Helen Skelton was left in pain and resorted to using frozen peas as a remedy, as she prepared to head to Blackpool for Strictly Come Dancing's long awaited return to the seaside town this weekend.
What has always been the most eagerly anticipated date in the Strictly diary has been shelved for the last two years, due to the Covid pandemic. The last time the cast and crew of the BBC show descended on the iconic Tower Ballroom, was back in 2019 when that year's winners, Kelvin Fletcher and Ori Mabuse, wowed with an Elvis themed jive to Jailhouse Rock.
And this weekend, after far too long away from the ballroom mecca, the Strictly team will take to th floor again, when the remaining couples get to dance at the world famous venue and hope to make it through to another week. One pair who have climbed up the betting in recent weeks are Helen and pro partner Gorka Marquez, as odds on them to win this year's Glitterball trophy shorten all the time.
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Ex Blue Peter host Helen had a rather rocky start to life on Strictly, fleeing rehearsals through a fire exit in the run up to the first live show and being dogged with a crippling lack of self confidence. However, over the last month, Helen, with plenty of encouragement from former finalist Gorka, seems to have turned a real corner.
After finishing joint top of the leaderboard with their Charleston on the BBC 100th Birthday show, they were right up there again with their well excited jive a fortnight later and earned an impressive 32 out of 40 for their salsa last weekend. Now they are busy rehearsing a Quickstep to Mark Ronson & Amy Winehouse classic Valerie for Blackpool, but Helen has taken to Instagram to reveal that training for their fast paced routine has taken its toll.
Sharing a photo of her and Gorka on her Instagram grid, Helen wrote: "Day one of the Quickstep done and the shoes will no longer go on my feet (standard) but on we trot." And, then sharing the extent of her Strictly war wounds on her Insta story, Helen posted a picture of a pack of frozen peas draped over her feet, captioning it: "Feet on fire."
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