Shirley Ballas: Bring me the Royals!

The show’s head judge has urged the Monarchy to get involved and throw some shapes on primetime tv – and she wants singing royalty to join them!

“I would love somebody from the Royal family [to take part], because they love the show,” Shirley said. “And I would love Tom Jones just so I could watch him samba to, ‘it’s not unusual to be loved by anyone’! I would love to meet that man in my lifetime.

“I would also love a member of the public planted clearly inside the show so that they could see what it’s like with the celebrities.”

Shirley has been reflecting on the success of the long-running series that shows no signs of waning, and her enthusiasm for the show is as strong as ever.

“Strictly has lasted so long—we’re over 20 years old now—because it’s for everyone. It’s for families. It’s for the young ones. Sometimes I get little letters or drawings that I put on my refrigerator. And then I get grandmas and grandpas who might be a bit grumpy because I sent their love home!

“Every year we seem to get a great cast. Every year we have people with different journeys, and I think this year was no exception. It was absolutely outstanding from the beginning to the end.”

Whilst Strictly will always be Shirley’s main passion, she took herself out of her comfort zone to appear on new Netflix series ‘Celebrity Bear Hunt’ with Bear Grylls. It proved to be a real challenge with Shirley happy to do the quickstep away from the creepy crawlies in the Costa Rican jungle that left her nerves in a state of cha cha cha.

“Petrifyingly terrifying from the beginning to the end,” she said of her time on the show. “We had to share our space with critters, mosquitos and flies. Actually, they were sharing their space with us!

“There was one point where he [Bear Grylls] was teaching us how to survive and showed us how to pee in this plastic bag with the food in! In a bag! And then you put this thing in and then there’s your drink and there’s your food!

“But of course, me being me I’m always the one that will go and try everything. So, I think I did things that were way out of my comfort zone. I learned that I actually love the outdoors and I’m looking forward to doing some more outdoor things.

“I learned to like my own company because I’ve always been a little bit nervous about being without my phone, without my friends, without my mum!”

Read Shirley’s full exclusive interview:

https://www.whichbingo.co.uk/news/shirley-ballas-on-strictly-magic-new-adventures-and-her-dream-scd-contestants/