince’s Trust as they accompany the Prince of Wales on a number of engagements – chatting to him along the way, meeting people who have benefited directly from its work and witnessing, first-hand, the passion that The Prince has for The Trust he founded in 1976.

In the programme The Duke of Cambridge gives a candid interview about fatherhood in which he confesses to have become a more emotional person and more prone to tears since the birth of this two children Prince George and Prince Charlotte.

The Press Association quotes him speaking to Ant and Dec with his brother, Prince Harry, beside him, William said of the changes fatherhood had brought: "I'm a lot more emotional than I used to be, weirdly. I never used to get too wound up or worried about things.

"But now the smallest little things, you well up a little more, you get affected by the sort of things that happen around the world or whatever a lot more, I think, as a father.

"Just because you realise how precious life is and it puts it all in perspective. The idea of not being around to see your children grow up and stuff like that."

William says of his father that he has an "insurmountable amount of duty in him" but also told how, like any parent, he could be an embarrassment such as when he laughed uncontrollably at a school play.

The Duke said, "The Prince's Trust evolved over time into what it is now, which is this incredible charity, that has really bust every possible limit it was ever set - it's really done well. And I think he's incredibly chuffed at how it's gone."

The royal brothers also joked about how their father would make them cringe when they were growing up - by laughing at inappropriate moments during school plays.

William told a story of how his father convulsed with giggles when a pyrotechnic explosion went off at the wrong moment as he was playing the role of narrator in a Christmas play.

The Duke said about his father: "He couldn't stop laughing the whole way through the production."

He added: "Several times I'd stop ... I'd cast an eye across, like you know, a big death stare, and then I'd try and get back to my lines, it was terrible."

Another first for the programme is an interview with the Duchess of Cornwall. Camilla speaks of her pride in being married to the man who originally set up the trust with the severance pay received from the Royal Navy after he became concerned about young people being excluded from society through a lack of opportunity.

As they reflect on their own 40 years, Ant and Dec head back to their home town of Newcastle and meet up with fellow Geordie Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, who takes them around her childhood haunts and shares her experiences as an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust.

During the past 40 years The Prince's Trust has grown to become Britain's leading youth charity and has reached more than 825,000 young people.

When Ant And Dec Met The Prince: 40 Years Of The Prince's Trust, is to be screened on ITV on Monday 4 January at 9pm.

January 3, 2016