Shirley Ballas "dropped to her knees" when she found out she’d landed the Head Judge role on the forthcoming series of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.
The 56-year-old dancer will replace Len Goodman – who walked away from the show at the end of last year – on the panel when the ballroom and latin programme returns to screens later this month but she has admitted she never expected to land the job and lost control of her legs when she received the phone call from producers.
Speaking on ‘Lorraine’ on Friday (08.09.17), she said: "I was at work in Los Angeles in the studio and the phone went and I excused myself from the lesson and I just dropped to my knees when the lady said we want to offer you the job. So many great people went for the lovely role… and they chose me with my credentials."
And the brunette beauty is certainly ready for the role as she’s been having lessons with Len – who worked on the show for 12 years – in the run up to the series launch.
Speaking of the former Head Judge, she said: "Len I’ve known all my life, I did some lessons with him, he’s a friend of the family, he’s knows my children. He’s just an amazing man and he’s a fan of me and I’m a fan of him."
But her role isn’t just limited to giving her opinion on the competitors as she’ll also have to make sure her panel – including Bruno Tonioli, Darcey Bussell and Craig Revel Horwood – are kept in line.
She added: "If I can just keep Bruno on his space… I reckon I’ll have to have good peripheral vision because I will be dodging and ducking."
And, although she’s going to be a nice judge, Shirley won’t go easy on the stars.
She said: "No, no… no, because you come into the show, you understand about what you’re signing up for I imagine. I hope so anyway. They have several weeks to prepare […] I’m expecting quite interesting things from the very beginning. I’m not expecting them to dance like world champions. But they’ll come in and we’ll start to see who’s serious, who’s nervous. It’s a competition for me, I take it quite serious."
Shirley Ballas ‘dropped to her knees’ when she got Strictly job
