ANT from Ant&Dec has been attacked outside a London pub by a drunken gang of high-brow television enthusiasts.

The presenter of Saturday evening proletariat entertainments was verbally abused and held in a headlock as his attackers chanted Simon Schama and fuck ITV.

McPartlin was then ridiculed as the gang asked him a series of questions, including who produced The Nazis: A Warning from History and tell us five important things about Bernard Levin.

Ant said: One of them grabbed me by the face and said that he had been on University Challenge and what did I think of that.

I phoned Dec and told him to get down here because hes cleverer than me and he might have been able to answer one of the BBC2 questions.

Ant added: Its not my fault. The only reason I present these programmes is because of all the money.

A police spokesman said: We always warn people who present Britains Got Talent to try not to do it in a really obvious way. It just provokes people who went to a university founded before 1850.

Nevertheless, high-brow television enthusiasts should know better. The problem, is they drink two bottles of Chablis while watching Simon Schamas History of Britain and go out looking for trouble like theyre Edward Longshanks at the Battle of Evesham.