Ant & Dec To Split After Twenty-Six Years of Solid Gold?

After twenty-six years, the popular comedy duo Ant & Dec have decided to split to pursue new opportunities, a source close to the pair has revealed. It's been a long time since we first saw the pair performing together as Declan & PJ in Byker Groove, and we may never get to see them together again. It has been cited that each of them desire to pursue solo careers and so felt that their partnership was holding them back. Just what might the future hold for Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly? Will they enjoy the solo careers they have dreamed of?

Ant & Dec: Britain's most loved Duo?

Can you imagine if that were a real headline? Yes, thankfully Ant & Dec are not breaking up, but if it were ever to happen, I'm sure that there'd be more than a few upset television fans! But as a hypothetical situation, it's something that's very interesting to speculate over. What would happen if they did bring their comedy duo days to an end? Would they both thrive in successful solo careers? Would one fall into obscurity while the other became a household name? Well, let's take a look at what happened to some comedy partnerships which actually ended up splitting and see how it went for them.

Other Loved Comedic Partners

Who remembers when Mathew Horne and James Corden were together? There was Gavin & Stacey which had Mathew Horne playing a man who finally met his long distance partner in person and James Corden as his best friend. Later on, they also had their own comedy sketch show together in form of Horne and Corden which only had a single series, but which was quite nice. But where are they now? Well, since the split, Mathew Horne has appeared in the BBC 3 sitcom Bad Education and has also played the grandson to Catherine Tate's “Nan” character. James Corden, meanwhile, has had a very varied career; he played a recurring character in Doctor Who, hosts his own television show and has appeared in numerous programmes and films (most recently, The Lady in the Van) and his career seems to just go up and up! Why has he been doing so much better than his old partner? Perhaps it might be because he was more of the “funny man” while Mathew Horne was the “straight man”? Perhaps James Corden was just lucky enough to come across more opportunities which had a lot of potential to them?

Let's also take a look at Paddy McGuinness and Peter Kay. One of the first things they did together was That Peter Kay Thing which was a series of seven mostly self-contained spoof documentaries which covered the lives of various characters portrayed by Peter Kay and had one episode which featured Paddy McGuinness as a loveable bouncer called Paddy. That Peter Kay Thing had a spin-off in the form of Phoenix Nights and Phoenix Nights had a spin-off in the form of Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere which had Paddy McGuinness in a joint lead role. Sadly, it never got more than a single series of six episodes... Ultimately, as they worked together, it felt like Paddy McGuinness's importance was growing, but since they stopped, it seems that Peter Kay has found much more success. Paddy McGuiness has hosted a few TV shows and appeared in the Keith Lemon movie. Peter Kay has created and starred in many of his own TV shows and is generally regarded as a national treasure. Could it be that it was his backstage experience that has helped him to develop his career by himself?

Let's look at a third case, since it's always good to have three examples: Jerome Flyn and Robson Green, or Robson & Jerome. They became very popular in the 1990s after they appeared in the TV show Soldier Soldier and sang a cover of “Unchained Melody” as The Unrighteous Brothers which later actually managed to make it to number 1 in the charts. For a few years, they did several more covers before deciding to go their separate ways. Jerome Flyn has since found success as regular characters in Game of Thrones and Ripper Street which have are both popular, modern dramas. Beyond this, Jerome Flynn has also had lots of other parts in television productions and films. Robson Green is by no means doing badly, as he has important roles in a several ongoing TV shows, but his career has gone in a very different direction to Jerome Flynn. Has one really done much better than the other? Have they both done well? Often it is hard to quantify success.

What Would Happen Next?

If Ant & Dec were ever to split, it's a little harder to determine what their individual career paths would be. They don't fall quite so easily into “funny man” and “straight man” categories, as each of them have their instances as both! Plus, the entire professional careers of each of them have always been tied together. It's really hard to find examples of any production which features Ant but not Dec or Dec but not Ant, so each of the strengths and good experiences that they have are shared. Both are equally talented and skilled so neither shows any obvious strengths over the other. If there ever were any kind of hypothetical split, I think how well either of them do would depend on the jobs they get within the first year of the breakup.

Also, just to clarify (since the truth cannot be overstated!) Ant & Dec are still performing as a team and have not spilt. I was merely using that hypothetical possibility as gateway into an interesting discussion. What do you think would happen if that duo act became two solo acts? Be sure to let us know what you think on Twitter by tweeting us @MFVoucherCodes and be sure to look at our latest offers and deals at My Favourite Voucher Codes!