Given just how many professionals have come and gone through the doors of Strictly Come Dancing’s iconic ballroom over the last two decades, it’s never been more difficult for one to really break through as a stand-out star.
Still, in the last five years, Vito Coppola has managed to make his mark and emerge as a real fan-favourite among Strictly viewers. After just two seasons in the cast, Vito managed what some of the show’s longest-serving pros never achieved, by lifting the coveted Glitterball Trophy. In that time, he’s also made the live final on an additional two occasions, performed in some of the most popular Strictly routines in recent memory and is the current reigning Christmas champion, thanks to his work in last year’s festive special.
You can put his success and popularity down to a few factors. Yes, he’s proficient in all the usual hallmarks we associate with Strictly – the high-energy performances, the imaginative choreography, the low-cut shirts. But the secret ingredient for Vito, truly, is his personality.
The Italian star has become synonymous with his upbeat attitude, his apparent lack of filter and the way he’s never afraid to lean into his silly side – and this is exactly the Vito that greets us when we meet him just weeks before the new series of Strictly gets underway.
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“Sometimes people ask me, ‘are you really like that?’” he tells HuffPost UK. “Well, I don’t know any other way to be. I’m very transparent, I’m very honest, I’m a very open book – what you see is what you get.”
Vito Coppola has now been part of the Strictly Come Dancing family since 2022
As for whether the sunny version of his character we see on TV is ever hard to live up to, he insists: “If you are yourself, and you are true to yourself, it’s not difficult, because you’re being yourself, you don’t have to pretend to be someone you’re not.
“So I am as I am, as you see me.”
“Actually sometimes, I even have to be a bit contained,” Vito admits. “I can be a bit, you know, very like an excited puppy. So, sometimes, I don’t know, maybe it can be a bit too much’.
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“You know how here [in the UK], people say ‘hello’ with a five-feet distance? I do not respect the five-foot distance at all,” he jokes. “I come towards you and I hug you, and I jump on you and I lift you up.”
What’s interesting is how much the fully realised version of Vito that fans have grown to know and love is somewhat at odds with the dancer Strictly introduced back in July 2022.
He recalls: “When I first came here, to the UK, I had a few interviews. At the time, there were other Italians on the show, and people always said to me, ‘are you going to be the new Italian stallion?’. I was like, ‘nah, I am not an Italian stallion. I don’t want to be an Italian stallion. I am more like a pony. I want to be a pony!’.”
When it comes to representing Italy on the dance floor, he says he’d rather do that by bringing “the sun of the Amalfi Coast, where I come from”.
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“If I can represent my personality, imagine the sun,” he enthuses. “I love smiles, I love high energy, you know? I’m not going to be too serious.”
For Vito, venturing into dance was always going to be an inevitability.
Born and raised in Eboli, Salerno, he grew up in a family of dancers.
“My auntie is a dance teacher, my uncle is a dance teacher, my grandparents loved to dance,” he explains, while his father was a competitive “acrobatic rock and roll dancer”.
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“I’ve seen videos, and he used to flip these girls that he was dancing with very, very high,” he beams. “You know sometimes you see cheerleaders, they literally push them, and they throw them up in the air, they spin and they come back? It was like that, but a one-to-one couple partnership.”
By the age of six, he was already “always dancing, at home and around”.
“So, at some point, they said, ‘Do you want to do this properly?’,” he explains. “And I was like, ‘OK, why not?’.”
He quickly caught the dance bug, and before long, he was already competing, with ballroom and Latin having been his passion from those days… “I probably didn’t even know or understand or realise that I was actually competing – I was like six or seven,” he says. “But I loved it.
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“From there, it just went more and more and more, and it became part of my daily life. Rehearsals, competitions at the weekend… and dance just became my entire life.”
Vito Coppola pictured in the Good Morning Britain studio last year
Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock
While Vito’s family always encouraged his passion for dance, he admits that, growing up in Italy, it wasn’t always something that his peers understood.
“I’m not going to lie… of course, you know, in Italy, football is a big thing?” he notes.
“So, if you are a dancer, it’s like, ’of course, he cannot come to play with us, guys, because he has to go to dancing’. So, they used to make sort of double-meaning jokes of it.”
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Fortunately, feeling left out was never something he particularly worried about.
