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THE glitz,
glamour and sequins of Strictly Come Dancing sweep into Birmingham
this week for a three night run at the NIA with eight of the stars of
the last series, including winner Louis Smith. But one of the undoubted stars of the last series, carrying a beacon for those of us who are, should we say, more luxuriously upholstered, was larger than life character Lisa Riley pictured right Lisa signed up for the tour “mainly because it
meant I could keep dancing with my wonderful partner, Robin Windsor! We
are like brother and sister. We just hit it off right from the start. We
will be staying in touch and I have made a friend for life.” The format is much as with the TV show with the
judges and audience vote and a winner each night but Lisa said: “I
wasn't competitive within the series, so I'm not going to start now! I
just enjoy dancing. I'd love to win one or two but the professionals are
the ones who are competitive more than us. “The brilliant thing about the tour is that we
have our two dances that we do each night, so I think it will be much
less pressure than the show where we're learning different dances each
week. So I'm looking forward to hanging out with Dani Harmer and Denise
Van Outen as I really clicked with them. And Michael Vaughan - the four
of us are like Lethal Weapon Four! We have similar personalities.” Lisa has been seen around Midland theatres in
productions such as The Naked Truth, Calendar Girls and The Play What I
wrote and always lights up the stage as soon as he appears, something
she brought to the BBC's ratings winner. Her secret? “Just to be myself. I'm so proud of
that. I've just been myself from the start and it turns out that that's
what people like, which has been amazing. I never set out to win; I
achieved what I wanted to on the very first day which was to be myself
and learn to dance. “The response from the public has been amazing - apparently I'm the gay icon of the year, which I'm very proud of! I've broken down barriers and shown that everyone has a right to be who they want to be. It's still going on now - Robin and I can't believe it when we walk down the street and people keep coming up to us and saying they've loved watching us, and they say, 'Thanks for entertaining us'. "We are the people's champion, apparently!
Unbelievable.”
The dancing has taken it toll though with Lisa
having foot problems and she still has a shoulder problem and to give an
idea of the amount of physical effort involved in the show she has gone
from dress size 26 at the start to 18. As for the future? She said: “I've been offered
sitcoms, theatre, films, a bit of everything. Now I just have to sit
down and go through it all and make the right choice. It's a bit
overwhelming!” And her dream role? “I'd love to do something
like Cranford. I'm not interested in being a lady in diamonds or
something - I want to be the toothless cook in the 'downstairs' part of
the house!” As well as the dancing stars signed up for the
tour there are also the judges, Craig Revel Horwood, Len Goodman and
Bruno Tonioli with Kate Thornton hosting the the live show. The show is also directed, incidentally, by Craig
Revel Horwood, who is also responsible for the choreography.
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