BBC Radio Scotland presenter unveiled as Strictly Come Dancing's new contestant

A resident Scottish doctor is the fifth contestant to be announced for the Strictly Come Dancing class of 2024.

Dr Punam Krishan, the NHS GP, writer and presenter, was unveiled on Vernon Kay’s BBC Radio 2 show on Tuesday after singer and actress Toyah Willcox and Welsh opera singer Wynne Evans were announced on the programme shortly beforehand.

Alongside her GP duties, Dr Krishan offers advice on the BBC breakfast programme Morning Live and BBC Radio Scotland’s phone in surgery. She previously co-hosted a podcast titled The Medic Mum and is the author of How To Be A Doctor And Other Life-Saving Jobs.

Dr Krishan hails from Scotland, having gone to school at Hillhead Primary in Glasgow. She later completed his secondary education at Notre Dame High School before studying medicine at Glasgow University.

Dr Punam Krishan, who has become the sixth contestant named for this year's Strictly Come Dancing. Picture: PA | PA

In a piece written for the Glasgow Times, she said: “I’m a proud Scot. However, I’m also of Indian origin and growing up as a first generation Scottish Indian was at times quite hard. Especially as a child and in my early teens, that true sense of belonging and identity was absent.”

Dr Krishan joins Welsh opera singer Wynne Evans, as well as singer and actress Toyah Willcox, as the latest contestants to be announced for Strictly.

The three new additions were unveiled after blind comedian Chris McCausland and JLS star JB Gill were announced on ITV’s This Morning on Monday. The famous faces will all take to the dancefloor in a bid to win the glitterball trophy when the 20th series of the BBC dance show returns to screens this autumn.

Evans is best known as the moustachioed tenor from the Go Compare adverts and is a presenter on BBC Radio Wales.

Born in Carmarthen, he was also crowned Celebrity MasterChef champion for 2023.

After being unveiled, Evans said he is most looking forward to taking on the ballroom numbers but he is “nervous” for the lively dances.

Reflecting on what he is looking forward to, he told Kay: “The classic ballroom stuff is the one I’m looking forward to the most because obviously for 20 years I was an opera singer so we did quite a lot of classic ballroom in opera.”

He added: “The stuff I’m really nervous about is the stuff that needs any kind of jumping because I think I represent every portly middle-aged father who’s like ‘I don’t want to really do the jive and set a minor tsunami off in north London’.”

Willcox fronted the new wave band Toyah in the late 1970s and early 1980s, known for tracks It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Free and Thunder In The Mountains, before embarking on a solo music career.

She has also performed in numerous stage productions and featured in various films including 1978 drama Jubilee, horror comedy Aaaaaaah! and 2019 sci-fi Invasion Planet Earth.

Following the announcement, Willcox said getting to Blackpool week would be meaningful for her as her mother danced in the seaside town when she was aged 18.

She also said she needs to “stop seeing myself as the Ann Widdecombe of dance and music”.

The announcements come after swimmer Tom Dean announced he will be appearing on the show after reaching the final of the men’s 200 metres individual medley in the Paris 2024 Olympics last week.

The popular BBC dancing show has made headlines recently after a storm of controversy over the alleged treatment of contestants on the show.

The results of an investigation, launched by the BBC following allegations made about Giovanni Pernice by former participant Amanda Abbington, have not yet been published by the corporation.

Pernice rejects the allegations and fellow dancer Graziano Di Prima has also left the show.