“I have always been a very determined kid. I always know that when I want to do something, I am going for it, no matter what. So, I was not really that worried,” he insists. “I never said, ‘oh my god I should go and play football instead of dancing’. It was more like, ‘it’s fine, I just do what I like’.”
He adds: “It’s difficult sometimes to explain this, but I didn’t really need to go to play football with anyone, because I was so happy.”
Besides, he says, he was never lonely because he was always surrounded by family.
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“You dance at your dad’s dance school, your mum’s there as well, your little brother’s there, your cousins are there too,” he remembers of this time.
“That’s why sometimes I didn’t have many friends in a certain way, besides my schoolmates, because I didn’t need it. We are a big, big family. My family were my friends.”
As his professional dance career has progressed into adulthood, Vito says this is something he’s discussed with many of his peers “especially with other male dancers”.
Vito Coppola performing with his fellow Strictly Come Dancing pros last year
“I always encourage [people] to do what they feel is right for them,” he shares. “I say like, ‘you know in your heart if you’re doing something that brings you joy and happiness’.
“Sometimes I [meet] other dancers [who] did leave experience of dancing [feeling] differently [to me] – they felt a bit not part of a group or excluded.
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“And I say, like, ‘listen, you are where you are today because you did choose yourself – instead of what you told your friends wanted to do or wanting to be just to be part of a group – don’t worry’.”
“It’s a bit like you say, stop trying to chase and catch the butterflies,” he adds. “If you grow your own beautiful garden, and the flowers will blossom, butterflies will come to you. And it has happened!”
Over the course of his competitive dancing career, Vito became an 11-time Latin dancing champion in his native Italy, as well as being a three-time world championship finalist, and winning the European Cup.
He then made the move to TV, serving as a pro on Italy’s Dancing With The Stars, which he won his first season of, at which point Strictly came calling.
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By the time he joined the cast of one of Britain’s most-watched Saturday night shows, Vito’s dancing had already taken him around the world, but he never anticipated that he’d find himself 1,000 miles from home, performing for millions of people on live Saturday night TV.
“I would have never, ever imagined that I’d be living in the UK – and feeling so welcomed by people here in the UK,” he reveals. “If you would have asked me before, I would have said, ‘no, no, no, I’m going to stay in Italy, always’. Because, of course, I love my Italy.”
However, he acknowledges that something felt different when he first arrived in London.
Vito Coppola won his second season of Strictly Come Dancing, where he was paired with former Coronation Street star Ellie Leach
“I’ve always been travelling around the world so much because of competitions, but I never felt I belonged anywhere specifically,” he explains. “So, in my mind, it was always like, ‘you travel, but you always come back home’. And in the UK, it’s been the very first time in my life that I went somewhere that was not Italy, and I felt I could actually settle here. I can actually belong here.”
Admittedly, he wasn’t always sure quite how he’d go down with the British public.
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“Before coming to the UK, a part of me was a bit, ‘I don’t know what to expect, maybe people will not like me or find me too extra, too much, too full-on’,” he says. “Because I am!
“My family said to me, ‘just be yourself, and you will see that we love you, and because we love you, other people will love you’. So, I said, ‘OK, I come here without expectation, this is me’.”
“At the beginning, it was probably not the version of the classic Italian that they were used to,” he continues, but says that the UK embraced him with a “feeling of belonging” that he hadn’t been expecting.
“I like to look people in the eyes, always. I don’t kind of look in empty space, I like to always find energy from people and give people energy,” he says. “When I came to the UK, I remember, I was walking on Oxford Street, and when I was looking at people, don’t ask me why, they were just all smiling. They didn’t know me, I had just arrived, I was not even announced as a Strictly pro, so there was no way they could have [known who I was].”
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Besides this “feeling of being so welcomed since the very beginning”, he credits “the people”, “the culture” and fans’ love of dance as being some of the factors that have led to him embracing the UK during his time on Strictly.
Vito Coppola has claimed he was taken aback by how welcomed he felt when he joined the cast of Strictly Come Dancing
But, of course, anyone who’s lived in the UK for a prolonged period will tell you that people aren’t always the friendliest – and this is something Vito also has first-hand experience of.
