As the Black Lives Matter movement engulfed the world, Ant and Dec made the decision to remove all traces of the episodes involving Blackface sketches.
Historical images of the present pair representing blackface have now been deleted from ITV.
Award-winning presenters regularly disguise themselves as other people to disguise other celebrities and fans.
Fans will remember that Ant and Dec infiltrated the role of two Jamaican women Patty and Bernice to deceive Emmerdale in 2003.
In a statement, they said, “In the last few episodes of Saturday Night Takeaway, we stole the identity of people of color in the secret segment of the show.
“We realize it was wrong and we want to say that we sincerely regret everyone who has been offended.
“We deliberately stopped doing this several years ago and we certainly would not be doing these sketches today.
“We had already taken steps to ensure that the video footage was removed and we recently confirmed with ITV that these segments, and any other historical content, which may be offensive, do not appear on the ITV hub or on the YouTube channel. Saturday Night Takeaway. ”
In a historical clip available on the Saturday Night Takeaway DVD, Ant and Dec talked about talking to each other as Jamaican ladies.
Ant joked, “It was funny sitting in a room, learning Jamaican, choosing dresses, trying on false nails, it was something I never thought I would have done. ”
Dec even pretended to make a Jamaican accent.
He added, “We had to find out who Patty and Bernice were, so we had to go:” Well, I think Bernice probably came to England on a boat. ” “
It comes after Netflix, BritBox and BBC iPlayer removed Little Britain from their streaming services.
