The BBC has confirmed its new Strictly Come Dancing hosting line-up as Johannes Radebe, Emma Willis and Josh Widdicombe, ending months of speculation following Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman's departure after last Christmas. The trio spoke to the Guardian about the secretive selection process, revealing they found out they had got the job via individual Zoom calls, in unglamorous settings including a graveyard and a hairdresser's toilet, and had to keep the news secret for a fortnight before it was announced.

To avoid tipping off the press, the BBC ran covert auditions with a mocked-up version of the Strictly set, complete with stand-in judges, and even invented a fake decoy show called The Great Garden Glow Up to disguise what the try-outs were really for. The new hosts, an unlikely pairing of reality TV presenter Willis, comedian Widdicombe and professional dancer Radebe, described a lengthy "chemistry test" process and said they immediately set up a WhatsApp group named "OMG" to discuss the news, which they have kept unchanged ever since.