“It depends,” he claims. “Of course, there are people who are a bit more reserved. In the building where I live, my neighbour, I keep knocking on the door, but they don’t open it. I cannot meet my neighbour for some reason! I can hear they are there inside, behind the door, and probably they see me from the little [peephole], but they don’t [answer]… so, I don’t know who my neighbours are!”
Even this won’t deter the eternal optimist, though.
“It’s fine, I don’t give up,” he states. “I’m going to bring them some food, and say, ‘listen, this is for you, this is my treat, I am your neighbour, I’m going to leave that in front of the door, and whenever, if you want, I am just one wall away’.”
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Indeed, for Vito – a former Celebrity MasterChef champion – “dance and food” are the two pillars on which some of his fondest memories are built.
For his latest venture, it’s the latter that he’s leaning into, for a collaboration with a brand he says is so close to him he “never would have imagined” that it could one day come to fruition.
Vito has teamed up with the “irresistibly Italian” dessert brand Balconi for a campaign, having already been a lifelong fan of the tasty treats.
“I’ve been eating Balconi cakes with my brother since we were little,” he shares. “Every morning, we used to wake up, we had breakfast with a glass of milk, and Balconi cakes. And at bedtime, we used to have Balconi cakes as a little treat before going to sleep.”
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Vito Coppola has teamed up with Balconi as part of a new campaign
Because of this, he says his brother – himself a former-competitive-dancer-turned-accountant – was “the first person I called when I had the possibility to do this collaboration”, which he says represents a “circle that goes completely perfectly in alignment”.
“Balconi has been part of our family – but they don’t know it – since we were little,” he notes. “We were eating so many Balconi cakes that my father, at some point, started to hide them in the house… and it became a kind of hide-and-seek game, that during the years. became a thing!
“Even today, when I am at home, before going to bed, I have my FaceTime with my brother, Jonathan, and we keep having our Balconi treats with our glass of milk.”
Of course, Vito will next be seen in the long-awaited 24th series of Strictly Come Dancing, which represents a year of change for the series, with several new arrivals to the ballroom – not least a trio of new hosts.
“I’ve been lucky because Strictly has been a family to me,” he says of the show. “They kept me in their bubble, and they always looked after me – which they do with every pro, but I can only speak for myself.
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“I felt that I arrived here and I was already at home. And I don’t take for granted that feeling.”
Vito Coppola proudly teams up with the irresistibly Italian Balconi cake brand – available in all major retailers now (RRP from £1.75).
The real-life double murder trial is one of the most infamous cases in history – and has fascinated people since Victorian times.
Once again, Monster’s new cast is filled with frequent collaborators of Ryan Murphy’s, as well as new famous faces and, naturally, a couple of nepo babies.
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If you’ve been watching Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story and wondering where you recognise the new cast from, here’s a quick guide to their past work…
Besides that, she has also appeared in the Oscar-nominated If I Had Legs I’d Kick You as one of Linda’s patients, and took on a leading role in Act One, an indie drama which debuted at Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year.
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Like many of Ryan’s more recent collaborators, Ella has existing connections in the entertainment industry – her parents are Hollywood royalty, Annette Bening and Warren Beatty.
The German-Luxembourg actor’s breakout role to English-speaking audiences came in 2017, when she played Alma alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread.
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Her other film credits include the romance Bergman Island alongside Tim Roth, the Western The Dead Don’t Hurt with Viggo Mortensen and the family drama Hot Milk, which also starred Emma Mackey and Fiona Shaw.
On television, Vicky also played Simone Strasser in the recent Sky One sequel of Das Boot.
Rebecca Hall
Rebecca Hall in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige
Stephen Vaughan/Touchstone/Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock
The British actor is better known for her roles on the big screen, making her film debut in 2006’s Starter For Ten, which she followed with an appearance in Christopher Nolan’sThe Prestige, alongside Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale and taking on one of the title roles in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe.
While she is best recognised for indie films like the biopic Christine and last year’s Ben Whishaw-led Peter Hujar’s Day, she has some blockbusters under her belt, too, playing scientists in both Iron Man 3 and the recent Godzilla movies.
As for her TV work, Rebecca starred in the BBC miniseries The Listeners and appeared as the paediatric oncologist in episode six of the Seth Rogen comedy, The Studio.
