HOWDY PARDNERS READY FOR ME IN A LEOTARD?

Falling flat on his face while being tasered by a US police officer, wrestling in a very skimpy mankini... if you thought Ed Balls’s dancing was hilarious, just wait until you see what he tackles in his new TV show. By Lisa Sewards

Last time we saw Ed Balls he was on Strictly Come Dancing, wearing increasingly outlandish sparkly outfits while attempting some comical ballroom routines that seemed way beyond his capability and seriously threatened his dignity. But by golly, didn’t we just love him?

The one-time heavyweight politician, former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer no less, had the nation in stitches for ten weeks in 2016 as he flailed around the dancefloor. Who can forget his Laurel & Hardy-style slapstick quickstep, that Mask-themed samba or Ed being lowered to the floor for a jive while bashing out Great Balls Of Fire on a blazing piano in Blackpool’s Tower Ballroom?

His most memorable performance was when he and professional partner Katya Jones performed a salsa to Korean pop hit Gangnam Style. He may have scored just 25 points with the judges (and probably even less with his wife Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP, and their three children Ellie, 19, Joel, 17, and Maddy, 14) but viewers couldn’t get enough of the preposterous spectacle, with even BBC Director-General Lord Hall describing it as ‘something of a national moment’. Suddenly an unlikely new hero was born.

Fast forward almost two years, and we’re about to be royally entertained by Ed again in a new threepart BBC2 documentary series. ‘On Strictly there were many times when people’s jaws dropped. They thought, “What’s he doing there?” And I think there are a lot of those moments in this new show too,’ says Ed earnestly. ‘After Strictly the BBC had this idea that we should take the fun beyond that show and go and do some wild things with people.

‘At one point while we were filming the new show I felt like I used to feel on a Sunday morning after Strictly, when I’d wake up and think, “What on earth have I done?” And when I told the producer that she said, “Good. That’s exactly what we wanted. Mission accomplished.”’

So what exactly is this latest mission? In a nutshell, Travels In Trumpland With Ed Balls – a show Ed describes as being like ‘Louis Theroux meets The Real Marigold Hotel with a sprinkling of Ruby Wax’ – sees our have-a-go hero travelling to America’s South to immerse himself in the lives of those who put Donald Trump in power and to learn how the billionaire former reality TV star won them over. He meets Confederate flag-flying red- necks, Trump’s newly empowered immigration officers and the President’s inner circle of wealthy friends, and asks if they think he’s delivering on his promises to fix America. But Strictly fans, don’t be put off by the politics – it’s so much more than that.

Ed is possibly the best-placed person in Britain to explore the interaction between celebrity and politics in an era where the two have become almost interchangeable. Oddly, it was in the same week that Trump won the presidential election that Ed’s Gangnam Style salsa took Britain by storm. So as entertainment heavyweight Trump – the former head honcho on the US version of The Apprentice – was moving into politics, Ed was making the reverse journey.

‘On the Tuesday I was rehearsing my salsa while Trump was being elected. This is a guy who’d been in reality TV, and there was me who’d been a politician for 20 years suddenly entertaining people on television,’ says Ed. ‘So we thought, “Can we understand more about Trump and what he’s done through somebody who did it the other way round?”’

The last time I met 51-year- old Ed was for a Weekend photo shoot as his Strictly journey began, when he flatly refused to wear a sequinned shirt. ‘I’m not doing sequins or glitter, and never, ever frills,’ he announced firmly. But he soon began to embrace his ‘inner camp’. No wonder then that today, as he prepares to face our cameras, he’s disappointed the only accessory on offer is a Stetson. ‘As you know, early on I didn’t wear sequins,’ he says. ‘But at one point I asked for a plunging neckline and they said, “No.” Now I understand why.’

He’s referring to his foray into professional wrestling in the new show. Donald Trump is a wrestling nut who became involved in a (clearly scripted) ringside skirmish during a TV wrestling show in 2007, and has hosted WrestleMania competitions at his palatial properties. This led to Ed diving into the ring too. ‘ When I arrived they said, “We want you to actually do it.” I thought, “Oh no. I’m really too old for this.” I’d had absolutely no training. And then they pulled out the leotard!’

The leotard? ‘Yes. They wanted me to wear a wrestler’s leotard, a flimsy fabric thing with a seriously plunging neckline and nothing underneath. Yvette said to me before I went, “Always remember, there is a line and we both know what it is.” We couldn’t define it, but she said you always know when you’ve crossed it.

‘She’s right. It’s an emotional feeling that starts in your stomach and then fear pervades your body and you think, “Oh”. When I looked at this leotard I had one of those “Oh my God, over the line” moments. So I borrowed some shorts from one of the wrestlers to wear over it. The producers looked disappointed, but I felt calm after that.’

Alas, it only lasted seconds. ‘The chief wrestl ing guy then said,

‘Shave off my body hair? I felt a surge of fear...’

