Britain's Got Talent hosts Ant and Dec stepped in for an absent Simon Cowell during a round of auditions last year, but admit they won't be doing that again in a hurry.

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"We didn't enjoy it last year," says Dec, with Ant adding, "We found it too tough to say no."

Well, sitting in for Mr Nasty must be a hard gig. You've got to get that look of disdain just right.

It wasn't just the OK acts; having to judge the bonkers acts was hard too, says Ant.

"When they are really bad, you've got to say no. I'm not that tactful at doing it in a nice way. We're best at the side of the stage," he laughs.

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But the judges themselves – David Walliams, Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden and of course Simon Cowell – have found saying no to one category comes quite easily this year, it seems.

"The thing that all the judges are a little harder on this year are the dance troops [...] a lot of them aren't going through because they're not bringing anything different," explains Dec. "They're saying 'it's brilliant and you do it very well, but you're not doing something we haven't seen before and you're not going to win the show.'"

Ant and Dec found a way to scupper that though: they hit their Golden Buzzer for a male group of dancers.

"They are a little bit different and a bit unique," Dec says of the act who now automatically go through to the live semi-finals. ITV2 host Stephen Mulhern also separately confided that Ant and Dec's dancers are a good bet.

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Britain's Got Talent returns to ITV in April

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