Natasha: "I Was Desperate Not To Do Strictly"

Natasha Kaplinsky has left the BBC for Five, and now feels she is in a position to talk about her career there.

She has given an interview to the Daily Mail in which she claimed she was cajouled into doing the show.

She says: "I was desperate not to do Strictly, but I'd just joined the BBC and I was the nearest and weakest victim. I said no and then got taken into a dark corner and told, 'I'm sure not doing it won't penalise your career,' which was said in such a way that meant, if I didn't do it, I was history."

This isn't a huge revalation. On the show, she frequently joked about wanting to injure herself in order to get out of it. Viewers could see that she wasn't keen, until she finally put her trust in Brendan and enjoyed the dancing.

Of Brendan, she says: "There was chemistry, of course, and I certainly fell in love with dancing, but I did not fall in love with Brendan."

I appreciate Natasha's feelings about not wanting to do the show, but I hope that she can look back on her achievement with fondness. She is in a very small, elete club of Strictly Come Dancing Champions, and that is something to be proud of.