Birds of a Feather star Lesley Joseph has vowed to silence her Strictly critics as she warns them 'You don't know me!'
Actress Lesley Joseph has vowed to prove her doubters wrong on Strictly Come Dancing.
At 70, she is the oldest female contestant ever to waltz on to the BBC1 show, which this year also features Daisy Lowe, Will Young and Ed Balls.
Lesley, famous for playing Dorien in Birds Of A Feather, told ITV show Loose Women that viewers felt sorry for her dance partner Anton Du Beke.
“I’m 70. I am the age I am. Yes, a lot of people are saying, ‘Poor Anton, she’s the oldest woman who’s ever done it’, but they don’t know me,” Joseph said.
“I’ve got more energy then the rest of you put together,” she said to the Loose Women panel.
“I was born in a trunk, I first went on stage aged seven and I’ve never stopped since.”
Lesley said she had to install a massage table in the dining room of her house to ease the pain from rehearsing gruelling dance routines.
“The first week, I thought I’d never walk again,” she admitted. “I go home and put salts in the bath, I’m there for half an hour. I’ve got a massage bed in my dining room now.”
She said: “It is such fun and my thighs are shrinking.”
But she added: “I had no idea how precise you have to be with your footwork… shoulders down, back in, bum in.”
Lesley already works with Craig Revel Horwood, alternating with the Strictly judge in the role of Miss Hannigan in a tour of Annie.
“I do a job-share with Craig Revel Horwood so it’s going to be very strange standing in front of him and saying, ‘How was I, Craig?’,” she said.
Anton said: “Lesley is tremendous, absolutely wonderful. No disrespect to my previous partners, who I love dearly, but she picks things up so quickly.
“She leapt into my arms (on the launch show). I thought, ‘This is a good start’.”
Strictly returns on Friday for the first live show of the series.
