Strictly Come Dancing: Ann Widdecombe wipes the floor with John Sergeant

[leilaalsopp]

He has a rictus grin. She has a look of fear and concentration. And the soundtrack is Wild Thing.
This is the rehearsal for a dance routine which could become a TV classic... or the stuff of nightmares.
Ann Widdecombe will tonight be dragged across the Strictly Come Dancing ballroom by Anton du Beke in the paso doble.

On the floor: Anton Du Beke is the matador and Ann Widdecombe is his cape

If you are wondering, he represents a matador; the 63-year-old former MP is his cape.
Tonight’s routine is drawing comparisons to John Sergeant’s paso doble on the show two years ago, which saw him stomping along as he dragged partner Kristina Rihanoff around the floor, earning him the nickname ‘the dancing pig’.


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Miss Widdecombe said yesterday that she has got bruises all over her body after a tough series of rehearsals for the dance.
Pictures from the pair’s practice sessions show the professional dancer swinging Miss Widdecombe around in the air and dragging her along the floor.

Don't drop her! Anton swings Ann through the air

She said: ‘I am the cape and Anton is the matador and the bull is somewhere unseen.
‘We are taking it quite seriously but I am sure people will laugh at it. I think my paso doble is magnificent. But then that’s famous last words and I will probably mess it up.

‘It is very powerful. At least Anton’s paso doble is very powerful. I am just trying to keep up with him.’
She said it had been a physically demanding week in training, but the intense exercise has left her weight – which she does not disclose – unchanged. ‘The scales have been consistent since I started,’ she said.

'Dancing pig': John Sergeant drags Kristina Rihanoff across the floor two years ago

Miss Widdecombe last week made a spectacular entrance by descending on to the dancefloor on a wire to perform a tango.
But she dismissed speculation that she would enter on a horse tonight, saying: ‘As a recent vice-president of the RSPCA I would never condone bringing a horse on to a brightly lit dancefloor.’
She added that she felt no embarrassment that the public was voting to keep her in ahead of other dancers.


In the pink: Ann and Anton doing the tango on last weekend's show

She said she had relied on the public as a politician and was ‘heart-warmed’ and ‘flattered’ by their support.

If Miss Widdecombe stays in this weekend, more intriguing challenges are on the cards.
‘There are the horrors like the charleston ahead, which is very fast and very precise, which won’t suit me at all,’ she said.

‘I’ve always wanted to dance the paso doble and lo and behold I am dancing the paso doble. Why worry about the future?’

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