'Truth' about Strictly as ex-finalist shares horrors to ER's Alex Kingston

Alex Kingston has revealed that she reached out to a former Strictly Come Dancing star to get some advice before she agreed to appear on the show. The actress, 62, is currently paired up with professional partner Johannes Radebe on the BBC Saturday night favourite and things seem to be going well as they scored a 21 for their Viennese waltz to Michael Buble's Cry Me A River in the first live show.

But Alex, who is best known for her roles in Doctor Who and US drama ER, was a little bit unsure when the offer came through for her to take part in the first place that she turned to one of her showbiz pals who had also taken part.

Alex made an appearance on Thursday's This Morning alongside Johannes, where she spoke of one former star of the ballroom who did not 'sugar coat' things to her when she asked for the 'truth' of the matter.

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The TV star is close friends with Sarah Hadland, 53, who is best known for starring as Stevie Sutton on Miranda, and knew that the former Waterloo Road actress was the best person to ask after she found herself in the final last year alongside Love Island's Tasha Ghouri and eventual winner Chris McCausland.

Alex, who starred alongside Sarah in a 2019 London production of the play Admissions, explained: "Sarah was my first port of call because I was offered the opportunity and I thought I would reach out to Sarah to really find out from her the truth behind the series. And she was great because she didn't sugar coat it at all and she did say that it was a lot, and it can be overwhelming and you have to hold onto your resilience.

The actress noted that The Job Lot star had warned her of the 'tiring' nature of the show, but assured her that she would be willing to go through it all again.

She added: [Sarah] also said it was the most tiring, hardest thing she'd ever done but that she would do it again in a heartbeat. She did leave it up to me to make the decision and, yeah, I didn't have to think very long. I just wanted to have a go!"

Sarah was paired up with Vito Coppola for the duration of the competition, and later expressed her 'gratitude' towards the professional dancer, 33, for making her and other women realise they can do anything no matter what their age.

Sarah told The Mirror: "Women come up to me every day and it makes me cry because there are two things they all say. They feel people have written them off – but, worse, they've accepted it.

"It's one thing to have other people say, 'Are you really going to do that? Aren't you a bit old?' What's worse is you going, 'Yeah, I am'.

"It's like, no! Vito wouldn't accept that from me. It did cause friction at times because I'd be like, 'I can't do it', and I'd get annoyed when he'd tell me to try it anyway… and then I'd do it.

"And I'm so grateful to him for that, for his perseverance – for his rock solid belief in me, telling me not to limit myself. Sometimes I'd feel frightened that Vito believed in me. I thought, 'I'm gonna let you down'. I think as women you often have that self-doubt. But now I don't let it stop me."

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday night from 6.20pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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