SINCE her shocking and unexpected exit from Strictly Come Dancing, the entertainment industry has been trying to find out why Darcey Bussell walked from the country’s most famous judging panel. Now it turns out the reason was simple — she had refused to bring back her famous dancing skills to the show. The new executive […]
SINCE her shocking and unexpected exit from Strictly Come Dancing, the entertainment industry has been trying to find out why Darcey Bussell walked from the country’s most famous judging panel.
Now it turns out the reason was simple — she had refused to bring back her famous dancing skills to the show.
The new executive team behind the hit Saturday night series want the judges — Craig Revel Horwood, Shirley Ballas, Bruno Toniolo and newcomer Motsi Mabuse — to shake their tailfeathers at certain big moments during the series.
But Strictly insiders have said ballet icon Darcey refused to do so, because she felt the dancing should be left to the celebrities.
When I asked head judge Shirley about the situation this week, she told me: “I do know that the BBC wanted the professionals to do a little bit more dancing.
“So I don’t know whether it was uncomfortable, or did she want to do it, or didn’t she want to do it?
“I was all up for it because I think, ‘you’re older but you’re not dead and you can still do a bit’.
You can’t do what those professionals do by any means, but you can get out there and show the public that you can still move your left and right foot.
“Motsi, Craig and Bruno all love to dance. We get so excited. But I wish Darcey well and I’m sure she’ll find her own thing. She’s a national treasure.”
Darcey doesn’t seem to want to talk about her exit from the show either, bristling when Piers Morgan dared to raise the show during an awkward interview on Good Morning Britain this week.
Shirley says the decision for Darcey to walk left her “shocked”.
She said: “We went on the tour and it was amazing. We talked about the next series and the next thing, I got a call to say she wouldn’t be returning. I would like to think we could have a coffee at some point later on, but life, it moves, doesn’t it?
“You know what it’s like. You don’t even have a chance to look back, do you. You just keep moving forward.”
Motsi has been a brilliant replacement and earned rave reviews for her live debut last Saturday. Shirley said of the South African dance star: “It was a different energy having Motsi. She’s a sensual lady and she’s a bing, bang, boom — and it’s fantastic.
“I’ve known her a long time — 20 years. I’ve judged the girl. When I found out Darcey’s replacement was Motsi, I just had a little jig around the room. I was like, ‘For me, that’s great’.”
Shirley’s clearly excited by this year series, which is another reason why she’s refusing to miss a show when she has her breast implants removed next month.
She bravely revealed all about the operation, prompted by a cancer scare, in an interview with myself on yesterday’s front page.
And her determination to raise awareness of the illness was summed up by her hosting more than 70 people at her South London home, for a Macmillan Cancer coffee morning, the same day I revealed details of her trauma.
Shirley has become an exciting national star in her late fifties, bucking the usual ageism of the industry, which is something she is rightly proud of.
She said: “You get to 50 and people, including most men, count you out. They want a younger model.
“They don’t go on your intellect, they don’t go on the fact that you’ve lived a life, they don’t go on the fact that you can be nurturing and you’ve seen life.
“They’re only interested in that slim-built young woman. But it’s changing. I mean, who’d have thought I’d have got the Strictly job at 57.”
