Ava Doherty

The 15-person Strictly Come Dancing 2026 celebrity cast is complete, with Gavin & Stacey actor Melanie Walters announced as the final contestant. The lineup includes actors Lacey Turner, Jaime Winstone, Bethany Antonia and Laurence Robb; television personalities Dani Dyer and Will Best; singer Delta Goodrem; hairstylist Chris Appleton; former footballer Shaun Wright-Phillips; Paralympic cyclist Sarah Storey; skeleton athlete Tabby Stoecker; dog trainer Graeme Hall; reality star Cacherel Mercer; and football creator John Nellis. The new series will also feature presenters Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe, replacing Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, while five new professional dancers are reportedly being added.

Strictly Come Dancing’s 2026 line-up includes celebrities from television, music, reality entertainment, sport and online content. Confirmed contestants include Lacey Turner, Dani Dyer, Delta Goodrem, Chris Appleton, Cach Mercer, Dame Sarah Storey, Will Best, Jaime Winstone, Bethany Antonia, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Graeme Hall, Laurence Robb, Tabby Stoecker, John Nellis and Melanie Walters. The series will also feature five new professional dancers and presenters Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe.

South African-born British pop-rock artist Baby Queen, whose real name is Arabella Latham, discusses her new album, I Hope You Don’t Remember Me, and the influence of her mentor Courtney Love. Written during the end of a relationship and disappointment with the music industry, the album followed Latham’s departure from Polydor and signing with Insanity Records under Sony Music. Love encouraged her to reject dependence on record labels and helped inspire more honest songwriting through conversations about artists including Karen Carpenter, Patti Smith and Stevie Nicks. Latham also reflects on heartbreak, the relationship between fear and love, modern dating, Raya and the role of her music in Heartstopper.

The writer argues that criticism of the UK’s heavily Oxbridge-educated cabinet as inherently elitist overlooks the growing number of state-school students at Oxford and Cambridge. Drawing on their own journey from under-resourced state schools through Harris Westminster to Oxford, they contend that access initiatives have made the universities more socially open, though confidence and perceptions of exclusion remain significant barriers. Andy Burnham’s state-school background and Cambridge education are presented as evidence of that changing landscape rather than proof that the system remains closed.

Short film Echoes, starring Ashley Walters and Leo Gregory, explores men’s mental health, trauma and the damaging pressure to suppress emotions. Inspired partly by true events, it follows two men who reconnect during an inquiry into historic child abuse allegations at their former school. Director Alex Lanipekun and the cast emphasized the value of emotional openness, professional mental health support on sets and art as a way to process difficult experiences. Supported by MIND, the film is expected to receive a release date later and is being compared with the cultural impact of Walters’ series Adolescence.

Paris Paloma discusses how her viral song “Labour” continues to resonate amid the rise of the manosphere, incel culture and tradwifedom. She describes toxic masculinity as a tragedy that harms both women and young men, including those groomed into violence or sent to war. Her forthcoming album The Fatal Flaw explores misogyny, womanhood, beauty standards, relationships and patriarchy, while the single “Pre-Raphaelite” examines admiration of women beyond sexual attraction.