Alan Carr brands Amanda Holden a 'little b****' at the NTAs as fans go wild for Paloma Faith's theatrical on-stage 'shove' of Charlotte Church in surprise performance

Alan Carr had the surprise of his life at Tuesday night's National Television Awards when he was awarded the Special Recognition gong, leading to a hilarious reaction.

The beloved TV star had no idea he was the recipient of the night's most prestigious award and only worked it out when he watched his close friends Amanda Holden and Paloma Faith perform an onstage tribute.  

Before picking up the award Alan was honoured with the special performance by pal Amanda and his Celebrity Traitors co-star Paloma, who was brought on to the stage in a coffin in a nod to their time on the show.

Fellow Traitors stars Charlotte Church, Kate Garraway and David Olusoga then joined in the rendition of I Know Him So Well from the musical Chess. 

The performance went down a storm with viewers, who lauded it as 'one of the campest things they'd ever seen', whilst others were in hysterics at Paloma's theatrical shove of Charlotte during the dramatic climax of the tune.

Alan though was just shocked that his close friends managed to keep the secret from him and was seen playfully calling Amanda a 'little b****' as they left the stage arm in arm.

Alan admitted during his acceptance speech that it was only when Paloma joined in that he realised the singing tribute was for him.

'This is how thick I am, it was only when Paloma came out that I realised it's me,' he told the crowd of celebs at London's O2. 'I should have realised when they put me in the front row, I'm usually in the back with the people from Naked Attraction.'

One highlight of the performance saw Paloma shove fellow singer Charlotte Church and Amanda out of the way to elbow her way to the front of the stage.

Viewers branded the performance 'iconic' and 'the greatest NTAs moment ever', whilst one decided that Amanda and Paloma are 'the new 2026 Xmas number 1 duo we never knew existed'.

Amanda confessed she was a bag of nerves before her big moment and was desperately trying 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 today early to avoid running into him. 

The NTAs saw the best in British TV descend on London's O2 Arena for a star-studded ceremony as comedian Joel Dommett returned as host for the sixth time. 

In his 100th year, David Attenborough took home the NTA for Best Presenter, leaving Ant and Dec without the gong for the second consecutive year.

The iconic Geordie duo held on to the accolade for a record 23 years before losing out to Gary Lineker at last year's awards. 

And this year they were trumped by the legendary broadcaster, whose producer Mark Brownlow accepted the award on his behalf with his speech focused on the dangers of climate change. 

Elsewhere collecting the Reality Docuseries gong was Jeremy Clarkson's Prime Video series Clarkson's Farm. 

The presenter made the shock revelation he was in remission from prostate cancer earlier this year. 

Keeping his speech short and sweet he later broke his silence on the illness during the winner's press conference. 

The 66-year-old said: ‘I wasn't emotional; it was annoying. I had a heart thing, and I had a bit of cancer but I wasn't away really, it was two weeks.

‘It was, it was just annoying because I missed a lot of the 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 awarded to Michael McIntyre's Big Show – after it was presented by Paris Fury and her daughter Valencia, eight. 

The cast of Mrs Brown’s Boys were ecstatic on hearing they had won Best Comedy Show, in what will be a boost to Brendan O’Carroll after he was forced 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 has proven to be historic even before the first winners were announced, as it features the first ever all-female shortlist for Drama Performance.

And it was Vicky McClure who came out on top, thanks to her role as volatile explosives 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’s special Our Girls: The Southport Families.

Completing the wins for the night was Call The Midwife, who picked up best Returning Drama, Emmerdale who won Best Serial Drama and Jeff Hordley who won in the Serial Drama Performance category.