“You’re going to shave.” I said, “I shaved this morning,” and he said, “No, no, no, shave! We wrestlers have all our body hair shaved.” I said, “Oh my God, all my body hair?” Again I felt that surge of fear. So I didn’t. I knew I’d have crossed the line. So, all the other wrestlers look sleek and shiny while I look like I’ve just pulled on a leotard.’

Ed Balls in a leotard will surely be another golden TV moment for us. But it wasn’t for Ed. ‘The photo of me in the leotard was a real blow to my body confidence,’ he admits. ‘I lost a stone during Strictly because I was working so hard. But I looked at myself in the leotard and thought, “Oh my God, I’ve got to go on a diet!” I’ve since managed to lose another stone. All I have to do is look at that photo on my phone and say, “No chips for me. I’ll have the salad.”

‘But trying new things is great. There was one point in Trumpland where we went to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and I had a spray tan there. On Strictly I only ever had my top half spray-tanned, but on this show I go top and bottom. And the knowledge my legs were tanned gave me confidence, even though I was wearing a suit!’

As well as coping with severe whiplash to his neck after all the grappling in the wrestling ring, Ed had to stay overnight in a county jail. ‘I was in a dormitory with 40 felons. It had been a long day and we finally got to bed. I fell asleep, but the convicts started complaining about my cameraman and sound guy. They said, “Somebody’s got to stop them snoring. Prison’s bad enough without that!”’ As if the leotard humiliation wasn’t enough, Ed then had to don a limegreen jumpsuit to go litter- picking in the community. ‘My jumpsuit felt tight, so I asked the guys I was with how it looked and they laughed and said, “It’s fine.” But that was a lie, the button was so tight you could see my belly.’ In another comical but clearly painful moment we see Ed fall flat on his face after being tasered as part of the training programme to be a rookie police officer. ‘You stand there, somebody holds your arm, two darts fire in, one into your back and one into your butt. I was quite calm, thinking it’s only going to last five seconds, and suddenly this massive electric shock grips your whole body. It was the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced. I shouted very loudly, then fell flat on my face.’

After his time on Strictly you’d think he’d be used to falling flat on his face. ‘It was all good training for the humiliations on this new show,’ nods Ed, who’s comical without even trying. And it’s that self-deprecation that makes him so appealing. There’s no sniff of the political bruiser of old, known for his heavy- handed manner. He’s even become an unlikely sex symbol.

How much duller would TV be had Ed’s political career gone according to plan? A heavyweight politician with a first- class Oxford degree who was Shadow Chancellor under Ed Miliband, he put a tortured face to Labour’s election humiliation in 2015 by losing his seat in Yorkshire by 400 votes.

The crushing blow was announced in the Leeds First Direct Arena. But less than two years later Ed was back there for the Strictly live tour, and it was the only night of the tour that he and Katya were voted winners. ‘We went into the arena through the same door I’d left by that fateful morning. I looked around and thought, “What’s happened to my life?”

‘It was bittersweet. I was thinking, “There’ll be 8,000 people cheering, but these are the same people who didn’t vote for me two years ago.” And the fact we won because they voted for us was doubly ironic. But it was cathartic. It meant I could then go to see Barbra Streisand there and really enjoy it.’

Although Ed says he’s ‘retired’ from dance now, he admits he’ll never truly get away. ‘Weddings are a nightmare,’ he says. ‘I’ve been to three or four over the past 18 months, and at about 9.30pm, when the bridesmaids aren’t too tired and the adults have all had a few drinks, you’ll suddenly hear Gangnam Style and the groom or an usher will come over and say, “Would you mind?” And I’ll say, “No.” And then the whole wedding party’s on their feet doing Gangnam Style with me.’

Was he ever this popular at Westminster? It’s hard to imagine. There was a time when Ed admits he took himself rather too seriously. He’s always been ferociously ambitious, wanting to win at everything from a Commons football match to mastering Grade 8 piano by the age of 50 (which he failed to do). But Strictly humanised him. Are there still traces of the bruiser in there? ‘Those words – bruiser, terrier, bullish – they’ve all been used about me. I think when you see me in my leotard in the ring you’ll absolutely think I’m a bruiser,’ he says.

Seriously? ‘People can draw their own conclusions, but it’s totally me and that’s how I’ve always been – just myself. I think that people like other people who are willing to do things out of their comfort zone. And if you can be slightly better than they expect, that’s good.’

So is Travels In Trumpland the start of a new presenting career, or does a political comeback still beckon? ‘You never know. Michael Portillo did tell me not to go back to politics – he went back and it was a mistake. Politics has gone a bit wild and I’m out and that’s fine. And this TV stuff is new, it’s challenging. I think at a time when politics and our society are so topsy-turvy, finding ways to get under the skin of what’s going on and let people tell their stories seems a good thing to do.’ Travels in Trumpland With Ed Balls starts on Sunday 29 July, 9pm, BBC2.

‘It was the most painful thing I’ve experienced’

Ed poses in his wrestling outfit