A GAVIN and Stacey star has revealed that she’s turned down Strictly Come Dancing for years, and revealed just why this is.
The latest series of Strictly just ended, and saw much-loved comedian Chris McCausland and his pro partner Dianne Buswell raise the glitter ball trophy.
But one star who isn’t yet ready to give it a go herself is Gavin and Stacey’s Joanna Page, who plays the iconic role of Stacey.
The 47-year-old admitted in an interview that she’s been asked for years to go on Strictly, but “always said no.”
She added: “You’ve got to give up a massive chunk of your time – and with kids so small, I can’t do that because I wouldn’t want to do it half-heartedly.”
Joanna continued to tell Woman & Home: “In the future, when everybody’s in school and a bit older, when the kids could come and watch me in rehearsals, I think I’d quite enjoy doing it.
“Give me a couple of years to make my pelvic floor a little bit stronger, then I think I’d throw myself into it.”
Joanna is married to husband James Thornton, who she wed in 2003, and the pair share four children together – Eva, 11, sons Kit, nine, and Noah, who turns eight in December, and their youngest daughter Boe, who was born in December 2021.
During her chat, the star also discussed going from learning her lines with “no responsibility” to becoming a mum.
She said: “Going from not having any responsibility except for learning my lines, turning up, being Stacey and getting the job done, to suddenly coming home to four children and two dogs who are all jumping on me going ‘mummy, look at this! Mummy, look at that!” then Boe either wanting to cuddle or shout at me, I thought, ‘I’ve got no control.’”
It comes after her exclusive interview with Fabulous magazine, where she revealed she suffered burns in an accident while filming the Christmas special.
Joanna admitted: “On the last day on set, I was thinking ‘pull yourself together’, but I was in such a state I knocked my boiling hot coffee over myself in make-up.
“I had to get the costume department to wash my clothes. It was good, as the shock of being scalded shook me out of it.”
Joanna, who plays Stacey, was in tears in her trailer with an assistant director just minutes before the accident.
The eagerly-awaited finale of the 17-year-old comedy is tipped to be one of the most watched programmes on telly on Christmas Day.
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In 2019 it commanded an audience of 11.6million viewers, making it top of the festive TV ratings that year.
In her chat with Fabulous, Joanna added: “It’s meant so, so much to me. I sat in my trailer and just couldn’t stop crying.”
