Strictly fix row as Helen Skelton insists she can’t dance despite winning prestigious tap award from Ken Dodd
STRICTLY star Helen Skelton was a Diddy bit out of step when she insisted she can’t dance — because she once won a tap award named after Ken Dodd.
The TV presenter, who will be in the new series which starts next month, waltzed off with comic legend Doddy’s gong when she was a teenager.
Last week, the 39-year-old told BBC Radio 5 Live: “People keep saying, ‘Can you dance?’ and I say, ‘No’ because isn’t it the point to learn to dance?”
But Helen, who signed up to the series after her marriage split from rugby league ace husband Richie Myler, 32, in April, is actually a trained tap dancer.
And she won the The Ken Dodd Tap Dancing Award 22 years ago.
Asked to reveal a secret about herself in an interview in 2016, ex-Blue Peter favourite Helen replied: “I won a Ken Dodd tap-dance award when I was 17.”
She later said: “Not a lot of people know this, but I’m very good at tap dancing. People are often amazed I can tap dance.”
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The Cumbrian-born star spent her childhood avidly training in the dance genre.
Doddy, famed for his Diddy Men characters, died in 2018 aT 90.
He was a patron of the International Dance Teachers’ Association.
And he supported the body’s International Theatre Dance Awards, with the donation of two special prizes for male and female nominees in the tap section in memory of his agent Keith McAndrews.
Helen also appeared on Strictly’s Christmas special in 2012, where she was partnered with Russian pro Artem Chigvintsev, 40. Their jive to All I Want For Christmas Is You was praised highly by the judges.
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Helen isn’t the only contestant with previous dance experience.
Comic Jayde Adams, 37, is a former competing disco dancer.
She said: “I actually have a dance background, which is actually a big no no on Strictly Come Dancing. Ashley Roberts can do it so I can definitely do it.
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"But when I was a child, from the age of five to 17, my sister and I competed in freestyle disco dancing.”
The pair will compete with other celebs including Kym Marsh, Tony Adams and Matt Goss when the new series kicks off on September 17.
