Comedian Neil Delamere is to appear on the next series of Dancing With The Stars.

The stand-up will appear on the Irish version on Strictly Come Dancing alongside paralympian Ellen Keane, former newsreader Aengus MacGrianna and broadcaster Grainne Seoige.

The first names for the competition were announced this weekend ahead of the show’s return to RTE in the new year.

Offaly-born Delamere confirmed the news on the Late Late Show with Ryan Tubridy.

 He said: ‘I’m very excited to be on the show. I'm hoping to discover a hitherto entirely absent talent for dancing. So far, I've only gotten as far as saying "Flatley, Flatley Flatley" and the great man appears to give you a lesson.

‘I currently dance like a full-back shepherding the ball out of play, but hopefully, that changes over the next few weeks. Some of my friends from the comedy scene have been on the show and raved about how much craic it was, so I can't wait.’

Comics have a long history with Dancing With The Stars. Des Bishop and Katherine Lynch took part in the first series in 2016, followed by Bernard O’Shea and Deirdre O'Kane in 2017 and Fred Cooke in 2019.

As well as his stand-up, Delamere is known for appearances on RTÉ comedy shows such as The Panel and Republic of Telly as well as the BBC panel show, The Blame Game.