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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Tina Campbell

Les Dennis admits he accidentally leaked Strictly stint online a week before it was announced

Les Dennis has revealed he accidentally leaked that he was taking part in Strictly Come Dancing a week before it was announced in an awkward social media blunder.

The TV veteran, 69, was confirmed as the 13th and final celebrity in this year’s series on Friday, but some of his eagle-eyed online followers may have already had a heads up.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain after the secret was officially out, he recalled how he actually accidentally leaked he would be on Strictly more than a week ago when he tweeted a long playlist on micro-blogging site X, formerly known as Twitter.

The one-time Family Fortunes host said that the list had been intended for bosses of the BBC dance competition and was titled “Strictly by Les Dennis”.

A screenshot of Les Dennis’ tweet accidentally revealing he was doing Strictly (Twitter / Les Dennis)

Attributing the error to his “fat fingers”, he says he quickly deleted all trace of the post, that is until Good Morning Breakfast decidied to share a screenshot.

He explained: “What happened was, the Strictly producers asked me to send a playlist of songs you might like. I’m totally hopeless with social media and all that so my daughter put it together for me, so I could send it to my agent by email but I must have done a fat finger error and put it on Twitter instead.”

Dennis also went on to tell how he had planned to slow down after a knee operation, but when the opportunity to do Strictly came along he couldn’t pass it up.

He added: “I’m thrilled to be doing this iconic wonderful show as I approach my 70th birthday! In my career I’ve always gone for challenges outside my comfort zone and this is the ultimate one – can’t wait.”

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