The Stage

Len Goodman

Published Friday 5 October 2007 at 11:00 by Matthew Hemley

The fifth series of Strictly Come Dancing kicks off this weekend, with contestant including TV stars Letitia Dean and Brian Capron. Matthew Hemley talks to judges Arlene Phillips and Len Goodman as they prepare to vet the next batch of dancers.

---

When the producers of Strictly Come Dancing first asked Len Goodman about being on the show, he was approaching his 60th birthday and considering his retirement.

The last thing he expected was a role in a BBC programme that would become a Saturday night favourite and make him a TV personality.

“The producers interviewed loads of dance teachers from all styles of dance and I was one of the last interviewed,” he explains. “I got the job two weeks before the show started. The first show was on my 60th birthday, so I was on the way to retiring and taking it easy. Little did I know that this would come along and take over my life. It has been a marvellous experience.”

Goodman is amazed by the response the show has had from audiences, particularly as he initially thought the concept was “bizarre”, and claims that the series has helped change people’s perception of dance.

Until Strictly Come Dancing, he says people imagined all ballroom dancers to be like “that mincey guy and lady in Hi-de-Hi!” and says the programme shows people how physically tough it is and how dedicated you have to be to do it.

While he acknowledges there will always be some people who attach a stigma to dance, he claims there are other things that people do which are more “sissy” than ballroom. Such as football, for example.

“Those footballers score a goal, they kiss and cuddle each other and then go into the showers and compare each other’s willies,” he says. “In dance you have a beautiful girl and you are holding her close. Which one is the more sissy - I don’t know.”

So, it will be interesting to see what Goodman makes of footballer John Barnes, who is taking part in the new series when it returns this weekend.

Barnes will be strutting his stuff alongside the likes of GMTV’s Kate Garraway and BBC presenter Gabby Logan.

Some of these contestants will be surprisingly good, others not so. One contestant who impressed Goodman recently was Heather Mills, who appeared on Dancing With the Stars, the US version of the show.

“I was incredibly surprised by her skill,” he says. “If you have been involved with dance you know how difficult it is. To do it with one leg is amazing. In the first couple of weeks, you waited to see if she would fall over and how she would cope with her disability, but after that, I was not aware of it. She was just another dancer. Her choreographer Jonathan Roberts did a great job.”

One who was not so impressive however was motoring aficionado, Quentin Willson, who appeared in the second series of Strictly Come Dancing.

“Up until him, I used to say anyone can dance,” Goodman confesses. “But he was the one who proved me totally wrong. He had no musical ability at all, no natural rhythm. Most people can clap in time, but he had no chance whatsoever.”

Not that it matters too much. Seeing a celebrity struggle provides much of the show’s entertainment value and Goodman realises without them, the show would not exist.

“The Strictly Come Dancing format is marvellous,” he says. “It has so many good things going for it. You have celebrities in an environment they are not used to and who are outside of their comfort zones, and that has an appeal. The show will last as long as the celebs are prepared to come out and have a go.”

While being a TV judge is what Goodman has become known for, his heart lies with his dance school, the Goodman Dance Centre in Kent, which he has been running for more than 40 years.

It is a venture he set up after discovering a passion for dance in his teens after suffering a foot injury that meant he could not play football.

“One of my friends said he used to go to a local dance studio,” he says. “So I went along and it was marvellous. There were 60 girls and six blokes. I really enjoyed it, but of course I had the mickey taken out of me - it was the sixties and people thought it was sissy for guys to do any form of dance. However, I was old enough to not care what people thought and some of my friends actually came and started doing a bit too.”

Though he himself no longer teaches at this dance centre, he pops in every now and then to make sure everything is running smoothly.

For now, he is enjoying his new found status and is looking forward to more series of Strictly Come Dancing.

“I don’t feel like a celebrity at all,” he says. “I am the same Len Goodman who has a dance school and has done a few shows on TV. My friends take the mickey and no one treats me any different, because I have not become any different. Some people might start to believe they are what they are not, but I am just who I always was - a dance teacher who got lucky.”

The fifth series of Strictly Come Dancing starts on Saturday, October 6 on BBC1