The Masked Singer UK panel spill all on the new series

The Masked Singer UK is back for a brand new series this weekend and the show’s stars have spilled all on what to expect.

A brand new line up of twelve masked singers will take to the stage from Saturday night.

Host and new dad Joel Dommett enthused: “It’s really cool. I think it’s certainly the best series, but I think definitely my best series just because of my child arriving. I feel like it’s all so joyous and fun. I am viewing it all in an entirely different way.

“I think that’s what happens when you have children anyway and the fact that kids in the audience love it so much, I think it puts that entirely into a new context for me and I just love being a part of it.”

He continued: “They are the best costumes ever. If they don’t make you smile, well, get out! Air Fryer is unbelievably silly. It’s so liberating to be a part of a show where first of all, people really enjoy it and also from my point of view, any idea I have, it’s fair game. Even when it comes to the suits!

“I have a suit which has crazy patterns and kind of looks like wallpaper. So I said to the producers “Could I start the show as the wallpaper?” and make a joke of that? It’s so cool as a creative person to just think of something and then it happens. It’s the best job ever.”

And he added: “I think we’ve definitely got some of the best vocalists we’ve ever had on the show and we’ve had some really incredible ones in the past. The show goes through an interesting meandering of, we are all here for all the new characters, but then maybe the better singers start to get through in the last rounds, usually the final.

“Let’s be honest, it’s usually really incredible singers left at that point. This year I really do feel like we’ve got some of the best we’ve ever had.”

Back for another series, panellist Davina McCall revealed: “Do you know what? I’ve been looking through all the celebrity magazines to see who’s around at the moment. I’ve been doing my homework!

“This series Weather is an interesting character because they have such a beautiful costume and then an unmistakable voice. ”

Davina isn’t the only one of the panel doing her homework.

Jonathan Ross shared: “I write a big long list of people who I think, conceivably, either UK celebrities or Americans or people who are in the UK who might do the show and I make another list of people who I think absolutely wouldn’t do it, because on the one hand you never know, and on the other hand it is good to guess an outrageous name.

“Then I’ll do a list of comedy guesses just so I’ve got kind of lots of names at my fingertips. My best guess this year is Ryan Reynolds. He’s in Wrexham a lot of the time now. You never know. I mean, he’s up for a laugh!”

He added of this year’s costumes: “I really loved Weather. I thought that was a really beautiful, quite romantic, quite poetic looking costume. I liked Piranha a lot. They’re fun, I have to say.

“Bubble Tea is great. Well, Bubble Tea and Air Fryer make the show very, very modern, don’t they? There’s a couple of phrases that weren’t in common conversation two or three years ago, and now we’ve got them dancing on primetime ITV1!”

Mo Gilligan agreed: “Whether it’s Bubble Tea or Rat or Dippy Egg, the imagination that gets put in these costumes, you can’t even believe. It’s so hard to explain when there’s a new series and you say a name like Chicken Caesar and it’s a chicken dressed as Julius Caesar or you say we have a Piranha that is smiling in pyjamas, that is the concept. It’s totally mad!”

Meanwhile Rita Ora enthused of this year’s cast: “The voices are the best I’ve ever heard, and the personalities are so amazing. It’s super versatile. It just gets better. When you’re coming on this show, this is a BAFTA winning show! It’s a really amazing kind of family show.”

The Masked Singer UK launches Saturday, 30 December at 7PM on ITV1 and ITVX.