Tony should have followed my lead... and stuck it out
Tony Adams should have stayed on Strictly – and let twinkle- toed fate take its course. Although presenter Tess Daly claims he withdrew last night ‘ due to an injury sustained on Saturday’, the suspicion is that the former Arsenal player has instead stepped aside to make way for contestants who are rather more talented dancers.
Adams’ roaring success in the previous seven rounds had reportedly caused panic among BBC bosses. They worried that, thanks to a groundswell of support from Arsenal fans – as well as the mounting affections of the public, despite his ineptitude – he might have gone on to lift the Glitterball trophy next month.
Some people insist that only a good dancer should win a dancing competition.
But Strictly is not The X Factor, nor any other TV contest where people are plucked from obscurity with the chance to win fame and fortune. Instead, its contestants are already famous – some, admittedly, more than others – and the audience watches as much for the spectacle of these personalities in an alien environment as to critique their salsa skills.
It was the inclusion of former BBC chief political correspondent John Sergeant in 2008 that started the tradition of bringing in a Strictly dancer with no dancing talent at all.
Who can forget the sight of Sergeant dragging his partner Kristina Rihanoff behind him while doing a paso doble, looking as if his mind were on the next news bulletin? Thereafter, the show sought out characters willing to endear themselves to the audience by making complete fools of themselves. In 2010 it was my turn, partnered with the courtly Anton du Beke. During our first morning training session together, Anton decided that the less time I spent moving my feet, the better.
Thus, there were moments when I stood rock- still while he danced round me and other moments when I remained motionless on a balcony in front of a wind machine, pretending to be Kate Winslet on the Titanic. The studio audiences loved it; the Press hated it.
yet, as with John before me, the viewers voted for me week after week. Everywhere I went, people stopped me. A lady at Paddington Station told me that every time the programme came on, her four-year-old son asked: ‘Where’s the granny, Mummy? I want that granny to win.’
It is only when you reach the final rounds that the question arises: is this really a dance competition or general entertainment? John Sergeant withdrew in week ten. The reason he gave was that he believed he might go on to win – and there was every sign from the voting public’s support that he might.
WhEnI reached the tenth week of the 12-week competition, I took the opposite line. As long as the public wanted me, I said, I would stay. on the night I was finally eliminated, one red-top tabloid had prepared the alternative headline: ‘Professional backlash as Widdy heads for crown.’
Anton had decided that if we reached the final, we would fly into the studio suspended on wires and dance in the air. Think what the public missed!
Tony Adams seems to have taken the Sergeant line rather than the Widdecombe one, believing that the massed votes of Arsenal supporters gave him an unfair advantage. Maybe so. however, millions of voters will also have had their say – and surely it’s up to them to decide.
Tony, we’ll miss you.