TV comedy legend set to sign up for Strictly as show’s 15th star
TV ENTERTAINER Les Dennis is set to be unveiled as the final celebrity of Strictly Come Dancing’s 2023 line-up tomorrow.
The former Family Fortunes host is in line to cap off a glittering week of reveals for the BBC show.
Les, 69, was first asked to take part in the contest when he starred in Coronation Street between 2014 and 2016, but was forced to turn it down because of his role on the soap.
But away from the soap he has a rich and varied CV, including stints in panto, so bosses think he could become a firm favourite with viewers.
Fourteen names have been unveiled and Les will make fifteen, all ready to take on one of TV’s glitziest challenges.
Elsewhere is Strictly’s oldest contestant Angela Rippon, 78, who hosted the show’s predecessor Come Dancing, as well as the likes of presenter Angela Scanlon, 39, and Casualty‘s Nigel Harman, 49.
Les is currently starring in a touring production of West End musical 42nd Street but is no stranger to reality TV.
The three-times-married star garnered public sympathy when his marriage to Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden broke down after she cheated on him with Men Behaving Badly actor Neil Morrissey.
During the split in 2002, Dennis appeared on Celebrity Big Brother, but experienced what he later described as ‘an emotional crisis on live television’ which impacted offers of work.
In 2005 he met now wife Claire Nicholson, who is 18 years his junior, and they are parents to daughter, Eleanor Grace, 15, and son, Thomas Christopher, 12.