A Newcastle family was left in complete shock last weekend when they were gifted a free house by Ant & Dec on Saturday Night Takeaway.
Petra and Simon Williams were left in total shock at the weekend when the Geordie duo surprised them live on air with a free £260,000 house on the Moorfields estate, near Gosforth Park.
They had thought they were in London to record a documentary about charities when they were invited to join the audience for the first episode of the new Takeaway series and then had the life-changing surprise revealed to them in front of a packed studio audience and millions of viewers at home.
But, while the house giveaway surprise was sprung in a matter of moments, in reality, it was a project that was over a year in the making.
As you can see in the video above, Ant & Dec donned their hard hats and hi-vis jackets to get stuck in on the house build when they made a trip to home turf back in September last year as the house began to take shape, working alongside a team of builders from property developer Bellway.
Discussing the lads' capabilities as builder, Bellway Homes' site manager said: "They've done a bit of joinery work, digging holes, brick laying...but let's say the progress has been a little bit slow."
"We probably wouldn't employ them but they've been a great laugh, very different to what we're used to."
Saturday Night Takeaway's executive producer Tim Dean revealed: "It's one of the biggest things the show has ever done. It's taken months...over a year in the planning. It's one of the hardest, toughest things we've ever had to organise.
Ant & Dec were back on site at Moorfields at the start of February when they helped with the finishing touches and posed with a 'The House that Ant & Dec Built' plaque.
The first people to see the house complete were Petra and Simon's best friend Nikki and Petra's mam Maureen.
To make sure, Petra and Simon were kept completely in the dark right up until the bombshell was dropped on Takeaway, every bit of their new home's interior, down to photo frames and cushions, was done with help from Nikki and Maureen, who worked together with Q Interiors.
Q Interiors founder Julie Watson explained: "Normally we get a brief from the client and then we and then we look at the project as a whole, but on this case we've been working with Petra's mum and Nikki, so it's very, very bespoke to suit them."
Nikki added: "It's definitely worth all the lies!"
