Call the Midwife actress Helen George and The Wanted’s Jay McGuiness are confirmed to compete in the 2016 Strictly Come Dancing UK tour, together with EastEnders actor Jake Wood who starred in the 2014 TV series. This completes the line-up for the tour, which opens in Birmingham on 22 January.
Jay, Helen and Jake join Frankie Bridge from The Saturdays, actress Georgia May Foote from Coronation Street, Celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott and TV presenter Anita Rani. They will be joining the 2016 tour host Mel Giedroyc, together with judges Len Goodman, Craig Revel Horwood (who also directs the tour) and Bruno Tonioli for the 30 date live extravaganza.
The professional dancers from this year’s ratings winning BBC One TV series are also now announced and the pairings are:
Frankie Bridge and Kevin Clifton
Georgia May Foote and Giovanni Pernice
Helen George and Aljaz Skorjanec
Ainsley Harriott and Natalie Lowe
Jay McGuiness and Aliona Vilani
Anita Rani and Gleb Savchenko
Jake Wood and Janette Manrara
Karen Clifton will also join the tour for the professional dances and group numbers.
Helen George is best known for her role of Nurse Trixie Franklin in the multi award winning and hit BBC series Call the Midwife. She has also received critical acclaim for her varied stage credits in productions such as The Woman in White; High School Musical, and also appeared in Paul W S Anderson’s feature film The Three Musketeers.
Jay McGuiness is one fifth of the globally successful band, The Wanted. Since their 2010 debut album was released, they have enjoyed huge success all over the world, including two number one singles in the UK with All Time Low and Glad You Came.
Jake Wood has been a part of some of the most memorable storylines on EastEnders for the past decade, performing the role of Max Branning. He impressed the judges and TV audiences alike with his slick dance moves on last year’s BBC One series of Strictly Come Dancing, and now he has the chance to show off his skills to arena audiences on the Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour 2016.
The tour opens at the Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham on 22 January 2016. It will then visit the biggest entertainment venues across the UK: Sheffield Arena, First Direct Arena Leeds, Manchester Arena, Liverpool’s Echo Arena, Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle, The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Nottingham’s Capital FM Arena, The SSE Arena in Wembley, before culminating at The O2, London on Valentine’s Day.
Photo: Ray Burmiston
