'Ruthie Has Great Potential!'

Ruth Langsford and Anton Du Beke invite us into the training room to reveal their Strictly secrets…

- Emma Bullimore

ENTERTAINMENT

Strictly Come Dancing 

SATURDAY / BBC1 / 6.35PM SUNDAY / BBC1 / 7.15PM

Beyond the glamour of Saturday nights, every Strictly couple spends countless hours in the training room, rehearsing those flicks and kicks and getting ready to dazzle.

Ruth Langsford and perennial pro Anton Du Beke schedule their rehearsals around her presenting duties for This Morning and Loose Women. Today they’ve dashed straight from ITV’s HQ to a central London dance studio to put the finishing touches to their latest routine, with a little help from TV Times. Well, we can never resist a sneak preview…

Catching up during a break, Ruth, 57, and Anton, 51, explain why cake and cuppas are vital…

How are you finding training?

Ruth: I’m loving it; I feel like I’m in an episode of Fame! We come to these training rooms and there are people in ballet rehearsals or auditioning for musicals, which is thrilling. As you get nearer to show day the reality of the live performance starts to set in and you get nervous, but the training itself is very enjoyable. Anton’s such good fun and very kind – he lets me have a cup of tea before we start dancing and we always share a slice of cake!