Krishnan Guru-Murthy has been announced as the fourth celebrity to join this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.

The journalist, who is a main presenter on Channel 4 News, joins a lineup that includes Angela Rippon, the actor Amanda Abbington and Bad Education star Layton Williams.

The news that Guru-Murthy, 53, will star in the 21st series of the BBC One show was announced by Claudia Winkleman on BBC Radio 2.

Guru-Murthy has reported on worldwide events including the Omagh bombing of 1998, 9/11 and the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

He said he had chosen to do Strictly “for the fun. I love my job. It’s very, very privileged, I go to amazing places. I talk to amazing people, but it’s incredibly serious.”

He said: “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.”

He added: “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.

“I think we all just kind of thought, now’s the time. Just do it.

“And I have an 18-year-old daughter who thought it was a brilliant idea, and I have a 16-year-old son, who … I’m really, really sorry, I just have to apologise to him … but yeah, he’s appalled.”

Guru-Murthy’s TV career began at the age of 18 when he presented youth TV for the BBC.

The journalist fronts the Channel 4 News podcast Ways to Change the World and has interviewed celebrities including the musician Nick Cave and record producer Rick Rubin.

He has also reported for the foreign affairs series Unreported World, which is about the lives of people who live in some of the fastest-changing areas of the planet.

The 21st series of Strictly Come Dancing will be judged by Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse.

In 2022, the competition was won by the British wildlife presenter Hamza Yassin and the professional Strictly dancer Jowita Przystał.

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