Rebecca has had a busy 2026 so far. As well as Monster and The Beauty, she has appeared in the sci-fi The End Of It, the romantic drama The Man I Love and the action horror Onslaught, alongside her Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire co-star Dan Stevens.
She recently joined the world of Ryan Murphy, playing Bestie, Hailey and the casting chairwoman in various different episodes of American Horror Stories.
Jessica also appeared in the HBO series, Dune: Prophecy as the younger version of Emily Watson’s Valya Harkonnen
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For her film work, she received a British Independent Film Award nomination for her performance in 2018’s Scarborough, and appeared alongside Monster’s Charlie Hunnam in the boxing drama Jungleland.
Outside of Ryan Murphy’s work, she followed in her late motherCarrie Fisher‘s footsteps when she was cast in a minor role in the Star Wars series as Lieutenant Kaydel Ko Connix.
You may recognise Joey Pollari for his performance as Eric Tanner in the second series of American Crime, or for his role as one of Simon’s love interests in the 2018 teen rom-com Love Simon.
Outside of the Murphy-verse projects, Joey played Will McKenzie in the failed American version of The Inbetweeners and an air force drone operator in seasons six and seven of SEAL Team, as well as sharing the screen with Colin Farrell in the Apple TV+ drama Sugar.
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Oliver Spenceman
Oliver Spenceman in Monster: The Ed Gein Story
The Lizzie Borden Story marks the second Monster series Oliver Spenceman has been involved in, after playing a young Tobe in the last season, one of the child actor’s many credits.
Oliver previously made a one-episode appearance in Tiny Beauty Things as a younger version of Nick Stahl’s Lucas, appeared in Apple TV+ comedy Loot and had an uncredited role as a turtleneck-wearing student in the Oscar-nominated The Holdovers.
Sarah Paulson
Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark in the first season of American Crime Story
The Emmy winner has become Ryan Murphy’s most frequent collaborators ever since playing medium Billie Dean Howard in the first iteration of American Horror Story, going on to have leading roles in every series until 2021’s Double Feature.
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In 2016, Sarah earned an Emmy and Golden Globe award for her role as real-life prosecutor Marcia Clark in The People vs. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, returning to the drama for its third season, Impeachment, in which she starred as Linda Tripp .
In her film career, Sarah has had supporting roles in the Oscar-nominated 12 Years A Slave as the plantation owner’s wife, Carol’s former lover in the Cate Blanchett movie of the same name and Tom Hank’s wife Tony in Spielberg’s political biopic The Post.
She paired up once more with Cate for a leading role in Ocean’s 8, which co-starred her Bird Box castmate Sandra Bullock.
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Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is out on Netflix now
Sir Tom Jones has been on The Voice UK from the very beginning when it debuted on ITV in 2012.
22:16, 19 Sep 2026Updated 22:16, 19 Sep 2026
The Voice UK fans are branding ITV bosses’ decision to “fire” Sir Tom Jones once again as a “stupid decision” after his “amazing” performance this evening.
It was confirmed earlier this year that Welsh legend Sir Tom Jones would no longer be a coach on ITV’s The Voice UK from next year and will instead be replaced by former Girls Aloud star Cheryl.
The 86-year-old icon publicly shared his disappointment at the decision and said that he wasn’t “thrilled” either at being offered a reduced role on the show after being forced to leave the comfort of his big red chair.
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He shared on social media: “The reason given is because of a financial difficulty with insurance.”
“They now say in the press they wanted to ‘refresh’ the show, and with a new coaching line-up there wouldn’t be a chair for me.”
Support for Sir Tom has once again been reignited this evening after Will.i.am questioned what was the moment that the singer realised that he “made it” in the music industry.
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Sir Tom recalled: “It’s Not Unusual I did in 1964 so that was 61 years ago”, Tom said, reports the Mirror.
“My band and myself were driving back to London and It’s Not Unusual came out on the Friday but I didn’t know until I picked up the Sunday paper in a transport cafe, and there it was, It’s Not Unusual, number 10.
“There were truck drivers there right and I was like ‘You see this!’ And they were like ‘yeah, yeah, yeah yeah!’”
“And just seeing my name at number 10 I thought ‘This is it. It was a tremendous feeling.’”
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The anecdote prompted the studio audience to request he perform It’s Not Unusual, which Sir Tom gladly did, with numerous viewers impressed by his rendition.
