Tony Blackburn: 'We're eye candy for the Over 60s!
I'm A Celeb winner and legendary DJ Tony Blackburn will be strutting his stuff for Let's Dance for Sport Relief. Here, Tony, 69, hints at what viewers can expect... How did you and fellow DJ David Hamilton get involved with Let's Dance for Sport Relief? "The producers basically said they had a dance in mind - and they wanted David and I to do it. We have been friends for over 35 years, but we've never danced together. I wouldn't want to slow dance with him, that's for sure!" What's your dancing like generally? "I'm not great - my wife said they should have hired a plank of wood! Put it this way, I don't give a lot of hip action. And if David gave too much he'd need a replacement. We're certainly the oldest couple - David's 74 - and we can barely move, but we're not bad for our ages." Can you give us any hints about the routine you'll be doing on the first live show? "It's definitely uptempo and quite energetic, so it will be exhausting to do. We'll just do our best and, you never know, we might surprise everyone - we might even surprise ourselves. Hopefully, we can at least give people a good laugh." How will you handle criticism from the judging panel? "Very personally. No, I'm joking. We won't exactly be hurt by it, but it would be great if they loved what we did and we won." Do you think you might really have a chance of winning? "David and I are both very competitive, so we're definitely in it to win it. It would be lovely to get some public support but I think we're after the sympathy vote. We're hoping all the pensioners of this country will get behind us – we could be the eye candy for the Over 60s!" Let's Dance for Sport Relief returns to BBC1 for its fourth series on Saturday, February 18.
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.