Strictly ’s Helen Skelton has dismissed a row over her tap dancing skills after it emerged that she won a Ken Dodd dance competition aged 17.
The Radio 5 Live presenter previously said she had told producers she could not dance and claimed she had signed up to the BBC show to learn how.
But at the weekend a 2016 interview she gave while hosting Blue Peter resurfaced, with the 39-year-old saying that she surprises people with her tap dancing abilities.
Yesterday she noted she was getting a “slight bit of stick” for her secret dance past.
She said: “Apparently, I can dance because I was once in a Ken Dodd tap awards, which I’ve not shied away from.
“I did tap dancing as a kid. But the next few months or weeks might unfold positively or negatively for me. Who knows.”
Helen, who appeared in Strictly’s Christmas special in 2012, added of the new series that starts on September 17: “I might only be in it for one week.”
Last week, the mum of three, who split from husband Richie Myler, 32, this year, said she joined the show because she wanted to learn how to dance.
The Countryfile presenter said: “I can’t dance and I feel sick when I hear the theme tune. I can’t decide whether it’s the best or worst thing I have ever agreed to.”
She added: “People keep saying, ‘Can you dance?’ and I say, ‘No’, because isn’t it the point to learn to dance?”
Since her 2016 interview, she also said: “Not a lot of people know this but I’m very good at tap dancing. People are often amazed.”
Comedian Dodd, who died in 2018, was a patron of the International Dance Teachers’ Association.
