Strictly Come Dancing’s Angela Rippon has admitted to facing a “complicated” and “challenging” week ahead of tonight’s live show in Blackpool.
The 79-year-old TV presenter has had a busy work schedule on her hands after juggling dance training alongside filming a new series of Rip Off Britain.
Rippon said this week was going to be “intense” but “exciting” as it marks her return to the Blackpool Tower Ballroom where she previously hosted Strictly’s predecessor, Come Dancing.
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This time around will see her don her dancing shoes in the iconic venue alongside her professional partner Kai Widdrington, with the pair set to perform an American Smooth.
Rippon said the experience will be a “first” for both her and Kai, as neither of them has ever danced there before during the Strictly competition.
In a video posted on X (formerly Twitter), she said: “This is going to be a really crowded week because it’s not only Strictly come Dancing I’m doing this week, it’s recording a whole new series of Rip Off Britain as well. So that means being in London, in Manchester and in Blackpool.
“But it is going to be an exciting week because it’ll be the first time that Kai has been able to dance in the competition in Blackpool, even though he did dance there when he was a little boy in competition.
“And of course I presented Come Dancing from there. So for both of us there’ll be so many memories when we step onto that dance floor for the live show.”
She added: “It’s going to be an exciting week, a very full week, a challenging week, but another week that I’m really really looking forward to.”
Widdrington has revealed that the pair had been “manifesting” returning to the “magnificent” Blackpool venue and said it will be an “honour” to get to dance there.
He told Rippon: “I said ‘the stars are aligning here as you presented Come Dancing here. I used to dance here as a little kid’.
“You have the music there, the live music, you have the setting of the amazing chemistry of the whole – the roof and everything is just magical and it doesn’t feel real. I think the word is you feel very honoured to get to dance in that (ballroom).”
In an update on Friday, Rippon shared a video from the Blackpool Tower Ballroom where she said “it’s such an honour” to be dancing on the iconic floor after presenting at the venue “many moons ago”.
Rippon and Widdrington will be hoping to score high on the leaderboard this week after facing the dance-off last for a second time last weekend, beating Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy to stay in the competition.
Battling to stay in the show competition alongside Rippon is Bad Education star Layton Williams, former Coronation Street actress Ellie Leach, Casualty star Nigel Harman, tennis player Annabel Croft, presenter Angela Scanlon and EastEnders actor Bobby Brazier.
Strictly Come Dancing will return to BBC One and BBC iPlayer for the Blackpool special at 6.40pm tonight.
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