Alan Carr had the surprise of a lifetime at Tuesday night’s National Television Awards when he received the Special Recognition gong, prompting a hilarious reaction.
The beloved TV star had no idea he was receiving the most prestigious award of the night and only found out when he looked at his close friends. Amanda Holden and Paloma Faith pay tribute on stage.
Before accepting the award, Alan was honored with friend Amanda’s special performance and his own Famous traitors co-star Paloma, who was brought on stage in a coffin as a nod to their time on the show.
Fellow Traitors stars Charlotte Church, Kate Garraway and David Olusoga then took part in the rendition of I Know Him So Well from the musical Chess.
The performance was a huge hit with viewers, who praised it as ‘one of the campest things they’d ever seen’, while others were hysterical over Paloma’s theatrical shoving of Charlotte during the tune’s dramatic climax.
However, Alan was simply shocked that his close friends managed to keep the secret from him and he playfully called Amanda a ‘little b****’ as they left the stage arm in arm.
Alan Carr had the surprise of a lifetime at the National Television Awards on Tuesday night when he received the Special Recognition gong from his friends Paloma Faith and Amanda Holden
The beloved TV star had no idea he was the recipient of the evening’s most prestigious award and only found out when he watched his close friends pay tribute on stage
Alan admitted during his acceptance speech that it wasn’t until Paloma joined in that he realized the singing tribute was for him.
‘This is how fat I am. It wasn’t until Paloma came out that I realized it was me,” he told the crowd of celebrities at London’s O2. ‘I should have realized that when they put me in the front row, I usually sit in the back, with the people from Naked attraction.’
A highlight of the performance saw Paloma push fellow singer Charlotte Church and Amanda aside to make her way to the front of the stage.
Viewers labeled the performance ‘iconic’ and ‘the biggest NTA moment ever’, while one decided Amanda and Paloma are ‘the new Christmas number 1 duo of 2026 that we never knew existed’.
Amanda admitted she was nervous before her big moment and desperately tried not to let the secret slip to close friend Alan.
She told Press Backstage that she ‘tried not to call him for at least a week’ and arrived on the red carpet early today to avoid running into him.
The NTAs saw Britain’s top TV stars descend on London’s O2 Arena for a star-studded ceremony as a comedian Joel Dommett returned as host for the sixth time.
In its 100th year, David Attenborough taken home NTA for Best Presenter, leaving Ant and Dec without a gong for the second year in a row.
The performance went down a storm with viewers, who were hysterical at Paloma’s theatrical shoving of Charlotte Church and Amanda during the dramatic climax.
The iconic Geordie duo held the award for 23 years before losing it Gary Lineker at last year’s prices.
And this year they were outdone by the legendary broadcaster, whose producer Mark Brownlow accepted the award on his behalf with his speech focusing on the dangers of climate change.
Elsewhere to collect the Reality Docuseries gong was Jeremy Clarkson’s Prime Video series Clarkson’s Farm.
The presenter made the shocking revelation earlier this year that he was in remission from prostate cancer.
He kept his speech short and sweet and later broke his silence on the disease during the winner’s press conference.
The 66-year-old said: ‘I wasn’t emotional; it was annoying. I had something going on with my heart, and I had a little bit of cancer, but it wasn’t really gone, it lasted two weeks.
“It was, it was just annoying because I missed a lot of harvest time.”
Lee Mack once again took home the gong for his ITV hit The 1% Club, as he attended the ceremony with his three children and paid tribute to his wife in his speech.
The Bruce Forsyth Entertainment Award was presented to Michael McIntyre’s Big Show after it was presented by Paris Fury and her eight-year-old daughter Valencia.
Alan was shocked that his friends managed to keep the secret from him and playfully called Amanda a ‘little b****’.
The cast of Mrs Brown’s Boys were ecstatic to hear they had won Best Comedy Show, which will be a boost for Brendan O’Carroll after he had to cancel this year’s festive specials after breaking his jaw.
Gogglebox, now in its 28th series, was awarded the Factual Entertainment gong, beating Stacey Solomon’s Sort Your Life Out.
This year’s NTAs have proven to be historic, even before the first winners were announced, as they feature the first ever all-female Drama Performance shortlist.
And it was Vicky McClure who came out on top, thanks to her role as fugitive bomb officer Lana in Trigger Point.
I Fought the Law, led by Sheridan Smith, won this year’s New Drama gong after an impressive performance.
This year’s Authored Documentary gong was awarded to the BBC special Our Girls: The Southport Families.
The wins for the evening came from Call The Midwife who won Best Recurring Drama, Emmerdale who won Best Serial Drama and Jeff Hordley who won in the Serial Drama Performance category.
