Josh Widdicombe is the first celebrity announced to take part in the Strictly Come Dancing 2024 Christmas Special. He will be paired with professional dancer Karen Hauer.
Rumours started that he was going to be taking part in Strictly earlier this year after he talked to Rob Beckett about getting fit on their Parenting Hell podcast. There was speculation that he needed to be in good physical shape to be able to do his best on Strictly but nothing was confirmed at the time. The truth can now be revealed!
Widdicombe has starred in over thirty series of Channel 4’s The Last Leg as a team captain. Josh co-hosts the hugely successful podcast Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and has written two Sunday Times Bestselling books. He has appeared on multiple comedy panel shows including Smart TV, QI, A League Of Their Own, Have I Got News For You and Taskmaster, to name a few. He's performed onstage at the Royal Albert Hall for The Royal Variety Performance and hosted Live At The Apollo.
Josh Widdicombe says: “I am utterly terrified this will end in humiliation and worried I’m going to be so bad I will ruin Christmas for the nation. Why have I done this?”
In the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special, produced by BBC Studios, each of the six couples will perform a festive routine in the hope of impressing the judges, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Anton Du Beke and Head Judge Shirley Ballas, and the voting studio audience.
The remaining Christmas line up will be announced on Strictly: It Takes Two in due course.
Strictly Come Dancing is a BBC Studios Entertainment Production for BBC One and BBC iPlayer, commissioned by Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment at the BBC. The Executive Producer for BBC Studios is Sarah James, the Christmas Series Editor is Kim Allinson and the Series Editors are Nicola Fitzgerald and Jack Gledhill and the Series Producers are Ciara Murray and Joe Turner. The Senior Commissioning Editor for the BBC is Jo Wallace.
Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Christmas Day
