Strictly Come Dancing's Alex Kingston bashes ‘silly’ snobbery that stopped her joining the BBC show for 20 years
Alex Kingston says that her agent stopped her from taking part in Strictly Come Dancing in the past due to the "stigma" that surrounded the BBC show.
Alex Kingston found it "silly" that her agent had banned her from appearing on Strictly Come Dancing.
The 62-year-old actress is due to take to the dance floor for the new season of the BBC show, though has now revealed she had been forced to turn Strictly Come Dancing down in the past due to her theatre career.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror newspaper, Alex said: "It's funny because I've been asked in the past and my agent always sort of said, ‘No, you can't do it.’
"Now I think it's just that I've got to a certain stage in my life where he's like, ‘If you want to do it, Alex …’ because I've been wanting to do it for 20 years.
"For a long time I think there’s been a sort of stigma around Strictly and popular television. And if you're a theatre actor, theatre actors don't participate - which is silly. And it’s not true.
"I think it’s changing now, I really do. I think people are more generous in terms of their opinions about Strictly."
When asked why this could be the case, the Doctor Who star theorised: "Maybe because it’s been going for so long? Or that you’re seeing more actors just going, ‘Sod it, I want to do it.’ I mean I really don’t know!"
Alex added that her career as a theatre actor shouldn’t dictate the jobs she can take, nor should it mean that she should only perform for a "certain level of society".
She explained: "Just because I do Shakespeare, Shakespeare wrote populist plays, you know?
"He didn’t write for a certain level of society. So it’s a way of connecting with your audience."
Alex said she wanted to appear on Strictly Come Dancing even more after watching her friend Sarah Hadland take to the floor last year, though she became apprehensive about doing the show after learning of how intense the experience could be.
She said: "I know that it's going to be really challenging, and we’re all going to be pushed really to the edge, and beyond, of our comfort zone.
"But that's what life’s for, isn't it? Just jumping in, going for it. Doing things you'll never regret."