This was the moment that pushed fans to once again flock to X to express their dismay at Sir Tom being forced to leave The Voice UK next year.
“To the powers that be at The Voice UK this is the legend you dropped!”, one person angrily posted.
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Another concurred: “ITV making a very big mistake getting rid of Sir Tom Jones, idiots.”
Another viewer echoed: “It was such a huge mistake axing Tom Jones”, while a further commenter wrote: “Still can’t believe they fired THE Tom Jones. He’s amazing.”
A fellow viewer added: “Don’t care what anyone says Sir Tom Jones has still got it! Silliest move to let this frigging legend go..shame on you producers who make stupid decisions on The Voice UK.”
The Voice UK continues every Saturday on ITV and ITVX
Just one player remains from Liverpool’s starting XI against Fulham on Saturday and that is Ronald Araujo. Virgil van Dijk and Florian Wirtz are given the night off for the home side.
Roberto De Zerbi makes eight changes from Tottenham’s draw against Everton, with Archie Gray, Rodrigo Bentancur and Omar Marmoush the three players to remain in the starting XI.
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Tottenham: Dubravka; Gray, Tosin, Senesi, Udogie; Bentancur, Bergvall; Kudus, Gallagher, Tel; Marmoush. Substitutes: Kinsky, Robertson, Van Hecke, Maddison, Savio, Fernandes, Solanke, Davies, Van de Ven.
Manchester Airport confirmed that a runway had been shut for a short period to allow maintenance work to take place, with delays continuing into the evening for a number of arriving and departing flights.
A spokesperson for the airport said: “One of our runways closed for a short period today to allow routine maintenance to take place.”
Several departures were affected, including a Ryanair service to Cork, which was delayed by almost two hours.
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A larger number of arrivals were also running behind schedule, with delays affecting flights from destinations including Cairo, Palma, Amsterdam, Belfast, Paris, Munich, Alicante, Cologne and Copenhagen.
One of the most severely affected services was an EasyJet flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle, which was expected to arrive around two hours later than scheduled.
Despite the disruption on Saturday evening, flights scheduled to depart on Sunday morning were not showing delays at the time of the latest update.
The delays come just weeks after separate technical issues caused significant disruption for passengers travelling through the airport.
A disjointed Arsenal were never at the races but for Brighton, this result– just days after a brilliant Carabao Cup comeback win at Manchester United in the Carabao Cup – catapults them up to third in the Premier League table table, just two points off the Gunners. Follow Brighton vs Arsenal back below with Standard Sport’s dedicated match blog, featuring expert insight and analysis from Matt Verri at the Amex Stadium.
Strictly Come Dancing fans have expressed how they really feel about Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman’s departure tonight.
Strictly Come Dancing 2026 trailer
A Strictly Come Dancing star has revealed what it’s really like to take over from its legendary hosts.
Strictly Come Dancing 2026 is here and there’s been some major changes with five new professional dancers and a trio of new presenters taking over hosting duties.
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman decided it was time to leave the iconic series last year which meant that the BBC had to find their replacements.
And in an unexpected announcement, three stars were confirmed for the job: Emma Willis, Johannes Radebe and Josh Widdicombe.
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During a conversation at this evening’s launch show, the presenters shared how they’ve really been feeling about taking over.
Turning her attention to actor Lawrence Robb, Emma Willis said: “Lawrence there’s a very strong pedigree that comes from Emmerdale on this show.
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“If I said Kelvin Fletcher, Lewis Cope, Lawrence Robb, how do you feel?”
“Well that’s good ain’t it? That’s lovely, that’s a lovely little ring to that”, Robb replied.
He then turned the focus onto the three new hosts, remarking: “They are very, very big and large shoes to fill. I guess I can empathise with you guys with filling Claudia and Tess I suppose.”
Emma, Johannes and Josh laughed at the comment before she jokingly replied: “Yes literally! Our smiles are on but inside we’re like ducks under water!”
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There have been mixed reviews on the new Strictly presenters but some have already shared that they “miss” Tess and Claudia.
A fan said: “When the three hosts came out on stage at the start, I did feel sad, I really miss Tess and Claudia.
“It is going to take me a few weeks to get over their absence from the show.”
