Strictly Come Dancing Winner to be Loose Women panellist

On Tuesday the series producers announced a new panellist for the ITV programme.

The Strictly Come Dancing winner, Rose Ayling-Ellis will be a panellist in a special which marks Deaf Awareness Weak on May 3.

The appearance will be a one-off and Rose will be with fellow Loose Women, Nadia Sawalha, Jane Moore, and Kaye Adams, who also had hearing difficulties and wears a hearing aid.

Those watching the show will be able to read subtitles and there will be a fully accessible recording of the programme available on ITVX with subtitles and an ‘in vision signer.’

The special programme is collaborating with the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, Sign Health and the Deaf Collective. The show’s audience will be made up of members of the deaf community.

Rose Ayling-Ellis has always spoken out about her experiences as a deaf person, and she has campaigned to have British Sign Language (BSL) become legally recognised in England, Scotland and Wales.

Before she became the first-ever deaf person to compete in Strictly Come Dancing, which she won, she was playing the character Frankie Lewis in the BBC soap Eastenders. But after Strictly she gave up her Eastenders role and has recently been working in a West End production of Shakespeare’s How You Like It.

She was also part of the BBC travel show Anton and Giovanni’s Adventures in Sicily with Anton Du Beke and her strictly dancing partner Giovanni Pernice.