'Judge me if you want... I love it'

Des Bishop is to appear on Ireland's version of Strictly Come Dancing.

The stand-up has confirmed speculation that he would be competing in the debut series of Dancing With The Stars on his latest podcast.

'If you see any rumours about it, they are true' he said. 'I was going to wait till a little bit later to say it but I'm doing it.

'Judge me if you want because I don't care, because I've already started dancing and I love it … I couldn't be more into it and I can't wait to start.'

This morning it was revealed that former Westlife singer and Strictly contestant Nicky Byrne and television presenter Amanda Byram are to host Dancing With The Stars when it begins airing on January 8 on RTE One.

RTE reporter Teresa Mannion, model Thalia Heffernan, hurling player Aidan O'Mahony and Irish Big Brother star Hughie Maughan are among other celebrities rumoured to be taking part in the show.

A source on the programme had earlier told the Irish Independent that the programme would be time-consuming.

'It doesn't start until January 8 but they have to start learning the routines now, in addition to the publicity they'll have to be doing as part of their contracts.

'The show will run from January until March, so it's essentially three months long if you stay in it until the end. It was tricky to get the line-up right as they needed people who were well-known but had a significant gap in their schedule.’

Bishop signed off his podcast interview with fellow comic Joanna McNally by saying that his 2017 was going to be busy.

Last night also saw the opening episode of his irreverent current affairs show, This Is Ireland, on RTE 2, which he's described as a 'rip-off' of John Oliver's Last Week Tonight, albeit with a much smaller writing team.

Andrew Maxwell featured on the show talking about the Irish civil service and Blindboy Boatclub of the Rubberbandits appeared as a reporter. Other comics lined up to appear in future episodes of the four-part mini-series include Dermot Whelan.

Before the show went out, Bishop posted on Instagram: 'Last night's taping was great. I think I have found my calling.#thisisireland #drainthebog'

- by Jay Richardson 

Published: 6 Dec 2016