Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Manchester Evening News

Entertainment

Simon Coyle

The Masked Singer UK 2023 start date, time, line-up, costumes and judges

Mo Gilligan Davina McCall Jonathan Ross Rita Ora Joel Dommett BBC Strictly

TV viewers can look forward to several weeks of celebrities singing songs in costume and guessing who they are as The Masked Singer UK returns.

A new batch of 12 bizarre and unique characters will take to the stage and belt out songs as part of the nation’s favourite guessing game. And this year there will be a celebrity duo for the first time as Cat and Mouse make an appearance.

In the studio, four judges will do their best to decipher clues and work out who is who alongside Joel Dommet who returns to hosting duties.

Last year singer Natalie Imbruglia, who was dressed as Panda, was crowned winner of the show. Other celebs who took were footballer Michael Owen who was unmasked as Doughnuts and singer Charlotte Church who was Mushroom.

Speaking ahead of this year's show Joel said: "It's such a fun show to do, and honestly, I feel so privileged to bea part of it. I feel like everyone feels that way. From the costume designers, to the panel, tome, to the camera operators, producers; I feel like everyone, on this show, loves their job.

"There's something about it that everyone loves being a part of, like costume designers, they get to let their imaginations go absolutely wild.

But who are the characters taking part this year? Who is on the judging panel and when does the show start? Here is everything you need to know about the Masked Singer 2023.

This year's characters and their costumes

There will be 12 new characters taking part in this year's series - each one a celebrity hiding behind the mask. And there is also a duo in the mix for the first time. They are:

Fawn
Jacket Potato
Piece of Cake
Pigeon
Rhino
Cat and Mouse
Ghost
Jellyfish
Knitting
Otter
Phoenix

Who are the judges?

This year Davina McCall, Rita Ora, Jonathan Ross and Mo Gilligan make up the judging panel.

Speaking ahead of the series Davina teased there will be a few surprises coming up this call - calling the 2023 series 'really really good'.

The 55-year-old TV presenter added: "It's good every season, but I've been really, really enjoying the reveals this year. I think one of the things that I've really liked is that quite often on this series, there's one of us that gets it right when the reveal happens. But actually, we've had quite a few where none of us have guessed right."

Singer and songwriter Rita, 32, said the celebs are getting better at throwing the judges off the scene - but praised the standard of some of the singers this year. She added: "I say this every time, but I really feel like it’s next level this year. There's a specific two that I feel are just mind-blowing. And there are some real singers in the mix."

Comedian Mo agreed that celebrities are now playing the game and have come into their costume more this series.

Judges Mo Gilligan, Davina McCall, Joel Dommett, Rita Ora and Jonathan Ross (ITV)

The 34-year-old said: "The coolest thing is when you first start recording episode one, it's seeing what characters they have, what costumes there are, and the dancers. But yeah, some of the people that are revealed this year, I'm like, “wow!”.

Mo added: "It isn't a singing competition is it, it's just guessing who's behind the mask! I think that's my favourite bit where they sing and you start seeing the little kids reacting like, “Who should we save?” And kids are screaming names out, which is one of my favourite parts of the show because some of the kids don't even know some of the guesses we've said."

TV presenter Jonathan, 62, agreed and said one of the reasons he does the show is the appeal it has for all ages in the audience.

He added: "To see the little children on the night, they get so into it and they're so excited and they give us so much energy and they're up on their feet dancing and they're cheering for their favourite. It's fun to be part of something which is a real all-ages show, and you know how much fun people have watching it."