Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy has become the fourth celebrity to be confirmed to be taking part in Strictly Come Dancing 2023.
News that the 53-year-old will star in the 21st series of BBC One show was announced by Claudia Winkleman on BBC Radio 2.
The journalist is a main presenter on Channel 4 News and has fronted worldwide events including the Omagh bombing of 1998, 9/11 and the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Speaking about why he chose to take part in Strictly Come Dancing Guru-Murphy said it was "for the fun" of it.
He added: "I love my job. It’s very, very privileged, I go to amazing places. I talk to amazing people, but it’s incredibly serious.
🚨BREAKING NEWS: Krishnan Guru-Murthy is making headlines as our latest #Strictly signing.
— BBC Strictly ✨ (@bbcstrictly) August 5, 2023
👉 https://t.co/AJ2mGA9NiI @krishgm pic.twitter.com/dvG1PqfV7q
“It’s quite stressful. It can be quite difficult and sort of the idea of being able to have pure intravenous joy, because I’m going to be doing the news at the same time, is just irresistible.”
Discussing how his wife took the news he said: “I told my wife first obviously and I sort of said ‘what do you think? Do you think I should do it?’ and she was like ‘yes definitely do it’, which is funny because we’ve talked about it in the past and we were all like ‘no never’, but something changed this year.”
Who else is confirmed for Strictly Come Dancing 2023?
On Friday night (August 4) the first three contestants for the 2023 edition of Strictly Come Dancing were revealed.
Broadcaster Angela Rippon, actress Amanda Abington and actor Layton Williams were confirmed on The One Show.
From the original Come Dancing to #Strictly Come Dancing, broadcasting icon Angela Rippon joins our line-up! 💃
— BBC Strictly ✨ (@bbcstrictly) August 4, 2023
👉 https://t.co/8NfG4Rwvm7 pic.twitter.com/iNSvnTvCcm
Rippon will be 79 when the programme is filmed, making her the show’s oldest contestant, after Johnny Ball took part in 2012 aged 74.
Discussing why she decided to take part she said: "The serious reason behind doing it is because I’ve been advocating ever since I did a series called How To Stay Young with Chris van Tulleken where we demonstrated as part of the programme that dance is the complete full mind and body exercise for everybody, regardless of your age, but particularly for people as they get older.
“And as I’m now 78, and will be 79 when we’re actually doing the programme… it would be wonderful if I could last long enough, a few weeks, and demonstrate that even at my age that it genuinely is possible for people that are older to be able to dance, to keep fit and strong and help with their posture and balance and to feel a million dollars.”
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