Joe McFadden refuses to return to 'Strictly Come Dancing' because he 'can't choose the dance'
Last year’s winner of Strictly Come Dancing Joe McFadden won’t be returning to open this year’s new series because he can’t choose his own dance, according to reports.
Every year, the previous year’s winner dances at the launch of the new series, but the Holby City star will now break that tradition.
According to the Daily Mirror, show producers chose the ‘most memorable’ of his dances on the show for him to perform, but he ‘threw a strop’ at the choice.
“Every year, the winner is invited back to perform a standout routine – for Ore Oduba that was his jive, Jay McGuiness did his Pulp Fiction jive, and Caroline Flack came back to salsa again,” a source told the paper.
“Joe didn’t want to do the dance selected but they wouldn’t let him do something else. It’s a shame.”
Reps for the BBC dance show have confirmed that ‘Joe isn’t able to perform’, but have not commented on why.
He recently revealed that he now rarely dances because of the attention that it brings.
“It’s kind of difficult because when you’ve been on this show, people’s expectations are very high,” he told the Press Association.
“I’m very reluctant to dance because people’s eyes are on you, seeing if you are good dancer or not, and I’m basically not a very good dancer unless I have someone giving me steps!”
He also praised this year’s crop of contestants.
“It’s a fantastic line-up,” he added. “There is someone in there for everyone. Everyone at home has to be able to relate to a couple of people.
“There is someone off Casualty, there is a presenter, there’s a Paralympian… it ticks every box for me.”
Among this year’s dancers are Katie Piper, Dr Ranj Singh, cricket Graeme Swann, news presenter Kate Silverton and Lee Ryan from Blue.
The series launches on September 8.
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