Forget Strictly’s curse, I hope my friend Ranvir clinches a show romance

THE BBC couldn’t afford the ludicrous fee Piers would no doubt demand, but I’m excited my beautiful and graceful colleague Ranvir Singh, pictured, is the one stepping into the Strictly limelight this year.

She is about to have the time of her life, with three months on Planet Sequins, so it made me giggle when she said what she was looking forward to was ‘having regular Covid testing’.

Her Strictly journey is going to be more exciting than that! It turns out her main fear is the fitness factor as, like me, she’s put on a stone in lockdown. But thanks to the dance practice in the training room, she can rest assured she’ll be in the shape of her life by Christmas. Ranvir is single, so I’m hopeful she might end up in a romantic hold on the dancefloor. But when I asked her about the Strictly Curse to try to wheedle out who she will be partnered with, she replied coyly: ‘Doesn’t that only apply when one of the couple is already attached?’ Fancy footwork indeed.