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Someone else wrote: “Bring back Tess and Claudia. I’m bored already”, as a third posted: “Strictly have bagged one of the best presenters, Emma Willis. It’s just so odd not having Claudia and Tess.”
Meanwhile, a more sympathetic fan wrote: “Must be very hard taking over from Tess and Claudia..
“Come on guys, it’s the first week. They’re all doing great and will find their niche.”
Strictly Come Dancing continues every Saturday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer
Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe presented the pre-recorded launch programme on Saturday (September 19) evening, which saw 15 celebrities matched with a professional dancing partner.
In an unprecedented move for Strictly, the famous participants discovered their partners through a completely new format never previously used on the programme.
The celebrities and professional dancers were divided into groups, with each group learning a specific routine before being paired up “like speed dating”.
As the music began, they danced while the hosts regularly called out “change partners” and they would switch. The sequence continued until the presenters halted the music and ultimately informed them they would be performing together, reports the Daily Star.
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Viewers expressed their delight after discovering House of the Dragon actor Bethany Antonia has been matched with professional dancer Nancy Xu, and quickly took to social media to share their enthusiasm.
Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, one viewer posted: “Bethany and Nancy same sex partnership we wonnn.” Another commented: “I need Bethany and Nancy to be good omg #Strictly.”
A third viewer remarked: “I love Bethany and Nancy together they are so precious #strictly.” Someone else concurred: “Nancy and Bethany have my heart #strictly.”
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A fifth added: “I had a feeling they’d pair Bethany and Nancy together the vibe was right #strictly.”
Upon discovering they would be partnered together, Bethany said: “I just feel so happy. We just bonded instantly like day one. We weren’t supposed to have a preference but I was like I kinda do.”
Nancy said: “I’m trying to control myself. I’m shaking still and something has gonne but the excitement is here and I cannot wait for this partnership. I am just so happy.”
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There have been just five same-sex celebrity and professional pairings in Strictly’s history. Former boxer Nicola Adams and professional Katya Jones became the inaugural same-sex couple but were forced to withdraw after four weeks when the former tested positive for Covid.
12 months later, Johannes Radebe and celebrity chef John Whaite became the first same-sex duo to reach the final, while comedian Jayde Adams and dancer Karen Hauer were also matched in 2022.
In 2023, all-male duo Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin progressed to the final, and while 2024 featured no same-sex couples, 2025 saw RuPaul Drag Race UK star La Voix partnered with Aljaž Škorjanec, though they weren’t formally classified as a same-sex partnership because she performed as a female character alongside a male professional.
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The pair followed the programme’s traditional mixed-sex ballroom framework rather than a same-sex arrangement, and La Voix indicated in interviews that she wished to participate entirely as her female comedy character.
Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday, September 26 at 6.15pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer
Greater Manchester Police said Lillia, who had been missing since Friday, September 11, was found in the city centre.
The force thanked members of the public who shared appeals to help trace the teenager.
In an update issued on Saturday, police said: “Thank you to everyone who shared our missing appeal for 13-year-old Lillia, who has been missing since Friday 11 September 2026.
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“We can confirm that she has been found safe and well in the city centre.
“She is currently with our officers, and her next-of-kin have been informed of this update.
“We will release more information in due course.”
Police had previously appealed for information after concerns were raised for Lillia’s welfare following her disappearance.
Before the start of the 2026 series, a lot of longtime viewers had their doubts about the new presenters, as they wondered how the show would work with three personalities fronting the programme.
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Some naysayers weren’t sure whether Josh would be a good fit given his career as a stand-up comedian, whereas Emma has presented shows like Big Brother and The Voice UK, and Johannes has been a part of Strictly as a professional dancer since 2018.
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However, plenty of other people defended him, excited to see how he’d bring his dry wit to the ballroom – and now, after the first episode of the season, the verdicts are flying in from fans on social media.
A new era of the BBC series begins (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)
Josh, Emma and Johannes seemed overjoyed to start their new roles (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)
What do you think of Emma, Johannes and Josh hosting Strictly?
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Writing on X, one Strictly fan called Owen said that Emma was ‘outshining the other two so much’.
Several people claimed that ‘three’s a crowd’, while Ryan admitted his believe that Josh was ‘out of place’, adding: ‘I get we can have comic relief but I think Emma & Johannes can do that too 🤷🏼♂️.’
