Who is Strictly host Josh Widdicombe? Inside comedian’s career and personal life

Josh Widdicombe will be one of the three new Strictly hosts tonight (Picture: Matt Crossick/PA Media Assignments)

Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One this evening with its brand-spanking-new hosts.

It’s out with Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, in with Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe.

After a cloak-and-dagger audition process under the aegis of the BBC production team, the unlikely trio won out over names including Zoe Ball and Rylan Clark.

Saturday night’s launch show will feature the new hosts alongside the professional dancers, new and old, as well as their celebrity partners and the judges.

In the pre-recorded show, the 15 celebrities will meet their partners for the first time on the dancefloor.

Of the new hosts, Widdicombe will have the closest sense of what it will be like for the celebrities competing, since he did the same in the Strictly Christmas special in 2024.

This isn’t Widdicombe’s first Strictly rodeo (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)

If you’re unfamiliar with Widdicombe and his work, here’s your deep dive… 

What is Josh Widdicombe famous for? 

A comedian, podcaster and author, Widdicombe will likely be best known to telly fans as a team captain of Channel 4’s The Last Leg, which he has helmed for over thirty series alongside Adam Hills and Alex Brooker.

The stand-up comedian also hosts the podcast Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett, which they launched during Covid lockdown. He’s written books, is a regular on the panel show circuit and performed onstage at the Royal Albert Hall for The Royal Variety Performance.

Taskmaster fans will know that Widdicombe is something of an MVP on the show, having won the very first series of the Channel 4 show in 2015, as well as the first Champion of Champions special in 2017. Who’s doing it like Josh?

It might be something in the genes. After all, during an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? he discovered he was a descendant of Edward I, who died more than 700 years ago. 

Widdicombe has been a team captain of Channel 4’s The Last Leg for over thirty series (Picture: Channel 4) The 43-year-old is married to TV producer turned interior designer Rose Hanson (Picture: PA/PA Wire)

Is Josh Widdicombe married?

The 43-year-old is married to TV producer turned interior designer Rose Hanson. The couple share two children, Pearl, eight, and Cassius, five.

They lived in east London before making a recent move to Exeter, in the county where Widdicombe grew up. They now live in a home formerly owned by TV presenter Noel Edmonds.

Has he been on Strictly Come Dancing before?

As well as all of the above, Widdicombe made his Strictly debut in 2024 during the festive special, where he was paired with professional dancer Karen Hauer (who is no longer part of the Strictly fold, after being shown the door ahead of this series).

Widdicombe and Hauer delivered a memorable Charleston performance in penguin costumes, but lost out to Tayce and Kai Widdrington.

The comedian has since revealed that, in a roundabout way, it was a text to a Strictly executive producer he met making the Christmas special that led to his hosting job.

Widdicombe made his Strictly debut in 2024 during the Christmas special (Picture: BBC/PA Wire) Widdicombe and Karen Hauer delivered a memorable Charleston performance in penguin costumes (Picture: BBC Studios/Guy Levy)

On the day Daly and Winkleman announced they were leaving Strictly, the comedian texted show executive Sarah James the joke: ‘All right, I’ll take the job.’

He told The Times he had completely forgotten about it when they got in touch months later about an actual audition. 

What has he said about becoming a Strictly host?

Ahead of his hosting debut, Metro sat down with Widdicombe, Radebe and Willis. They hadn’t quite ironed out who would be doing what on the ballroom floor, but said each tried a bit of it all during the auditions.

‘It’s not like you’re Tess, you’re Claudia,’ Widdicombe told us and other press, pointing at his new co-hosts. ‘We don’t want it to feel like those roles are divided and different. We want it to feel like a team.’

He also referenced that move to Devon when discussing whether he had any hesitation in accepting the big Strictly hosting gig. ‘When I was contacted, I was like, I’ve got a really nice life,’ he said. 

‘I do my tours. I do The Last Leg. I do the podcast. I’ve just moved to Devon with my kids. Do I want to do this massive thing? 

‘But then you go, of course I do. Because you only get one opportunity at this career. We’re incredibly blessed that we’ve got where we are in our careers, and why not? I think “Why not” is a good way to live your life.’

Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One and BBC iPlayer tonight at 7.25pm.

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