Strictly final favourite ‘calm’ about result after falling in love with dancing
Stacey Dooley has said taking part in Strictly Come Dancing has given her such a love for dance that she watches video of judge Shirley Ballas on her phone during tea breaks.
The documentary filmmaker is the bookies’ favourite to triumph in tonight’s live final where she will compete against Joe Sugg, Faye Tozer and Ashley Roberts to lift the glitterball trophy. The broadcaster, who has made documentaries for the BBC about subjects including child labour and women in developing countries, said she was happy the series had given her the chance to show a different side of herself.
She now enjoys watching videos of the head judge when she was a Latin champion.
Dooley said :“the lovely thing for me personally is you’re able to have conversations with the general public about lighter, celebratory things.
“Sometimes work is so intense and can be so harrowing. It’s very serious and it has to be, the subjects are very dark a lot of time. So for me it’s just been people stopping me in Sainsbury’s saying ‘I loved your samba, when you had feathers coming out of every part of your body’ ... they are so invested and I have loved it.
“I really didn’t realise I would love it this much.”
The four remaining couples will each perform three times during the glittering finale – a judges’ selection dance, their own favourite routine from the series and a new show dance. Dooley said: “I feel good, I feel calm. I just want to go into this final with no real expectations.”
Her professional partner Kevin Clifton has said his pairing with Dooley has made him fall in love with dancing again.
The dancer has never won the BBC show, despite coming close on numerous occasions. “I was really hoping to get Stacey as my partner ... but I thought she would be serious because of the way she is in her documentaries,” he said. “Then it turned out once we got in the training room that she’s really hyper a lot of time.
“I have sort of fallen in love with dance and fallen in love with Strictly all over again.”
The Strictly Come Dancing final is on BBC One at 6:30pm.