‘3 presenters just seems unnecessary, don’t see the point of it,’ Suzi wrote, while Sue added: ‘The intro was far too long and as for presenters, two’s company three’s a crowd!’
Despite a lot of dubious reactions about the set-up of a trio, and disbelief that the new presenters are the right fit, others were a lot more positive about how Josh, Johannes and Emma handled their first episode.
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The Strictly pairings have been confirmed, including Dianne Buswell and Will Best (far right) (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)
Josh competed on the Strictly Christmas special with Karen Hauer in 2024 (Picture: BBC Studios/Guy Levy)
‘Josh is doing well. And I was sceptical. This year just feels so fresh and new. Loving it,’ Olivia said.
‘I’m going to be controversial here…. I like Emma, JoJo and Josh!’ wrote Mrs Brightside, while Beverly stated: ‘I wanted to hate the new #Strictly but here I am digging it! Even Josh!’
Another fan called Helen said that she was enjoying the return of Strictly so much that she ‘might be back onboard for this season’, implying that she had been considering giving it a miss.
JD added: ‘I really hope people give things chance to bed in and settle. It’s the launch show, nerves are huge and all launches are different to the main show. Just give them all time!’
Who are the Strictly couples for the 2026 series?
The full line-up of celebrities and their pro dancer partners are:
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Lacey Turner and Vito Coppola
Graeme Hall and Lauren Oakley
Jowita Przystal and Lawrence Robb
Will Best and Dianne Buswell
Shaun Wright-Phillips and Alexis Warr
Melanie Walters and Aljaz Skorjanec
Mark Karmalita and Tabby Stoecker,
Julian Caillon and Dame Sarah Storey
Maddie Ingoldsby and Cach Mercer
Chris Appleton and Amy Dowden
John Nellis and Katya Jones
Carlos Gu and Jaime Winstone
Nikita Kuzmin and Dani Dyer
Kai Widdrington and Delta Goodrem
Nancy Xu and Bethany Antonia
Emma, Johannes and Josh were announced as the new presenters of Strictly in May after months of anticipation.
Reacting to their newly-appointed roles, Emma said at the time that she’d been a ‘huge fan’ of the show for years.
‘It’s impossible to fill the shoes that Tess and Claudia have left behind – two wonderful, iconic women who have been the beating heart of Strictly for so long. I can only hope that we are able to help to steer the ship as beautifully as they have, into this new chapter.’ she said.
Johannes felt ‘deeply honoured’ by his new position, saying that Strictly has ‘always stood for joy, heart and togetherness’.
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Josh recalled competing in the 2024 Christmas special, expressing that he was ‘giddy with excitement, honoured and a little overawed’.
Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday night on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Earl Spencer last night accused King Charles of ‘gaslighting’ him in a dramatic escalation of their furious row over Princess Diana.
Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday, the earl denied that he wrote his bombshell memoir because he was motivated by money and said his late sister would be ‘cheering from the rafters’ at his book.
Earl Spencer’s incendiary claim that – days after Diana’s 1997 death – the then Prince Charles told him: ‘Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough’ provoked a highly unusual response from the Palace.
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The Prince of Wales’s alleged comment was made during a blistering row with the earl over whether Princes William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, should walk in their mother’s funeral procession.
But in a statement, a Palace spokesman last week questioned the veracity of Earl Spencer’s explosive account and said that fraternal grief can ‘cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory‘.
Now, in his first newspaper comments since the war of words erupted, Earl Spencer, 62, has hit back, describing the Palace’s statement as gaslighting, a form of psychological abuse where the victim is manipulated into questioning what they know to be true.
Earl Spencer has accused King Charles of ‘gaslighting’ him over the suggestion Lady Diana’s brother’s memoir is ‘clouded by grief’
He has claimed that in the days after Diana’s death, the then Prince Charles told him ‘we’ll forget her soon enough’
Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed in Saint Tropez, France on August 22, 1997 – just days before they died
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‘It is not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the King,’ he said.
‘It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I’d lied without the King being able to deny what I’d said.
‘I also thought it was a rather poor imitation of the ‘recollections may vary’ quote, which was a much more elegant way of putting things, but in these circumstances entirely out of place.’
