Saturday Night Takeaway star takes brutal swipe at Simon Cowell's ...

COMEDIAN Stephen Merchant took a swipe at Simon Cowell this evening as he joined the show as the guest announcer.

The 49-year-old made fun of Simon’s face after Ant and Dec pulled off a huge prank on the music mogul.

Stephen Merchant made a joke about Simon Cowell's face Simon was at the centre of tonight's prankCredit: ITV

Asked if he had enjoyed watching it, Stephen pretended to do an impression of Simon, 64,  – saying: “I didn’t like it, I loved it.”

He then added: “It’s my Cowell impression but it’s not very convincing because my face moved.”

The audience gasped at his comment, and those watching at home were left gobsmacked.

Simon doesn’t mind admitting to having some work done and was even one of the first male TV stars to admit to having Botox and filler.

In the past Simon has responded to remarks about his appearance, saying: Simon explained: "I think its hysterical.  I mean it just makes me laugh —  I haven’t had a facelift or anything.

"I have had a bit of Botox or whatever but kind of nothing drastic. So when I hear about this stuff honestly, it does make me laugh.

"Over the years people have said that I’ve had everything done. But I don’t Google myself so I genuinely don’t have a clue what everyone is saying about me until we do things like BGT."

Ant and Dec even commented on his appearance on the last series of BGT.

They joked there’s a new face on the panel, which everyone thinks is Bruno Tonioli, but then the cheeky Geordie duo said: "It’s Simon Cowell."

Undercover prank

During tonight's episode Simon was tricked as part of the famous undercover prank on Saturday Night Takeaway for a second time.

The music mogul was the duo's first prank victim in 2003, when they pretended to be a funny audition on US singing competition American Idol, where Simon was a judge.

To mark the 20th series of the show, the duo returned to the States to prank Simon on his bike ride and during filming for America's Got Talent (AGT).

The first prank saw Simon interrupted on his morning cycle by a fake police officer who accused him of breaking a series of made-up misdemeanours.

While the second stage saw the music producer being pranked on AGT in front of a live audience when a fake magician act got him to get into a metal box on stage which they locked with chains, with the masked performer pretending to swallow the keys.

However, they pretended to Simon that the key had got stuck in the performer's throat, which left him unimpressed.

The AGT stage crew members then pretended to attempt to cut him free with a chainsaw and just before they were going to use explosives, Ant and Dec took to the stage in disguise as the masked performers before revealing they were behind the prank, causing Cowell to say: "I am going to kill you."

The pair had police pull over Simon on his bike Simon was very bemused by the whole situation Ant and Dec found it very funny