When Shirley Ballas returns home late on a Saturday night, having dished out compliments and critiques to Strictly Come Dancing’s celebrity hopefuls, she has one final job left: a debrief with her 86-year-old mother, Audrey. “As tired as I am, I know she’ll be sitting at the breakfast counter, dressing gown on, rollers in, arms folded, and she wants to give me her full lowdown on the show she’s just watched,” she smiles. “What she liked, what she didn’t, ‘why did this one go home?’ It’s like the third degree.” She briefly slips into the theatrical cadences she puts to good use as the BBC show’s head judge and all-round queen bee. “And I love it.”
It’s an irresistible image: 63-year-old Ballas still resplendent in her sparkly eye make-up and primetime finery, getting cross-examined in the kitchen like an errant teen returning from a night out. These tête-à-têtes give her “balance” after the adrenaline rush of filming, she says when we meet over Zoom. “When [mum] tells me the show is phenomenal, because she’s not over-complimentary, I know it’s in a good place.” The dancer turned TV star, who replaced the late Len Goodman on the Strictly panel in 2017, is speaking from the study of the south London home she shares with Audrey. She is wearing a green sweater vest and white shirt; when she gestures to emphasise a point, you can just spot the “SB” monogram at the cuff. The only sign of Strictly-esque razzle-dazzle is the fluffy pink cover on the back of her office chair, to protect it from scratches. But even off-duty, she sprinkles the conversation with the kind of old-school showbiz glamour you’d expect from the “Queen of Latin” (that fluffy cover is “practical, darling, not for show”).
