Inside new series of The Masked Dancer as Peter Crouch reveals painful on-set injury and what his kids think of new show
WITH 13 wacky performers ready to baffle and bewilder with their funky moves, The Masked Dancer is back.
And this time the celebrity panellists Davina McCall, Jonathan Ross and Oti Mabuse are joined by new signing Peter Crouch — and he’s proven to be a real gamechanger.
The Liverpool FC legend said: “I didn’t realise quite how serious I’d be taking it.
“It’s taken over my life a bit because I’m constantly thinking wherever I am, ‘Who’s the Prawn?’
“Even now in the back of my mind I am sitting thinking I might have guessed one of them, and now I’m thinking of things that relate the clues to this particular person.
“I need to go and write it all down before I forget.”
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Crouchy is filling in for regular judge Mo Gilligan while the comedian tours the United States.
And the new gig swiftly paid dividends for Peter, who finally earned some street cred with his and wife Abbey Clancy’s four children.
He went on: “I played football for England and Liverpool, I played in cup finals, played in the Premier League and played in World Cups but the only thing my kids want to talk to me about is The Masked Dancer.
“It’s madness, completely different to anything I’ve ever done.
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“They watched one of the shows [being filmed] and absolutely loved it and it’s all they’ve talked about since.
“They are just so proud of me, which is great.”
So how is it having Peter stepping in for Mo? Jonathan said: “It’s great.
“We love Mo and can’t wait for him to return to the panel, but Pete has been great, so much fun.
“The audience loved him. He’s having a great time. He’s so lovely to work with and he’s very funny.
“We do make him do the robot [Peter’s signature dance move] a lot. He’s throwing more moves than the rest of us.”
Peter joined the star panel as the 13 acts — including for the first time a duo, Pillar and Post — impressed with their dance routines while hidden behind their elaborate costumes.
As usual it is the panellists’ job to try to guess which celebrity is hiding behind the zany disguises, such as Pig, Pearly King and Sea Slug.
The sister programme to The Masked Singer, which has run for three series, captivated viewers during a test run last year, so it is now back for a full second series.
So how did Peter fit into his new squad? Davina said: “Well, apart from making me the most popular person ever with all my male friends, my son was so excited.
“Peter has given me massive kudos with all the men and female football fans in my life. So I’m really pleased about that.”
As for the show’s guessing game, she added: “It’s quite nice because he and I struggle quite a lot, but he’s actually done quite well.”
And Oti, who joined the show last year, added: “It’s also really nice not to be the new person.
RABBIT HOLE
“Peter’s been brilliant and a fantastic addition to the panel. He hears one clue and just goes down a rabbit hole, but it’s a brilliant rabbit hole.
“His knowledge is incredible. His guesses are really good.”
While the Masked Singers can only do so much to disguise their voices, the Dancers are almost impossible to guess from their moves alone.
It makes the detective work a lot tougher, says Davina, adding: “I’ve spent several weeks trying to work out whether some of the characters are male or female.”
Jonathan added: “It is hard in that you don’t have an example of what is natural to them but in some ways I think it’s got easier as we know to pay so much more attention to the clues.”
For host Joel Dommett, it’s clear: “I think we’ve gone full ham for weirdness!
“It’s definitely harder but there’s so many more clues. There’s so many more games that we play now to help with the guessing, with extra clues up for grabs.
“It’s just the way that some people can move in these costumes.
“To move like that outside of the costumes would be a feat, but the fact that they’re doing it with a massive head on is bizarre.”
Oti agrees. She said: “I think the standard of dancing is higher. There’s a lot more diversity in the style of contestants’ dances.
“They’ve made the clues much harder because they know the panel knows lots of people in the entertainment industry.
“Like with Craig Revel Horwood, who was Knickerbocker Glory in the first season. I guessed him because he has a very distinctive walk that I’d observed a lot.”
Peter promises viewers will get to see his “robot” move and Mo shows off his dad dancing when he returns for a guest appearance.
He said: “I’m not even a dad, but I’m representing the dad dancing at home.
“That’s one of the things I love about this show — the playlist selection is always top tier and The Masked Dancer makes you want to dance as well.”
Not if you’re Joel, though — who nearly did himself a mischief when he tried to copy the smooth moves of contestant Onomatopoeia.
He said: “One of the characters does the splits, and that was very exciting. I tried it afterwards and almost pulled a hamstring.
“Onomatopoeia is a great dancer. They can really move, so I’m excited to see who is hiding behind the mask, because I have no idea.”
As for the Masked shows’ appeal, Jonathan said: “I think people love Masked Singer and Masked Dancer because there’s so much fun and there’s no meanness onstage, there’s nothing really at stake.
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“On this show the people involved are already successful and do it because they want to have fun, and want us to have fun watching. It’s just a kind of win, win.”
Davina added: “This is the show you want when times are hard. It’s funny, it’s uplifting, it’s engaging and it’s exciting.”
- The Masked Dancer returns on Saturday at 6.30pm on ITV.
