The popular dancer will be appearing on the judging panel this series. <\/p>
After 18 series as a Strictly Come Dancing<\/a> professional, Anton Du Beke is taking on a new role for this year\u2019s series \u2013 replacing Bruno Tonioli on the judging panel.<\/p>\n And ahead of the new series \u2013 which will commence on Saturday 18th September \u2013 the popular dancer has spoken about the show\u2019s increasing push towards diversity in recent years.<\/p>\n For the second year in a row, the show will feature a same-sex couple, while there has also been a number of contestants with disabilities in recent years, including the show\u2019s first-ever deaf contestant Rose Ayling-Ellis in the upcoming series.<\/p>\n Speaking to The Telegraph<\/a>, Du Beke welcomed the moves towards inclusion. He explained: \u201cThere are same-sex people who dance [together] in the UK. There are people with disabilities who dance in the UK. It\u2019s perfectly natural to have a representation of the UK in your line-up, and why wouldn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n He added that he believes viewers are open-minded, claiming that they are primarily just concerned with \u201chow the contestants are going to get on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s it, basically. That\u2019s the interesting part,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the other stuff is not.\u201d<\/p> And he also said that by some metrics, the show has encouraged diversity from the very beginning, pointing to the huge range of age groups that have been represented in the show over the years.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got people of all ages,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom the start, they didn\u2019t just say, \u2018Let\u2019s just get a load of 25-year-olds and put them in a dancing competition.\u2019 That wouldn\u2019t have been very interesting, or reflective of the people watching.\u201d<\/p>\n Anton Du Beke will be joined on the panel by returning judges Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse and Craig Revel Horowood in what\u2019s shaping up to be another exciting series of the ballroom extravaganza.<\/p>\n The celebrities taking part this year include comedian Robert Webb, Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Adam Peaty, McFly member Tom Fletcher, TV presenter AJ Odudu and Dragon\u2019s Den star Sara Davies.<\/p>\n The popular dancer will be appearing on the judging panel this series. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":3972,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/anton-du-beke-on-diversity-in-strictly-come-dancing-its-perfectly-natural-to-have-a-representation-of-the-uk-in-your-line-up.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/anton-du-beke-on-diversity-in-strictly-come-dancing-its-perfectly-natural-to-have-a-representation-of-the-uk-in-your-line-up-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/anton-du-beke-on-diversity-in-strictly-come-dancing-its-perfectly-natural-to-have-a-representation-of-the-uk-in-your-line-up-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/anton-du-beke-on-diversity-in-strictly-come-dancing-its-perfectly-natural-to-have-a-representation-of-the-uk-in-your-line-up.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/anton-du-beke-on-diversity-in-strictly-come-dancing-its-perfectly-natural-to-have-a-representation-of-the-uk-in-your-line-up.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/anton-du-beke-on-diversity-in-strictly-come-dancing-its-perfectly-natural-to-have-a-representation-of-the-uk-in-your-line-up.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/anton-du-beke-on-diversity-in-strictly-come-dancing-its-perfectly-natural-to-have-a-representation-of-the-uk-in-your-line-up.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The popular dancer will be appearing on the judging panel this series.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/3971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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