Strictly celebrities on how they will bring their talents to the competition

The BBC One show will return next week with its live show

Shayne Ward and Nancy Xu who have been paired for Strictly Come Dancing. (Ray Burmiston/BBC)

Singers Shayne Ward and Toyah Willcox have explained how they will bring their own backgrounds as performers to the Strictly Come Dancing competition.

They are contestants on the BBC One show, which will return next week with its live show, along with other celebrities including Love Island star Tasha Ghouri, JLS member JB Gill, Olympian and ex-hockey player Sam Quek, Morning Live’s Dr Punam Krishan, and former footballer Paul Merson.

Their partners were revealed as follows during the launch show; Dr Punam and Gorka Marquez, Willcox and Neil Jones, Ward and Nancy Xu, Gill and Amy Dowden, Quek and Nikita Kuzmin, and Merson and Karen Hauer.

The Good Ship Murder actor Ward told the PA news agency that he has the advantage of “years of being on stage and performing, I utilise those nerves, and I turn it into energy, positive energy, and turn it into fun”.

Toyah Willcox and Neil Jones who have been paired for Strictly Come Dancing. (Ray Burmiston/BBC)

He added: “So whatever worries I’m gonna leave at the door.”

Actress Willcox, who appeared in Jubilee and Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, explained that she is used to staying “in the moment” for her work.

She added: “I love total absorption, and this is the best show to be like that in to just get lost in it.”

Willcox also says: “Well, I’m not taking it too easily, because this is a very demanding show, but it’s also an effervescent, fun show that helps everyone stretch themselves a bit further, and that’s how I’m seeing it.

“But I will come out of this with more, better performance, control, a reminder and a refresher of how a body looks good, because I’ve spent a whole year just punking out. I’m really looking at it as an incredible learning curve, as well as being very, very enjoyable.”

Hoping to draw on her background is medical professional Dr Punam, who says: “It’s going to be intense, but I definitely think that one lends itself to the other.

“So when the days are long, the days are intense, the pressure is real. I think to have escapism in the form of dance and learning something so new, like I really am, I think in the best place.”

The celebrities have already hit the dancefloor during the launch show at the weekend with their partners in a group ensemble, but will compete for the first time later this week.

Quek says: “It’s crazy. It was like an attack on the senses. I loved every minute of it.”

Her partner Kuzmin says that her journey will be a different one than the way he and Bad Education star Layton Williams approached the show last year, when they made the final.

The Celebrity Big Brother star, 26, says “competitiveness is always good, and we are all very competitive but the thing is, it’s a new year”, and “we’re exploring new things, new dances, new concepts”.

Former Arsenal player Merson suggested he was not really there for competition.

The 56-year-old pundit explained he “doesn’t want this to sound horrible, but I’ve got nothing to do” following his child going to school.

He added: “She’s gone to school, and it’s like there’s a bit of a void. And this is a real, real, absolute bonus. They said about this. And I was like, wow, yeah, yeah.”

Merson says he is “not going to lie”, he has only dipped in and out of watching Strictly.

Talking about his partner, the longest-serving pro, he added: “I couldn’t say, ‘Oh, my God, I got Karen, best thing ever happened to me’. But since I met her, I am going to say I’ve had a right result.”

However, he says being a former player he knows “to listen”, so will use that to work on his dance moves with Hauer.

The first 2024 live Strictly Come Dancing show airs at 7pm on BBC One on Saturday.