Irish TV presenter Angela Scanlon has been announced as the latest star to sign up for Strictly Come Dancing 2023.
The 39-year-old, whose credits include BBC Two’s Your Home Made Perfect and The One Show, was unveiled on BBC Radio 2’s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on Monday and is the sixth celebrity confirmed for the 21st series of the BBC flagship programme.
It comes after actress Amanda Abbington, Bad Education star Layton Williams, broadcaster Angela Rippon, journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy and comedian Eddie Kadi were the first contestants announced to be taking part in the show.
We can't wait to see Angela Scanlon hit the dance floor! She's our sixth celebrity for #Strictly 2023. https://t.co/cDA0pYywc5 @angelascanlon 💃 pic.twitter.com/rPhu6uENwj
— BBC Strictly ✨ (@bbcstrictly) August 7, 2023
Scanlon told Gaby Roslin, who sits in for Ball on the Breakfast Show, about her forthcoming debut on the dancefloor, saying: “It’s been in the ether for a number of years, we’ve been close.
“Truthfully, we wanted to have another baby, we were trying to have a baby, I was then pregnant, then I had a very small child and now, it just felt right this year.
“I believe in feelings and timing and all of those sorts of things. I’m not particularly fit. I have no idea how my pelvic floor is going to react to that level of jumping.
“I’ve never done any of these dances in my life bar a drunken jive at a family wedding, so it certainly feels like there’s room to learn and really push myself.”
Scanlon said she had spoken to Ted Lasso actress Ellie Taylor, who took part in the show last year, and BBC Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo, who appeared in the 2020 series.
She said: “Ellie has a little girl who’s the same age as my eldest child and so I thought it’d be good to know realistically when you’re in the trenches with children, what’s the reality of this because I think I’ve had a kind of dreamy idea.
“I travel a bit, I do a chat show in Ireland, I travel over and back to that so the idea of being in the same place for an extended period of time feels a bit luxurious.
“But I don’t know if I’m totally deluded about the level of work, but she has kind of said, it’s intense, hardest thing she has ever done, but was so thrilled that she did it.
“And then Clara did it in 2020 and a similar thing, she said it’s insane, she said ‘lean heavily in’ which I intend to, I find it hard to lean out.”
The TV presenter is the only woman in the UK and Ireland to have their own Saturday night chat show with Ask Me Anything on RTE One.
Scanlon, who married businessman Roy Horgan in 2014, with whom she shares two daughters, is also a published author and host of positivity podcast Thanks A Million.
In 2022, she published her part memoir, part self-help book Joyrider, which charts her own journey into the world of self-development – dipping into the anxiety and imposter syndrome she grappled with throughout her teens and 20s, and the bulimia she lived with for 15 years.
Strictly Come Dancing returns to screens this autumn and will be judged by Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse.
Last year, the competition was won by British wildlife presenter Hamza Yassin and professional dancer Jowita Przystal.
By Ellie Iorizzo, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter
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