A PRUDHOE couple were among hundreds of audience members to be surprised live on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway at the weekend.
Owner of Carfresh Valeting, Andrew Newton was sitting with his wife Jill Newton in the audience at Television Centre in London on February 24, when he was surprised by the ITV presenters.
The Geordie duo held a quick interview with Andrew, followed by a video of his work cleaning dirty and unreadable road signs around the country.
Andrew has uploaded dozens of clips to social media platform TikTok, and have been viewed by thousands of people from all over the world.
After the quick chat, there was a live video played where Capital FM's new presenter and University of Sunderland graduate Jordan North stood next to Andrew's van and was using his pressure hose to clean a displayed sign.
During the video, Andrew stared in shock to see his van in London, when he thought it was at home.
READ MORE Prudhoe businessman Tik Tok famous for cleaning road signs
More surprises came throughout the show when it was announced that all of the 400 members of the audience were hand-picked by the TV duo and were winners of plane tickets to choose whatever destination they wanted to go, whenever they wanted and all-inclusive.
Speaking about the experience, Andrew told the Hexham Courant: "I am still on cloud nine and cannot believe what happened.
"My wife applied for tickets last February and had told me about it, so I was quiet excited. We then had a Skype interview with the producers who wanted to know more about us then I heard nothing about it since.
"Little did I know we would be invited to the show a year later. All throughout the year, the producers and my family were all in the know about surprising me on the show and even had a group chat on Snapchat called 'don't tell, Dad'.
"It was apparently hard to organise how to get me down to London without causing suspicion, as my wife knew I would want to stop and clean signs on the way but the show needed my van, so my wife told me she got a brilliant deal on train tickets.
"But there was a worry that some neighbours or people would think my van was stolen from my house if they saw it on a recovery truck - so my son had to meet the producers away from my home.
"Before going to the show, throughout the day, I could tell my wife was very nervous as the producers were telling her to keep me away from the studio where they had transported my van from the North East to and were filming with it, while I was just wanting to go around London and sightsee and go into bars.
"I was so shocked to even talk to Ant, never mind seeing my van and business on national TV then the night got better with the holiday. I haven't decided where to go yet but I will be taking my family.
"I just love helping out my community and I am very passionate about car valeting, I didn't expect any praise or award for it but I am honoured."
Andrew's videos are on TikTok and Youtube - 'Carfresh Valeting'
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