Strictly signs up the Street dancers
Can West End roles help Corrie’s Kym and Will take the glitterball?
PREPARE the fake tan and sequins – the first two of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing contestants have been revealed.
And it seems they already have some dancing experience. Former Coronation Street stars Will Mellor and Kym Marsh, both 46, have previously performed on London’s West End.
The pair, unveiled on BBC Breakfast yesterday morning, will take part in the show’s 20th series starting next month.
Mellor, who played gangster Harvey Gaskell in the ITV soap, showed off a number of moves in Oh! What A Night at the Apollo Theatre in 1999.
Five years later Miss Marsh, who played Michelle Connor from 2006 to 2019, took to the stage in Saturday Night Fever.
The mother-of-four, who made her name in the pop group Hear’Say, insisted it was unlikely her previous dance experience would help her on the BBC show.
Speaking via video call from holiday, the Morning Live co-host said: ‘Dancing... always came secondary to me.’ She added: ‘It’s been a long time since I’ve been on stage... It’s going to be tricky but I’m up for the challenge.’
The actor said he wanted to do Strictly, his mother’s favourite show, to ‘create new memories’ following his father’s death from cancer in 2020. Four new professional dancers will join this series after Oti Mabuse and Aljaz Skorjanec announced their departures this year.