If Strictly doesn't go well, I won't be Pete Wicks, I'll be Pete Icks'

TV favourite Pete Wicks opens up about his Strictly experience, new autobiography, grief and friendships

- SHELLEY SPADONI

Pete Wicks is in demand. Even by the former TOWIE star’s standards he’s a busy man, having just released his powerful memoir Never Enough, hosted a lively red carpet at the National Television Awards with BFF Sam Thompson and begun rehearsals for Strictly Come Dancing.

Yes, the tattooed, swearing Essex charmer is hitting the dance floor for the show’s 20th anniversary, and it doesn’t seem to have sunk in yet. “Ridiculous, isn’t it?” he says, with a knowing smile, when we meet on our exclusive shoot.

“I’m too old and decrepit,” he laughs. “I’m 36, but I look about 56. It’s one of the reasons I’m doing Strictly – for the glow-up. Right now I look like I woke up in a wheelie bin.”

But the self-deprecating put-downs belie the fact that cheeky chappy Pete is one of telly’s best-loved personalities, and his stint on the BBC show will be sure to give him a whole new legion of fans, particularly among the ladies.

Surprisingly, it’s a prospect he’s nervous about. “It is a different kind of person that watches Strictly and many will have a preconceived idea of who I am.

“A lot of press over the years has been a caricature of me. If viewers give me a chance, they might realise I’m not that bad. I just hope I don’t make a complete t*t of myself.”

The million dollar question, though is, can he dance? “No! I don’t even dance at weddings – I stand at the bar and get p**sed! I’ve got hip action, but I’m a Ferrari from the waist down and a Volvo from the waist up.”

Admitting that getting past week one “will be a bonus”, Pete is haunted by the words of a female friend, who told him recently that a bloke who can’t dance gives her the “ick”. “So yeah, if this whole Strictly thing doesn’t go well, I’ll no longer be Pete Wicks, I’ll be Pete Icks…”

The celebrity cast list this year is a “rag-tag bunch” who are already getting on like a house on fire, he adds.