Angela Rippon to be oldest Strictly Come Dancing contestant | Strictly Come Dancing

Angela Rippon is to compete in the upcoming season of Strictly Come Dancing becoming the oldest competitor on the BBC primetime show at the age of 79.

The actor Amanda Abbington and Bad Education star Layton Williams have also been announced as the first contestants for the 21st series of the dancing competition this autumn.

Rippon’s career spans more than 50 years, during which she became the first regular female news anchor on the BBC in 1975.

The Rip off Britain presenter was the host of Come Dancing, the forerunner to Strictly, for three years from 1988.

She also danced on The Morecambe & Wise Christmas special in 1976 with Eric and Ernie to the tune of A You’re Adorable (The Alphabet Song).

Appearing on The One Show on Friday evening, Rippon revealed the first thing she asked the BBC show when they approached her was “why didn’t they ask me 10 years ago”.

She added: “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 even at my age that it is 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.”

Johnny Ball was previously the oldest contestant when he took part in 2012 aged 74.

Meanwhile some Twitter users pointed out that Williams already has a dancing pedigree.

The 28-year-old rose to fame as a child playing the title role in Billy Elliot the Musical in the West End and from 2019 he played the title character in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.

Williams, who is best known for playing Stephen Carmichael in the sitcom Bad Education, has also performed in stage shows including Thriller Live, Rent, Hairspray and New Adventures.

The actor told The One Show he is ready to go on a “rollercoaster journey with the cast” and “slay the ballroom floor”.

Williams added he had requested to be paired with a male professional dancer as he revealed that he used to be jealous of his female classmates getting “thrown around” when he was at college.

Abbington’s acting credits include playing Mary Morstan in Sherlock alongside her former long-term partner Martin Freeman with whom she has two children.

She joked on The One Show that the main reason she wanted to appear on Strictly was to embarrass her teenage children.

Abbington added: “I’m actually really shy and self-conscious so this will be a great opportunity for me to overcome those things.”

Last year, the actor disclosed her escapologist fiance Jonathan Goodwin had been paralysed after a stunt went wrong.

Goodwin was attempting to escape from a straitjacket while being hung upside down 30ft in the air between two suspended cars in October 2021. The vehicles were released too early, which caused him to be crushed between them as they caught fire.