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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Michael Hogan

‘I was on the loo when I got the news!’ Strictly Come Dancing’s new hosts spill their scandalous secrets

From left: Josh Widdicombe, Johannes Radebe and Emma Willis are the new presenters for Strictly Come Dancing.
Three to tango … Josh Widdicombe, Johannes Radebe and Emma Willis, the new Strictly hosts. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Johannes Radebe, one of the three new presenters of Strictly Come Dancing, can barely contain his glee. Asked where they were when they heard they’d got the job, Radebe is quick to wind up his co-hosts. “We’ll never forget that call,” he grins. “It was a weekday afternoon and I was at home, preparing for that night’s performance of [West End musical] Kinky Boots. But go on, tell the Guardian where you two were.”

“We all got the same message, asking us to jump on a Zoom,” says Emma Willis. “We didn’t know if it was good news or bad news.” Josh Widdicombe picks up the story: “I thought, ‘Surely they wouldn’t tell me to my face if I hadn’t got it? They’d just text my agent or something.’”

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