OUT ON DOCTOR’S ORDERS
Two years after heart op, comic Webb quits Strictly
HE had described how going on the show was the latest step in his battle back to health following open heart surgery two years ago.
But comedian Robert Webb admitted last night that he had ‘bitten off way more than I could chew’ as he announced he was leaving Strictly Come Dancing on doctor’s orders.
The Peep Show star, 49, said he thought he had recovered enough to ‘take on Strictly and its demanding schedule’, but four weeks into the competition realised it was too much.
Webb, whose dance partner Dianne Buswell will also leave the BBC1 show, said he ‘ran into the limits of my resilience much sooner than I’d hoped’. He added that after feeling symptoms he had an ‘urgent consultation’ with his heart specialist, who advised him to quit.
Webb had surgery for a potentially fatal heart defect in 2019. He admitted it was ‘always going to be a difficult mountain to climb’, adding he was ‘too eager to impress’ fellow heart patients who had shown their support. In a statement the father of two said: ‘I’m extremely sorry to have to announce that I’m withdrawing from Strictly Come Dancing due to ill health.’
Thanking his ‘talented partner’ Miss Buswell, he said he was sorry to ‘let her down like this’.
Webb, best known for his sketches with David Mitchell, added: ‘I leave knowing that Strictly viewers are in very safe hands and I’ll be cheering for my brother and sister contestants all the way to Christmas.
‘Despite this sad ending, it has been a genuine honour to be part of this huge, joyful and barking mad TV show. Long may it continue.’
Miss Buswell, 32, said: ‘I know Robert had a lot more to give but his health of course comes first. I feel lucky to have danced with him and to call him a friend.’ Strictly executive producer Sarah James said: ‘Although we are so sad Robert has withdrawn from the show we completely understand and support his decision. Health always comes first.’
Strictly continues on BBC1 on Saturday at 7pm.
‘Bitten off more than I could chew’