Writing in today’s MoS, the Mail’s Richard Kay – one of Diana’s most trusted confidants – recalls Earl Spencer telling him, in the week before the Princess’s funeral, that there had been a ‘furious row’ and that Prince Charles had been ‘utterly pathetic’.
Earl Spencer last night said: ‘I am a historian – I appreciate that a lot of the public don’t know that – and my primary responsibility as a historian is to tell the truth.
‘My motivation in this book has been to tell the truth about Diana and all she had to put up with in her public life through the eyes of the brother who grew up with her.
‘Along the way I’ve been able to deal with various myths that have grown up which needed to be dealt with once and for all.
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King Charles III gives a speech during a meeting for leaders from the AI sector
Lord Charles Spencer in the library of his ancestral home, Althorp Hall, Northamptonshire
‘I’m in my sixties, neither of my parents made it to 70 and I wanted to do this while I could.’
Some royal commentators have claimed the earl is ‘cashing in’ on his late sister’s memory.
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Charles Spencer, however, strenuously denied that his motivations in publishing the book are financial.
‘Money has never even been the remotest consideration in my choosing to write my tribute to Diana,’ he said.
‘Diana always had an expression which is don’t judge others by yourselves – and I think this applies to anyone who accuses me of something so ridiculous.’
Earl Spencer famously delivered a raw and defiant eulogy at his sister’s funeral, which was broadcast to a worldwide audience of 2.5 billion.
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In one of the most poignant passages of his book, the earl reveals how he read the speech to Diana’s coffin in Chapel Royal, a private chapel at St James’s Palace, where his sister’s body lay for five days before the funeral.
He told the MoS that he believes his late sister would have both ‘applauded’ those words and been ‘fully behind’ his book.
SO WHAT IS GASLIGHTING?
Gaslighting involves tricking someone into questioning something they know to be true.
The phrase can be traced to the 1938 stage thriller Gas Light, by British author Patrick Hamilton, which was adapted into the 1944 film Gaslight starring Ingrid Bergman as a woman whose controlling husband makes trips into the attic to search for hidden jewellery, igniting a gaslight and causing lights elsewhere in the house to dim.
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The wife notices the dimming lights but the husband convinces her she is wrong and is instead losing her mind.
‘At the end of the day, people are missing a fundamental point, which is that Diana was my sister and I have every right to write about my own sister.
‘I can tell you that Diana would be cheering from the rafters at this book, I have no doubt about that.
‘She loved it when we stuck up for one another and I really felt it when I read my eulogy to her privately in a chapel before her funeral.
‘I sensed so strongly that day that she would have applauded those words and I feel equally strongly today that she would be fully behind this book.’
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The MoS can today reveal that, in his memoir, the earl voices his regret at removing Diana’s boyfriend Dodi Fayed’s name from his eulogy.
He also details an extraordinary conversation with Prince Charles at his father John Spencer’s funeral, in which he claims the future king told him he was ‘so lucky’ to be inheriting his family’s estate while he was in his twenties.
Earl Spencer claims that during the exchange at his family seat at Althorp, Prince Charles stamped his foot like a ‘petulant’ child.
Meanwhile, a string of establishment figures have leapt to the King’s defence.
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Veteran BBC broadcaster David Dimbleby yesterday described the earl as ‘a curious fellow’ who he said has questions to answer over ‘the extent to which he is a genuine defender’ of Diana.
The broadcaster, who covered major royal events for decades, questioned Earl Spencer’s actions in 1995 when rogue BBC reporter Martin Bashir showed him forged bank statements in a bid to persuade him that people close to Diana were being paid to spy on her.
Dimbleby said: ‘He [Earl Spencer] didn’t go to the police, he didn’t go to the prime minister, he showed it to Diana and said ‘give an interview to BBC Panorama‘… and Diana at her most paranoid at that point accepted it.
‘So I think Charles [Spencer] has got some questions to answer himself… about the extent to which he is a genuine defender.’
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Former Tory MP Rory Stewart, who tutored Prince Harry and Prince William, told the BBC that he ‘simply cannot believe’ that the King said what Spencer claims.
‘It’s just not his character, it’s not his personality. Never ever have I heard him say anything like that.’
In a statement released last Wednesday, the Palace said: ‘While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.’
The Palace has declined to comment on further claims in the memoir.
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