How DOOLEY scrumptious ... swings it!
She cleverly wooed BBC bigwigs, defied the judges to win viewers’ hearts – and now could be in line for a £500,000 payday. ALISON BOSHOFF reveals the inside story of . . .
WITH a screech of triumph and a roar of ‘YES KEV!’ that made every spangle in the auditorium vibrate, Stacey Dooley was crowned Queen of the Strictly Come Dancing stage on Saturday night.
Dooley, 31, a sweetheart with a competitive streak a mile wide and a core of steel, swept to victory on a tide of popular support.
She actually came bottom of the leaderboard, below Joe Sugg, with trained dancers Ashley Roberts and Faye Tozer each getting three perfect 40 scores.
Yet the audience voted Stacey and her partner Kevin Clifton the stars.
Now, she is the BBC’s new Golden Girl. And sources say Stacey has been offered both documentary series on BBC1 and entertainment shows.
Not bad considering that, three months ago, her greatest hits were on the little-watched online channel BBC Three.
Strictly has given Stacey a huge boost, particularly in pairing her with Kevin, whom viewers adore. Here, we reveal how this might prove a vital step on her journey to becoming one of TV’s biggest winners...
DID SHE HAVE A HELPING HAND?
CLAIMS that Strictly is fixed have become almost an annual tradition – although the phone votes are independently audited, so it’s hard to conceive how this might be the case. This year’s conspiracy theory centred around the presenters of ITV’s This Morning saying last week that they would have Stacey and Kevin on the sofa today. Did this mean that the BBC had secretly fixed it for them to win – or had they just been booked because they’d been favourites for weeks? The social media followers of Joe Sugg, a YouTube star, have also been vociferous in crying ‘fix’, with claims Stacey was given the ‘best outfits’ and ‘best songs’ – and more airtime than others. Some claimed that co-presenter Claudia Winkleman mentioning Stacey’s mum Diane was a ‘clever tactic’ to make the ‘BBC employee’ look good. Following their routine on Musicals Week to Les Miserables’ I Dreamed A Dream, which drew 38 marks out of 40, former Strictly professional dancer James Jordan said bluntly: ‘Great job, great production, great music, overall brilliant and Kevin is ace. I would like it so much more if the producer wasn’t trying so hard to get them to win.’ In the end, though, it was the public who handed her the victory.
EXHAUSTED, BUT ALWAYS SMILING
WHATEVER the producers hoped would happen, there’s no doubt Stacey worked incredibly hard to claim the Glitterball trophy. In the run-up to the final, she complained of mouth ulcers, blisters and a stye in her eye – she was completely exhausted by training for ten hours or more a day with Kevin.
As he said to her this weekend: ‘You’ve worked so hard, and always with a massive smile on your face.’
Unlike Faye and Ashley, Stacey had had no formal dance training and her name appears unfamiliar at local dance or theatre schools in Luton, where she grew up.
Instead, she went to Stopsley High School, leaving at 16 with no early clues that she was heading for a career in showbiz.
She worked in a local hair salon in the Bushmead area, waitressed and had a job at Luton Airport selling perfume.
UNSTINTING SUPPORT FROM TEAM STACEY
MUM Diane was there cheering for her every week, as was Stacey’s boyfriend, Sam Tucknott, a personal trainer. He jumped on a chair when her name was read out, while Diane rushed on to the stage to embrace her daughter. Yesterday afternoon, Diane, who worked in pubs and as a cleaner to support her, posted on Facebook: ‘When you wake up covered in glitter and absolutely hanging ... but it’s ok coz your daughter JUST WON STRICTLY.’
She added: ‘Just a HUGE and genuinely heartfelt thank you to everyone who took the time and spent money on voting for Stacey and Kevin... She is overwhelmed by the level of love and support they have been shown.’
Stacey’s father died when she was in her 20s. They were not close – his name does not appear on her birth certificate and he left Diane when Stacey was two.
He tried to come back into her life when she was 13, but it was ‘too late’ for a reconciliation.
She has said: ‘My father had his demons; our relationship was difficult and fractured. But I don’t ever think “poor me”, I just feel blessed that I had my mother . . . She went above and beyond to make up for the fact I didn’t have two parents. I was very lucky.’
Diane has since married Norman Niblock and they have a daughter called Olivia.
The family’s former neighbour, Megan Sheaf, 75, said: ‘Stacey is Stacey – what you see is what you get. Growing up, she never caused any trouble. She was lovely, polite and generous. She was always bright and bubbly. I was in tears last night as I watched her win. My whole family was cheering her on every step of the way and the fact she’s never danced before makes it even more amazing.’
