Irish TV presenter Angela Scanlon thanked “the universe” as she found out who she will be paired with on Strictly Come Dancing.
The TV star, who hosts BBC Two’s Your Home Made Perfect, will dance with Strictly professional Carlos Gu, who joined the line-up last year.
During Saturday night’s launch show, Scanlon said: “Thank you universe…I think Carlos will be able to teach me, he is direct…I feel like there is a directness that I might respond to, like brutal honesty that Carlos has.”
View this post on Instagram
Advertisement
Chinese National Champion Gu made the final four last year partnered with Britain’s Got Talent finalist and actress Molly Rainford.
Asked if this will be the year he wins, Gu said: “Oh yes I have made a better plan and we are going for the glitterball… we’ll do it one step at a time, no rush.”
Introducing herself on screen, Scanlon, who is the only woman in the UK and Ireland to have their own Saturday night chat show with Ask Me Anything on RTE One, said: “I’m usually the one asking the question or observing somebody and so I feel really exposed.
“The main reasons I want to do Strictly were to properly push myself. I have two children and I feel like I’ve been in a haze of nappies for a few years, so I am wholehearted yes.”
“I did Irish dancing as a kid where you’re expressly told to remain stiff as a poker, like imagine an ironing board with a ballgown on. I just want to really get involved, unleash something and I can’t wait to get stuck in.”
Judges Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke performed alongside the professional dancers in a group number which featured various songs, including Kylie Minogue’s Padam Padam.
The dance was dedicated to Strictly professional Amy Dowden who host Tess Daly described as their “Welsh dragon”.
The 33-year-old announced in June that she had undergone a mastectomy after discovering she had stage three breast cancer, and would be unable to have a celebrity partner on the show this year.
The opening night show also featured a tribute to the show’s late judge Len Goodman, who had been diagnosed with bone cancer and died in April this year.
Sitting alongside Gu after their pairing was announced, Scanlon said: “I think the dancing bit, when I get into it I feel like I maybe don’t mind that, but then I realised people are going to actually watch and I shrivel into a shell and the idea of any human watching, never mind multiple, is frightening.”
Host Daly said: “You said that every Irish person does Irish dancing?” to which Scanlon quipped: “Yeah Irish dancing and Mass. I mean one is more fun than the other…”.
“It’s (Irish dancing) a very solitary vibe, you’re kind of, as I said upright, very straight, straight back, but you also don’t have to take into account anyone else’s limbs. So I don’t know how I’m going to navigate my way around another human…but we’ll soon find out I guess.”
She was then gifted a glittery memory box for her eldest daughter Ruby, five, who she said was “very excited” about Scanlon doing Strictly, but added: “She’s a bit furious that she’s not allowed to come and actually dance with me.”
Inside the box was a memento in the form of a piece of the fabric from the launch show dress worn by Scanlon.
Strictly Come Dancing will start on September 23 at 6.15pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
