iStockStrictly Come Dancing 2023 is set to welcome its oldest contestant, an actress from the hit show Sherlock and a prominent news presenter – all hoping to lift the glitterball trophy.
Here is a look at who will be hitting the dancefloor for the BBC One show:
Angela Rippon
The broadcaster became the first regular female news anchor on the BBC in 1975 and went on to host shows including Top Gear, Antiques Roadshow, Children In Need and the original Come Dancing.
Rippon will be 79 when the programme is filmed, making her the main Strictly’s oldest contestant. The previous oldest was Johnny Ball who took part in 2012 aged 74.
She said being on the show will be a “scary” adventure and she is “looking forward to the challenge”.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy
The Channel 4 News presenter began his career at the age of 18 when he presented youth programmes for the BBC before working on Newsround, Newsnight, BBC World and News 24.
The 53-year-old journalist has fronted worldwide events including the Omagh bombing of 1998, 911 and the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Guru-Murthy said he worries about his “general decrepitude” and is “slightly confused to find myself taking part in Strictly on the basis of you only live once”.
He has also reported for the Channel 4 foreign affairs series, Unreported World, about the lives of people who live in some of the fastest-changing areas of the planet.
Zara McDermott
The TV star, 26, appeared on the hit dating show Love Island in 2018 and later featured in the singing competition The X Factor: Celebrity and reality series Made In Chelsea.
She has since made documentaries about revenge porn, sexual assault and disordered eating for the BBC where she has drawn on her own experiences.
Her latest documentary series for BBC Three aims to shed a light on the circumstances surrounding the death of 19-year-old Gaia Pope-Sutherland who ran away from home while experiencing a mental health crisis in 2017, after reporting she had been drugged and sexually attacked by a man when she was 16.
In 2022, she presented new dating series Love In The Flesh on the channel which sees couples who have only ever connected online meet for the first time.
McDermott said Strictly is “such a far cry” from her day job and feels the dancing competition will be the furthest she has ever pushed herself out of her comfort zone.
Angela Scanlon
The TV presenter is known for presenting the revamped machine combat competition Robot Wars alongside comedian Dara O Briain, who is also from Ireland.
Starting off as a stylist, she worked on former Irish fashion and entertainment programme Xpose and is the only woman in the UK and Ireland to have had their own Saturday night chat show with Ask Me Anything on RTE One.
The 39-year-old has presented the BBC’s Your Home Made Perfect and The One Show and is also a published author and host of positivity podcast Thanks A Million.
Scanlon said she is “panicking a bit” and wonders whether she will have to tan and if the sequins are itchy.
Amanda Abbington
The actress, 49, is best known as playing Mary Morstan in Sherlock for which she was nominated for a best supporting actress Critics’ Choice Television Award in 2014.
Morstan serves as love interest on the BBC show, inspired by the Sherlock Holmes novels, for Dr John Watson as played by Martin Freeman, Abbington’s former long-term partner with whom she shares two children.
She has also featured in Mr Selfridge, Wolfe and Desperate Measures, and the 2022 biographical film, The Lost King.
Her stage credits include The Unfriend, a dark comedy from Sherlock writer Steven Moffat and director Mark Gatiss, musical A Little Princess and The Taming Of The Shrew.
Layton Williams
Williams, who is best known for playing Stephen Carmichael in the sitcom Bad Education, rose to fame as a child playing the title role in Billy Elliot The Musical on London’s West End.
The 28-year-old has also performed in stage shows including Thriller Live, Rent, Hairspray and New Adventures, and from 2019 he played the title character in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
He has also been in comedy The Cleaner, drama I Hate Suzie Too and BBC Two’s Beautiful People. He has also done the voice over for the BBC’s gay dating show, I Kissed A Boy.
Eddie Kadi
Kadi is a stand-up comic and was the first British black comedian to headline the O2 Arena in London.
The 40-year-old comedian is also a presenter and has fronted The Official Afrobeats Chart Show on BBC Radio 1Xtra and is a team captain on ITV’s panel show Sorry I Didn’t Know.
He has also hosted the Mobo awards and is in production for his own documentary with Channel 4.
This year, Kadi was nominated for best breakthrough presenter at the Edinburgh TV Awards.
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