Strictly Come Dancing spoilers follow.
Strictly Come Dancing will be back on screens in just over a week.
The BBC has confirmed the exciting news that the 2023 Strictly launch show will be airing on Saturday, September 16 at 6.35pm on BBC One as “15 brand new celebrities are welcomed to the Strictly ballroom”.
On this special show, the all new cast will find out which professional dancers they’ll be paired up with ahead of the first live show.
This year’s Strictly line-up includes Waterloo Road‘s Adam Thomas, actress Amanda Abbington, legendary journalist Angela Rippon, The One Show‘s Angela Scanlon and tennis pundit Annabel Croft.
Guy Levy
//BBC
Also joining the cast for this all-new series are NTA Award-winning EastEnders actor Bobby Brazier, BBC Radio 1Xtra DJ Eddie Kadi, former Coronation Street star Ellie Leach, Paralympian Jody Cundy and Channel 4 News’ Krishnan Guru-Murthy.
Rounding off this year’s celebrity cast will be Bad Education‘s Layton Williams, comedian Les Dennis, EastEnders legend Nigel Harman, BBC Asian Network presenter Nikita Kanda and Love Island‘s Zara McDermott.
Head judge Shirley Ballas has recently defended this year’s crop of celebrities against complaints that several of them have previous dance experience.
“I think it’s very unfair at this point to single out anybody, because most children had a little bit of training,” she told Mirror Online.
“If somebody goes to stage school for singing and acting, there’s always normally a little bit of dance included. It might not be their forte. It’s nothing like learning ballroom dancing. It’s a total discipline all of its own.”
Johannes Radebe has expressed excitement for fans to see what Strictly bosses have in store this year, hinting that they have “turned it up” for 2023.
Strictly Come Dancing returns for its launch special on September 16 on BBC One, while spin-off Strictly: It Takes Two airs on BBC Two. Both shows are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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Justin Harp
Night News Editor
Justin has been with Digital Spy since 2010, and in that time, has covered countless major news events for DS from the US.
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Source: www.digitalspy.com