Strictly contestants 2024: From first blind contestant to boy band singer
Comedian Chris McCausland and reality TV star Pete Wicks are among the line-up.
The 20th series of Strictly Come Dancing is set to welcome its first blind contestant, an Olympic champion and a pop star – all hoping to lift the glitterball trophy.
Here is a look at who will be stepping on to the dancefloor for the BBC One show when it returns to TV screens this autumn:
– Chris McCausland
The comedian is the first blind contestant to compete on the show.
McCausland lost his sight because of retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary eye disease, which causes gradual degeneration of the retina.
Following the Strictly announcement, the 47-year-old joked he must be the only contestant to participate in the show who has “never watched” it before.
The Liverpool-born comedian has hosted his own show on ITV on Saturday mornings, and has also featured on panel shows such as Have I Got News For You, 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown and QI.
– JB Gill
The singer rose to fame as part of boy band JLS – alongside Marvin Humes, Aston Merrygold and Oritse Williams – after they were runners-up on The X Factor in 2008.
The group went on to secure five UK number one singles, a UK number one album and embarked on numerous UK tours.
Following the band’s initial 2013 break-up, Gill later presented the BBC’s Songs Of Praise and he returned to the group when it reunited in 2020.
The 37-year-old also previously performed the jive with professional dancer Ola Jordan to Rockin’ Robin on the Strictly Christmas special in 2012.
– Tom Dean
The British swimmer confirmed he had signed up for the dancing competition after reaching the final of the men’s 200 metres individual medley last Thursday night.
The three-time Olympic champion intends to seek out the wisdom of his Team GB teammate, Adam Peaty, who finished ninth on the BBC show in 2021.
He said: “Naturally you want to take a break after you’ve had a full Olympic cycle and the opportunity arose. I thought it would be really exciting to try something a bit different.”
Dean won the men’s 200m freestyle title at Tokyo 2020 and, last week, the 24-year-old from Bath, plus James Guy, Matt Richards and Duncan Scott made history in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay final.
In winning gold, they became the first swimming team ever to defend an Olympic relay title with the same quartet.
– Wynne Evans
Welsh opera singer Wynne Evans is best known as the moustachioed tenor from the Go Compare adverts.
Born in Carmarthen, he was also crowned Celebrity MasterChef champion for 2023 and is a presenter on BBC Radio Wales.
Throughout his 25-year career, he has had two number one classical music albums, has been a principal at many major opera houses around the world and has delivered more than 200 performances at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
– Toyah Willcox
The singer and actress fronted the new wave band Toyah in the late 1970s and early 1980s, before embarking on a solo music career.
She has also performed in numerous stage productions and featured in various films including 1978 drama Jubilee, 2015 horror comedy Aaaaaaaah! and 2019 sci-fi Invasion Planet Earth.
In 2018, Sir Paul McCartney presented Willcox with a Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts Companionship for outstanding achievement in music, drama, performance and media.
Earlier this year she played at the Glastonbury Festival with her husband, musician Robert Fripp, on the Avalon Stage.
– Dr Punam Krishan
Alongside her work as an NHS GP, Dr Krishan is the resident doctor on the BBC breakfast programme Morning Live and BBC Radio Scotland’s phone-in surgery.
She also regularly reports on health news as a broadcaster on TV, radio and national newspapers.
The TV doctor previously co-hosted a podcast titled The Medic Mum and is the author of the children’s non-fiction book How To Be A Doctor And Other Life-Saving Jobs.
– Tasha Ghouri
The Love Island star, 25, who was the ITV2 show’s first deaf contestant in 2022, has since become a campaigner for the deaf community and worked with 10 Downing Street and the Department for Education.
Ghouri, who was born deaf and uses a cochlear implant, met boyfriend Andrew Le Page on the reality dating show, and hosts the podcast Superpowers With Tasha.
The trained dancer hosted a beginners’ tap class with Strictly professional Johannes Radebe at a community hall in Cambridge, watched by the Queen, in February.
– Pete Wicks
The 35-year-old began his career in reality TV on ITVBe series The Only Way Is Essex in 2015 before moving on to other shows.
He has since appeared on Channel 4’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, where he withdrew early on medically withdrawn, E4’s Celebs Go Dating, BBC’s Celebrity MasterChef and ITV’s The Real Full Monty.
Wicks also was among the celebrities trying to help one contestant succeed in recent Channel 4 series The Underdog: Josh Must Win, and hosts a podcast called Staying Relevant with I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! winner Sam Thompson.