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
IT’S not just admirers at home who were cheering Stacey on. BBC head of content Charlotte Moore – perhaps the Corporation’s most powerful creative – is said to be a big fan. She and other execs are keen not to lose Stacey as they did with BBC Breakfast host Susanna Reid, who defected to ITV after appearing on Strictly in 2013.
In Stacey’s corner, too, is agent Jacquie Drewe, of respected firm Curtis Brown, who also looks after artist Grayson Perry and presenter Clive Anderson.
Claudia Winkleman has also been won over by Stacey’s charm. As one of the highest-paid women at the BBC, Claudia might prove a very useful friend indeed.
A source said: ‘Stacey’s real friend on the show was not another contestant, but Claudia Winkleman. She was the one person she really socialised with aside from Kevin.
‘It’s not that she was standoffish, it’s just that around half way through, she seemed to realise that she could win it and then she changed a bit.’
The first bigwig who Stacey befriended was Danny Cohen, who was controller of BBC Three in 2008 when Stacey answered an advert to be in the documentary Blood, Sweat And T-Shirts. She went to India to report on clothing sweatshops and, on her return, campaigned against child labour.
Admiring her spirit, Cohen gave her a documentary of her own and then the series Stacey Dooley Investigates, which has run for 11 seasons, exploring sex trafficking, women’s prisons and Muslim extremists in Britain. She went to Iraq to film Face To Face With Isis, a BBC Three project interviewing women affected by Islamic State.
It seems even someone in the royal family might be a fan — Stacey received an MBE for services to broadcasting in June.
SO WHAT NEXT FOR THE STRICTLY STAR?
AS HER time on Strictly draws to a close, Stacey has made very clear that she is ready for a change of direction. She said: ‘I suppose the reason I did Strictly – there are loads of reasons – but one was to show my lighter side.
‘I’m a documentary maker who makes serious programmes,
but I’m also a young girl who enjoys the entertainment side of it.’
It seems clear that she’d like to be in the running for work on big, popular shows, as well as the more niche documentaries she will continue to present in 2019.
A BBC source said: ‘She’s undoubtedly a great talent and there are a number of exciting projects being considered.’
There is talk of Louis Theroux-style documentaries, a role on Strictly spin-off It Takes Two, plus possible work on a big Saturday night show. She has not committed to anything in the immediate future aside from dancing on the Strictly tour from January, which will earn her a five-figure sum. That will be a welcome addition to her current income of around £150,000 (€167,000) a year .
A report last week suggested that Stacey had become ‘quite difficult’ and asked BBC staff to buy her a new outfit before she went on Chris Evans’s Radio 2 breakfast show and to a Strictly press conference, after turning up in a white tracksuit.
It’s claimed that – because the shops were shut – she had to stay in her casual togs. Stacey responded dismissively to the rumours. ‘Sometimes you gotta laugh,’ she said.
HOW ‘KING KEV’ POWERED HER
STACEY and professional dance partner Kevin have developed a genuine bond that even led to rumours of a romance – with Stacey’s boyfriend Sam said to be ‘insanely jealous’.
Certainly, she calls him ‘King Kev’ and her ‘diamond’ and says they are now bonded ‘for life’.
Even her mum Diane feels proprietorial towards Kevin, jokingly posting online: ‘He’s obviously our own private property from now until the end of time . . . I haven’t told him yet but he’ll be fine with it.’
Nothing on Saturday night will have quenched those rumours of yet another Strictly curse. He told her with tears in his eyes: ‘Thank you so much. Not just for being so amazing and dancing so well and getting this [trophy], but just for being the most wonderful person to work with, to spend every day in training with.
Stacey told him: ‘You know how highly I think of you. I think you are the biggest gem.’ However, yesterday, wearing Celine glasses and carrying Louis Vuitton luggage, a starry-looking Stacey returned with Sam to their home in Brighton. They are said to be ‘very happy together’.
A source commented: ‘Kevin was linked to the end of Louise Redknapp’s marriage and he is single now that his marriage to [fellow Strictly pro] Karen [Clifton] is over, but, although the relationship with Stacey is very intense, it seems to be platonic.’
WHAT ABOUT THAT CHEEKY SQUEEZE?
LAST week, Stacey appeared to grope Kevin’s bottom as they celebrated reaching the finals. But, far from a romantic gesture, some suggest it’s further evidence of how closely Stacey and Kevin have bonded as friends.
A source said: ‘I’ve no doubt the grope was to provoke Karen.’
The insider added: ‘Stacey realised in the closing stages how popular they had become and credits Kevin for all of it.
‘He is an uber competitor and it really rubbed off on her. She got swept up in it.’
Kevin and Karen announced their split back in March but, on Saturday, fans will have spotted that Karen ran into Kevin’s arms to congratulate him on his win.
In many ways, the victory will have been sweeter for Kevin than for Stacey, who may already have her mind on greater things...