How excited are you to be back?

Very excited. It’s really cool. I think it’s certainly the best series, but I think definitely my best series just because of my child arriving. I feel like it’s all so joyous and fun. I am viewing it all in an entirely different way. I think that’s what happens when you have children anyway and the fact that kids in the audience love it so much, I think it puts that entirely into a new context for me and I just love being a part of it.

The show won a BAFTA, what do you think that says about the show?

I think that’s really important for any show. People always took us seriously, but now people really have to take us seriously. We’re a BAFTA winning show. It’s just entertainment at its finest and, yes, it’s silly, but maybe that’s what entertainment should be. It’s just silly, ridiculous telly that we can all really enjoy.

What do you make of the costumes this year?

Honestly, they are the best costumes ever. If they don’t make you smile, well, get out! Air Fryer is unbelievably silly. It’s so liberating to be a part of a show where first of all, people really enjoy it and also from my point of view, any idea I have, it’s fair game. Even when it comes to the suits! I have a suit which has crazy patterns and kind of looks like wallpaper. So I said to the producers “Could I start the show as the wallpaper?” and make a joke of that? It’s so cool as a creative person to just think of something and then it happens. It’s the best job ever.

How would you rate the singing this year?

I think we’ve definitely got some of the best vocalists we’ve ever had on the show and we’ve had some really incredible ones in the past. The show goes through an interesting meandering of, we are all here for all the new characters, but then maybe the better singers start to get through in the last rounds, usually the final. Let’s be honest, it’s usually really incredible singers left at that point. This year I really do feel like we’ve got some of the best we’ve ever had.

The Masked Singer starts Saturday 30 December at 7pm on ITV1, ITVX and STV

The show that has the nation chanting ‘take it off!’ is back, as The Masked Singer returns to ITV1, ITVX and STV.

Hosted by our very own ringmaster, Joel Dommett, our super sleuths return as Davina McCall, Rita Ora, Jonathan Ross and Mo Gilligan are back in the detective chairs as the guessing game begins all over again.

Hoping to join our hall of fame of exclusive Masked Singer winners that includes Queen Bee (Nicola Roberts), Sausage (Joss Stone), Panda (Natalie Imbruglia) and Rhino (Charlie Simpson) are a brand-new cast of twelve celebrities playing twelve characters in the show’s signature extraordinary costumes as they take to the stage to sing in disguise and stump the panel and viewers alike.