We’re jive talking with KELVIN
Simon gage HOT-SHOE SHUFFLES WITH FORMER EMMERDALE AND STRICTLY STAR KELVIN FLETCHER AS HE PONDERS OTI, LYCRA AND MODELLING IN HIS PANTS
‘IDIDN’T know if I could do any choreography but I always thought I had a bit of a groove,’ says Kelvin Fletcher with massive understatement – after 20 years playing Emmerdale’s Andy Sugden, he’s now become Strictly’s surprise favourite. ‘But I didn’t know how transferable my ability was. You’ve just got to train hard, 12 hours a day, and lose your inhibitions. Footwork might be wrong or your frame might be wrong but if the performance is there…’
And it most certainly has been there, as he proved at Blackpool Tower last Saturday when his jive earned him three tens from the judges. Now he’s gearing up for tomorrow’s return to Elstree, where he’ll be letting his street style loose on Frank Wilson’s Motown classic Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) – a song that’s as upbeat as he is…
Who did you take to Blackpool to see your triumph?
You don’t get a huge ticket allocation so I took the two most important people: my mum and my nan. My family are proud of me anyway but doing something like this, they’ve been so happy and delighted. My mum came and saw me do the opening number and she told me what a great boy I’d grown up to be, so that’s amazing. I can probably get away with forgetting a birthday card now.
That first week was such a surprise. For a start, people with muscles are usually a bit stiff…
I’ve been meeting people who go, ‘Ooh, you’re not actually that big, are you?’ but I work out and I train. I do mix it up and I do focus on flexibility. Oti [his dance partner] had me bending in all
sorts of positions every morning to warm up so maybe she knows flexibility is the answer.
How are you getting on with Oti?
Well, what can I say with her sitting right next to me? She’s amazing! [Whispers] I can’t stand her. We had our first meeting, informal, had a little dance together, and from there it’s been great. I’m out of my comfort zone but I feel like I’ve got my sister with me. But she’s pretty brutal. She has these standards she sets and I say, ‘I don’t think I can do that.’ Three days later I’m doing it.
Why did you leave Emmerdale when you did?
I thought about leaving it for the best part of two years. The world had changed, what with Netflix and some incredible BBC dramas, and I just thought, as an actor I want to do that. I’d had an incredible time at Emmerdale and loved every minute but it felt like time to spread my wings. Doing Strictly, people have been saying: ‘I didn’t expect that,’ and I think, ‘Well, if you saw me doing an American accent or playing a villain…’ They wouldn’t expect that either. And I want that.
Is there a game plan?
It’s funny, I went to Mary Poppins last night and as a kid I was a massive musical theatre fan but it was never anything I had a skill set for, I certainly wasn’t a dancer or a singer. So who knows? I’d love to do a musical. I want to do it all.
I can hold a note, Frank Sinatra-type stuff. I sing in the shower and think
I sound all right but I’d need some intense training.
You were a last-minute choice for Strictly. Were you on the subs’ bench?
No, there’s no subs’ bench. I’d had conversations before because I’m a huge fan. But I wasn’t a stand-in, it was just an out-of-the-blue phone call: ‘Are you free? Do you have anything in the diary?’ And I said, ‘What, next year?’ And they said, ‘No, tomorrow.’ A week later I’m in tight Lycra doing a samba with Oti Mabusi. I met Jamie Laing [from Towie, who he replaced] in the Green Room and gave him my commiserations but a lot of things have been happening. We lost Will [Bayley, paralympian], who was so great and you could see what it meant to him. But he had to leave with an injury.
How would you feel about being knocked out?
I’m a positive person but if my Strictly journey were to come to an end I can’t think of anything but absolute gratitude. Regardless of how it pans out, it’s been the experience of a lifetime. And I’ve made a friend for life in Oti.
Last time we spoke it was an interview for a gay magazine and you were in your pants. Does Strictly mean your days of pants modelling are over?
I would love to do it again. In my pants? Absolutely! Why not?
The next episode of Strictly Come Dancing is on BBC1 tomorrow at 7pm