Ant McPartlin has returned to his TV presenting duties for the first time in almost 12 months, reuniting with Dec Donnelly for the first day of auditions for Britain's Got Talent 2019.

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The pair snapped a photo for Twitter en route to the London Palladium to link up with judges Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon, David Walliams and Amanda Holden. Ant had stepped back from his television hosting duties in April 2018 after he was convicted of drink-driving,

After being introduced to the crowd by his co-host, he took to the BGT stage and addressed the crowd with a brief but emotional speech.

"Hello everyone," he said. "Oh god, I’m really really emotional now. I’ve missed you all. As for you (pointing at Dec) I’ve missed you. Thank you very much, what a warm welcome. What a great show to come back to, I’m thrilled, I’m over the moon. Shall we move on before I cry?"

Cowell also momentarily dispatched with his icy demeanour to welcome Ant back to the fold, assuring him that it "wasn't the same" without him.

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"Ant, welcome back," the BGT judge said. "We missed you; it wasn’t the same. I mean even though Dec was brilliant, it still wasn’t the same. It would be like me not being with David, I would be happy, but not happy - if that makes sense. So on behalf of all of us, welcome back, we’re family."

We're excited to see them back together.

The two are up for the best presenter (s) award at Tuesday's National Television Awards, despite Ant having missed the live stages of BGT, the last few episodes of Saturday Night Takeaway and the entirety of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! So the week could get even better...

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Britain's Got Talent is expected to return to ITV in April

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