ngela Rippon has stated it is going to be “brilliant” if her time on Strictly Come Dancing will assist show that it's nonetheless doable to do one thing that retains you “fit and strong and agile” in your 70s.
The broadcaster will flip 79 in October when the programme is filmed, making her the present’s oldest contestant, after Johnny Ball took half in 2012 aged 74.
She is amongst 15 contestants, together with 69-year-old comic Les Dennis, who're set to take to the dancefloor when the hit BBC present returns to screens on Saturday.
Speaking about why she has agreed to the present forward of its launch, Rippon stated: “When my agent rang me and said: ‘Angela, they want you to do Strictly?’ the first thing out of my mouth was: ‘Why didn’t they ask me 10 years ago?!’ I shall be 79 years old in October and it’s bonkers, really, that I’m doing this.
“I took a long time to decide if I wanted to do it. My brain says fun, my body says: ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?!’”
She recalled how after it was introduced she had individuals on-line and in individual thanking her for representing older members of society.
“I was in the grocery store the other day and the lady next in line, who was of a certain age, tapped me on the shoulder and said: ‘Can I just say that I and my friends are thrilled you’re going to Strictly… sometimes I feel people of a certain age become invisible and you’re going to make a few headlines for us.’
“So I’m doing this because, if I can last a few weeks and demonstrate that it is possible in your 70s, that you can do something that keeps you fit and strong and agile, that will be brilliant.”
Rippon admitted the present can be a problem however after advocating for the advantages of dance for the older era for a few years, she feels this can be a “very public way to put my money where my mouth is”.
She turned the primary common feminine news anchor on the BBC in 1975 and went on to host exhibits together with Strictly predecessor Come Dancing between 1988 and 1991.
The broadcaster is now an envoy for the Royal Academy of Dance’s Silver Swan programme, which goals to become older individuals again into dance.
Whilst internet hosting a BBC present title How To Stay Young, she additionally found that scientific analysis has discovered dance was the most effective train for 50 to 60-year-olds.
She added: “For older people, dance beats those two terrors of old age – isolation and loneliness. You’re never going to be lonely when you go to a dance class.
“I love dance and I’ve been promoting dance as a way of keeping strong, fit and agile and balanced, so I suppose I wanted to do the show because of that and to prove that dance can help you, in so many ways, no matter what your age.”
Rippon revealed that she went to bop courses from the age of 5 to 17 to assist enhance her knock knee situation, which is when there's a hole between your ankles once you stand together with your knees collectively, based on the NHS web site.
She has since dabbled in dance together with showing in a Strictly Come Dancing phase for Children In Need in 2011, competing on ITV’s Dancing On Ice and her well-known efficiency with the comedy duo Morecombe and Wise throughout their present in 1976.
Ahead of her debut on the Strictly ground, she stated she has been constructing her health and training her breathwork as she has bronchial asthma and doesn't need this to get in the way in which of her routines.
Dennis might also have fun his seventieth birthday in October whereas on the present if he stays within the competitors.
The TV presenter and comic, who offered Family Fortunes for a few years, stated: “I always do things that are outside my comfort zone.
“I did my first opera two years ago, I worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company without any training three years ago, so, if there’s anything that goes outside of my comfort zone, I go: ‘I’m scared so let’s do it.’
“I had a knee replacement two years ago and thought: ‘You’re not too old, go for it.'”
He revealed he additionally has some dance expertise after having carried out within the musical Me And My Girl in 1991 the place he needed to faucet dance on a desk in entrance of two,000 individuals each evening.
The new batch of well-known faces will compete on the twenty first collection of the dancing competitors when it kicks off on Saturday September 16 on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 6.35pm.
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