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This Morning presenter Siân Welby has admitted she “burst out crying” after going through a “gruelling” audition to host Strictly Come Dancing.
Welby, who was one of the famous faces tipped to take on the presenting job before the BBC announced the show’s new lineup, said her try-out took more than two hours and left her feeling drained.
“It was an absolute honour to be in the mix, but it was a gruelling process with no messing about,” she told OK! magazine. “I left the audition, got in the car and burst out crying.”
“It was the adrenaline,” she clarified. “I’d never concentrated so hard or wanted to impress so much. But it wasn’t my time.”
She continued: “I really did want to show them I could do the job. But it was tough and I left going, ‘I don’t know if I’ve nailed that or if it was an absolute car crash.’ And afterwards, I almost had no memory of it. It was like being in shock.’”
Welby clearly had no hard feelings about losing out on the role to new presenting trio Emma Willis, Johannes Radebe and Josh Widdicombe.
“Emma is brilliant,” Welby said. “I can’t say a bad word about her. We don’t know each other deeply, but every time I see her, she seems lovely.”
The new series of Strictly returned on Saturday 26 September, with celebrity contestants including EastEnders star Lacey Turner, reality star Dani Dyer, pop singer Delta Goodrem, Paralympic athlete Dame Sarah Storey, and hair stylist Chris Appleton among those taking part.
In a three-star review for The Independent, TV critic Isobel Lewis wrote that comedian Widdicombe appeared to struggle with his “comedic impulses” when going off-script with Willis.
“This gag-at-all-costs attitude works for comedy or even solo presenting, but in a group, it felt awkward and stilted,” she said.
Despite this, Lewis observed that the overhauled show seemed to be “operating as normal”.
“Sure, the new logo and opening credits looked strangely amateurish, and I’m not sure anyone asked for Movie Week to be bumped forward to week two, as was announced at the end of the episode,” she said.
“But the things that have always worked on Strictly worked, from the public quickly seeing promise in the new pros (Maddie Ingoldsby, Mark Karmalita) to a likeable new underdog already being crowned (YouTube star John Nellis, with an astonishingly impressive week one foxtrot).”
Strictly continues on BBC One on Saturdays at 6.14pm.
