Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A woman threatened me with a gun under the table and a guy fired shots to make me leave
death row in North Carolina, including one man who had killed three women– making the idea of facing Craig Revel Horwood each week seem less daunting.
She admits she did not instantly dislike that particular serial killer. “He was very pleasant, most people are. Psychopaths aren’t how horror films portray people,” she says. “I was young, you don’t have fear. Now I would probably be terrified.”
For many viewers, Susan is Strictly’s least-known contestant. But there is a lot to learn about the comedian from Glasgow. Her zany turns in the ballroom with partner Kevin Clifton have so far been full of character. And her Wonder Woman samba last week wowed, especially when she took the lead. This was not, she insists, because as a gay woman she wants a same-sex partner – a row that dogs the contest. She just felt it was what Wonder Woman would do.
“The dance was me saving Kevin from peril,” she chuckles.
This week, she is doing the quickstep to Morecombe and Wise’s Bring Me Sunshine – used for the first dance at her 2012 wedding to lawyer Lee Cormack.
As well as Lee being there to cheer, her parents are coming – to see her perform live for the first time, at anything. It will add to her nerves.
Susan has been a panellist on Radio 4 shows The News Quiz and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, written and acted in radio sitcom Sisters, performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and presented for CBBC and BBC1 quiz The Boss. You assume, then, the showtime side of Strictly is right up her street.
After all, if you have been held up with guns and stared serial killers in the eye, what is going to make you nervous?
But behind the jokes and superhero kit, she has battled low confidence and a dark and intermittent depression since childhood. “There is no single traumatic cause,” she says and admits she has always put huge pressure on herself as a “perfectionist”. Mostly though, at 4ft 11, she says low self-esteem over her looks is a major issue. The impact of her depression has been devastating.
In her book Cheer Up, Love: Adventures in Depression with the Crab of Hate, she reveals self-harming as a teen, the scars from which she still has and “hates”. She attempted suicide at 16 and was sectioned.
Her depression has continued on and off and she admits talking about it risks triggering it: “When I talk about it, it kind of makes me depressed. I like to be positive.” But she also reveals watching Strictly helped her manage her mood in the past. She is a superfan who kept a photo of Kevin Clifton on her fridge (now replaced with one of them together) and cried when she was told he was to be her partner.
Those tears on the show’s opening episode suddenly make sense. “I have watched Strictly when I have not been very happy and it has cheered me up.”
Now, Susan aims to give others that smile – and it is working. Her six-yearold niece has already sent her a snap of herself in Wonder Woman kit.
“It is about letting go of inhibitions. Kevin is helping me out, he is a very positive person. I’m living my dream, this is the happiest I’ve been in ages.”