Strictly Come Dancing has announced Les Dennis as the final celebrity joining the ballroom cast in 2023.
It's not the first time that Les has been asked to be a part of the hit BBC show, as he was originally asked when he was starring on Coronation Street, between 2014 and 2016, but he turned it down.
Revealing he would be joining the show on Friday morning, he said: "I was asked when I was in Corrie but you can't do it when you're in Corrie so you have to wait til you come out."
The TV presenter, 69, joins stars including Angela Rippon, Layton Williams, Nigel Harman and Zara McDermott on the dancefloor this autumn.
Strictly fans had already heard rumours that Les had signed up to the show after a mysterious tweet was posted by the star of a playlist with the show's title.
Les admitted he was behind the leak, explaining: "The Strictly producers ask you to send a play list of songs you might like. So I tried to and I'm totally hopeless at social media and all that stuff.
"So my daughter put my play list together and put 'Strictly: Les Dennis'. I sent it to my agent by email but must have done a fat finger mistake and pressed Twitter instead."
He added that the list included "lots of Beatles, James Taylor, real old school".
A cast of 15 celebrities for the latest series of the BBC One contest also includes Angela Scanlon, Adam Thomas, Ellie Leach and Bobby Brazier.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Eddie Kadi, Annabel Croft, Jody Cundy, Amanda Abbington and Nikita Kanda have also been announced for this year's line-up.
GMB hosts Ben Shephard and Ranvir Singh asked Les about the cast including older stars than usual and he said: "You get offered something like this and it puts a spring in your step, I'm excited and terrified. People of any age can do anything."
Les is currently starring in a touring production of West End musical 42nd Street, but he's been on British TV for a long time.
He was famously married to Britain's Got Talent Judge, Amanda Holden, but the marriage broke down amidst rumours of her cheating on him with Men Behaving Badly actor Neil Morrissey.
Criticism of the show for including stars who have previous dance experience has already begun, with complaints that former EastEnders star Nigel and West End star Layton have an unfair advantage.
However, despite Les also having some theatre experience, he said: "I'm not trained at all, certainly not when it comes to ballroom and latin."
Meanwhile, Sherlock star Amanda has been forced to deny that she is transphobic after controversy over some of her old tweets about a drag act children's show.
The celebrities will find out who their pro dancer partners are at the launch show, hosted by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.
Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke will all be back on the judging panel as the stars compete to follow in the footsteps of 2022 winner Hamza Yassin.
This is a breaking news story and is being updated in real time.
For more of the latest celebrity, lifestyle and fashion and beauty news, click here
Source: Read Full Article
