Celebrity
Angela Rippon on why dance classes should be prescribed by the NHS, ageing and how being single allows her work diary to remain jam-packed
Angela Rippon is exiting her 70s with gusto. After finishing seventh on Strictly Come Dancing last November, she’s just completed the show’s 30-date nationwide tour, is hosting the 16th series of hit consumer show Rip Off Britain, plus filming for BBC’s The One Show and making plans for her 80th birthday in October. Phew!
And when the 79-year-old finds five minutes to finally catch her breath, the veteran broadcaster has a certain someone in her sights – chief medical officer, Sir Chris Whitty. ‘He was [recently] talking about wanting older people to do more exercise because, if you do, you’re more flexible, stronger, less likely to be ill or to have accidents. He mentioned all sorts of exercises that people should be doing, specifically dance. I’ve been a bit busy, but he’s on my list [of people] to be in touch with to say, “Hello Mr
Whitty. We can do this. Let’s get people dancing,”’ says Angela, who is an ambassador for the Royal Academy of Dance’s Silver Swan’s programme, which encourages older learners into ballet, and supports the idea of dance being made available on the NHS.
‘The more people that dance, the fewer people are going to have accidents or be ill or feel they’re constantly wanting to go to the doctor. He’s in my sights!’
Angela is talking from experience. As well as shedding a stone in weight during her stint on Strictly last year in the arms of 28-year-old pro dancer Kai Widdrington, the star says the six-hours-a-day training over four months improved her health hugely. ‘I have asthma and, when we started, I could not get to the end of a routine without being totally out of breath and having to
resort to my puffer. Now, all right, I still get a bit breathless, but not anything as breathless as before. Dancing has improved my lung function. It’s made me stronger,’ says Angela, who made history as the show’s oldest-ever contestant and impressed the judges with jaw-dropping high kicks and a natural flexibility that truly belies her age.
In 1975, two years after joining the BBC national news, Angela became Britain’s first female newsreader to be appointed permanently, fronting the Nine O’Clock News on BBC1.
Still with a ‘full-time job’ in television, Angela says she works at ‘much the same pace now’ as she did all those years ago but disagrees with her Rip Off Britain co-host and friend Gloria Hunniford, 83, who once described her as a �
