STRICTLY’S Tony Adams has told how he broke down in tears after freezing during his first dance, admitting: “It’s a miracle I didn’t run to the pub and drown all that sorrow.”
The former Arsenal and England skipper, 26 years sober after battling drink and drug demons, revealed he cried “a lot” after the ballroom disaster, which saw him at the bottom of the leaderboard.
In the first show, dressed in a red waistcoat with No6 on the back, he got a brutal score of 15 for his tango.
But he has come back fighting with the help of pro partner Katya Jones — who he says is a mix of his no-nonsense Gunners manager George Graham and thinking man’s boss Arsene Wenger.
Tony, 56, who won over millions of fans with his Full Monty routine last week, said: “When that first dance went the way it did, in the car home, I’m going, ‘This is tough, what am I doing?’.
“It’s a miracle I didn’t run to the pub and drown all that sorrow.
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“It was painful. I’ve cried a lot, but it was all right. You come out the other side.
“So I’ve grown emotionally through the experience because it’s a challenge.
“Katya has been perfect for me, to push all my buttons and show me how strong I am.
“Which football manager is she most like? George Graham was very regimented, and we had to go out there — repetition, repetition, repetition.
“Then, when I was the finished product, it’s more to do with the head stuff and psychology. And Arsene Wenger was a genius at that. So it is kind of blending of both. She’s a hybrid.”
Katya said: “We work together. After a mistake it’s about having a good chat then going forward.
“Once the dance is done, let’s move on to the next one.”
Tony added: “That’s been a real help, just thinking, ‘The match is gone, the dance is gone. Let’s try to learn and do the next one to the best of my ability’.
“As for the footwork and the routines, that progress is a little bit slower.”
Katya, 33, went on: “Tony requires about 200 per cent praise, which is not possible in this very intense learning process.
“Everything can’t be amazing all the time. So I just get him socks. I said to him that every week we get through I’ll get him a pair of new socks.
“The ones this week have got our faces on. That puts a smile on his face.”
Last night’s show saw Tony and Katya — who have repeatedly escaped the dance-off thanks to voting fans — perform an American Smooth to With A Little Help from My Friends, by Joe Cocker.
And while Tony said he is “loving every minute” of Strictly, he was blindsided by the emotional and physical toll.
He went on: “It has been an emotional rollercoaster. I’ve been a bit nearer to tears every day.
“I’ve gone from, ‘What have I done?’ to ‘How do I get out of this?’ to ‘There’s little bits that are quite good fun’. And now, ‘Just give it a go’. It’s harder than I thought.
“If I had known what I know now I might have done some practice before I got into it.
“My life has been suspended now because I’m the oldest in the competition, so I’ve got to put the hours in if I’m not going to look silly on Saturday night.
“Katya’s good for me because she’s noticed that when I get scared, I shut down, that’s my defence. But she keeps shaking me out of it.
“One way of doing that is to verbalise stuff and get it out. But the process is quite scary. And my God, the body is a wreck. There are parts that have not been mobile for 20 years.
“This week I thought I had indigestion, and it was pain from twisting my abs. I had a knee replacement nearly three years ago and I have a personal trainer who comes around three times a week to build it up.
“But I completely forgot for three weeks because I’ve been dancing.
“And it feels a lot better. I’ve been having ice baths too, and they have phy- sios at Strictly, which really helps.”
Tony — who set up mental health charity Sporting Chance in 2000 — signed up for Strictly in a bid to show others battling addiction that anything is possible after recovery.
And he told how it is that goal which gives him the motivation to keep fighting through the contest, especially after his performances drove a spike in calls to the charity’s helpline.
He said: “Who would have said, when I walked into Alcoholics Anonymous, that 26 years later I’d be dancing for the nation — the guy who’s never danced before in his life — without drink or drugs inside me.
“The message is that if I can get through this show without going back to my old ways, they can too.
“And people have sent so many messages of support and love, saying what a difference it has made to them. It has been overwhelming, every Saturday the spike to the helpline is incredible.
“So that’s my motivation. There’s been a lot of calls to our helpline saying, ‘Wow, if Tony can do that, I can do anything’. That gets me all teary.”
Tony and Katya have their sights set on the Strictly Blackpool Special next month from the Tower Ballroom.
Katya said: “Anton Du Beke made a comment after our Full Monty routine that he hasn’t been this happy watching something since he dragged Ann Widdecombe across the floor.
“I showed Tony footage of Anton and Ann at Blackpool, and he went, ‘She made it to Blackpool? How?’ So there’s a high chance we can make it to Blackpool.”
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Tony said with a laugh: “Blackpool is the Wembley of the dance world, isn’t it? I played at Wembley more than any other person, so maybe I’ll go to Blackpool and smash that too.”
