Good Morning Britain<\/a>, where Sopal revealed she has past dancing experience.<\/p>\n\u201cI dabbled a little bit. I did ballroom and Latin as a hobby and really loved it. When you’ve got a passion for something, you’re more inclined to enjoy it.”<\/p>\n
Dani Dyer<\/p>\n
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(BBC)<\/p>\n
Dyer, the daughter of EastEnders actor Danny Dyer, shot to fame after winning Love Island in 2018.<\/p>\n
She has since fronted documentaries such as Is This Anxiety?, teamed up with her father Danny for podcast Live and Let Dyers as well as the travelogue series Absolutely Dyer: Danny and Dani Do Italy. She has also made guest appearances on Celebrity Gogglebox. <\/p>\n
Dyer, who is married to West Ham footballer Jarrod Bowen, is also a published author, having released her debut book, What Would Dani Do? , in 2019.<\/p>\n
On joining Strictly, Dyer said: \u201cGetting the opportunity to be on Strictly is the second most amazing thing I\u2019ve done this year! I feel very very blessed and cannot wait to get my dancing shoes on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Appearing on The One Show on 11 August, Dyer admitted that she was most worried about \u201cpicking up the routines and performing on live telly\u201d.<\/p>\n
Alex Kingston<\/p>\n
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\u2018Strictly\u2019 contestant Alex Kingston (BBC)<\/p>\n
Alex Kingston, known for her roles in the US medical drama ER and in sci-fi series Doctor Who, said she was inspired to join the show after seeing her friend, Miranda actor Sarah Hadland, finish as a runner-up on the 2024 series.<\/p>\n
Kingston\u202fgained international fame as Dr Elizabeth Corday in ER for eight years, and won a Screen Actors Guild Award for the role. She is known to millions of Doctor Who\u202ffans as River Song, AKA The Doctor\u2019s Wife, which she has played opposite three Doctors.<\/p>\n
She has also appeared in TV shows Douglas Is Cancelled, Treason, Gilmore Girls: A Year in The Life, Boudica and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She has held numerous stage roles, as Lady Macbeth, Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over The Cuckoo\u2019s Nest and Prospero for the Royal Shakespeare Company\u2019s Tempest.<\/p>\n
While appearing on The One Show for her Strictly announcement, Kingston admitted that she was \u201cterrified\u201d.<\/p>\n
On whether she had any previous dance experience, Kingston said that her \u201chips don\u2019t lie\u201d.<\/p>\n
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink<\/p>\n
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Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is a \u2018Strictly\u2019 2025 contestant (BBC)<\/p>\n
Dutch football legend Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, who currently works as an assistant coach for the England football team alongside manager Gareth Southgate, said he signed up to Strictly for his daughters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a father of only girls and Strictly is part of our home life. I\u2019ve gotten into it, and I like the show, so let\u2019s have a go,\u201d he told The One Show.<\/p>\n
Hasselbaink has played for clubs including Leeds United, Atl\u00e9tico Madrid and Chelsea, earning a reputation as a prolific goal scorer. <\/p>\n
Since retiring, Hasselbaink has become a familiar face in football punditry in the UK, and has managed clubs including Burton Albion and Northampton Town.<\/p>\n
Hasselbaink, 53, admitted the dancing competition will bring him \u201ctotally out of my comfort zone,\u201d adding: \u201cI have no idea what to expect, I have a little bit of rhythm.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added that appearing on Strictly would be more nerve-wracking than scoring goals in front of thousands each week, saying: \u201cPlaying football in front of 70,000 people is easy, but dancing in front of people and with a partner who knows it 100 times better than you, it\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harry Aikines-Aryeetey<\/p>\n
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Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, best known as Nitro on \u2018Gladiators\u2019, will be joining \u2018Strictly\u2019 in 2025 (BBC)<\/p>\n
Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, known as Nitro to Gladiators fans, was the first star to be announced for the 2025 series. He said of the casting: \u201cI’m so excited to be part of the Strictly family this series and I’m ready to give it all I’ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n
The athlete, a former Team GB sprinter who joined Gladiators in 2023, took part in last year’s Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special alongside professional dancer Nancy Xu.<\/p>\n
Aikines-Aryeetey said the Christmas Special \u201cwas so nice I just had to do it twice\u201d.<\/p>\n
He has competed at two Olympic Games and is a three-time European champion and two-time Commonwealth champion. He also became the first athlete to win gold medals at both 100 and 200 metres at the World Youth Championships. He won the 2005 BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year, aged 17.<\/p>\n
He follows in the footsteps of his Gladiators co-star Montell Douglas, who appeared on last year\u2019s 20th anniversary series of Strictly and was eliminated in week 10.<\/p>\n
The remaining contestants will be announced throughout August. The rumoured names for this year\u2019s series<\/a> include former GB athlete Mo Farah and Sort Your Life Out presenter Stacey Solomon.<\/p>\nStrictly Come Dancing airs on BBC One from September through to December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[77,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-340379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115019860478606488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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