Loose Women's Kaye Adams is leaving her comfort zone for Strictly 2022

“Well, despite the fact I can’t dance, I’ve always had a little thing in the back of my head when I see people dancing and I envy it,” she explains. “When you're offered something like this you either think to yourself, why would I do that? Or you think to yourself, why wouldn't I do that?”

She laughs: “And I fell on the side of why wouldn't I do that, and here I am….”

Kaye with some of her fellow Strictly co-stars. Pic: BBC (Image: BBC)

Kaye cheerfully admits she has no previous dance experience.

“Unless you count Scottish country dancing at school?” she says. “Although I don't think that's exactly what we're doing here. I actually got thrown out of ballet class when I was five. The dance teacher told my mum that I might be better at doing something else as I have kipper feet… whatever they are.”

Glasgow will be rooting for Kaye – who hosts the BBC Radio Scotland morning phone-in show here in the city – when she takes to the dancefloor in tonight’s (Friday, September 23) launch show, postponed as a result of the Queen’s funeral.

Kaye Adams. Pic: BBC (Image: BBC)

The live shows start on Saturday, September 24, and Kaye – who says she signed up to make the most of the last year of her 50s – says her biggest challenge will be casting off her inhibitions.

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“I just need to loosen up a bit,” says the host of ITV’s Loose Women, adding with a laugh: “Yes, that’s the irony…

“But I've always been quite a reserved person. I've told myself I'm a rubbish dancer for 40 years and that sinks in. I suppose it's the dances that really require me to go way outside my comfort zone that will be the biggest challenge.”

She laughs: “I mean, everything's going to be outside my comfort zone, but some of it is going to be like going to the North Pole in a pair of flip flops. So I guess the Paso Doble and all that kind of shaky, sultry stuff is what’s going to test me to the limits.”

Kaye is ready to be ‘Strictlified’, with glamorous hair and make-up and glittery dresses aplenty on the horizon.

“It's all a bit of fun and to a certain extent, it's camouflage,” she says. “There’s no point in coming this far and then trying to do half measures. I am trying to persuade them to give me a sequined balaclava to disguise my terrible sexy face. I should really speak to wardrobe about that…”

To prepare, Kaye has an unusual bedtime routine. “I am watching YouTube videos of Anne Widdecombe every night,” she says. The Tory MP took part in an earlier season, dancing with Anton du Beke and providing the longrunning BBC One show with some of its most unforgettable moments.

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“A friend of mine is a choreographer, so he is showing me some of the basic steps and also making me disco-dance around the room ‘like no-one is watching’,” grins Kaye.

“He says I have to getting used to feeling foolish.”

Kaye has had some advice from her Loose Women colleagues who have done the show, including Gloria Hunniford and Katie Piper.

“Ruth Langsford advised me to have a ‘lady bag’ at rehearsals because ‘it can get a bit sweaty’,” she says, with a laugh. “Everyone says the key thing to do is to just enjoy every moment.”

She adds: “I thought Judy Murray did brilliantly when she was on the show, she was just so endearing in the whole thing and I think people really warmed to that.

“But I think my biggest competition is myself. I am not that good at letting go and strutting my stuff. So it’s going to be a pitch battle between Kaye and my new alter ego Fifi La Touché….”

Strictly Come Dancing starts on BBC ONE on Friday, September 23, at 7pm, and continues on Saturday, September 24, at 6.45pm.