Sir Bruce Forsyth has ended speculation by signing up for the next series of Strictly Come Dancing.
However, the veteran host – back for an eleventh series later this year – is to increase his number of absences, missing three of the live Saturday shows for BBC1.
Each year there is much speculation that the star, aged 85, may step away from the show.
He recently set tongues wagging when he suggested he would prefer to spend more time in a warmer climate, leading many to wonder whether he may not want to spend another autumn working on the popular programme.
But the BBC announced yesterday that he will return once again alongside Tess Daly when the show starts in September.
The busy schedule means he will step back from three of the shows, rather than the usual one show, which he has missed for recent series.
Claudia Winkleman – who co-hosts the Sunday results show with Daly – will again take his place.
Sir Bruce said: "After all the normal speculation, I'm doing it again. Why not?
"But seriously, here's hoping for another spectacular series."
Mark Linsey, controller of entertainment commissioning, said: "I'm delighted Bruce is back.
"He's the life and soul of the Strictly party so it's great news that we've managed to come up with a schedule that works for him and for the show.
"Roll on September."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article