Strictly Come Dancing 2023 star Angela Scanlon has opened up on ‘derogatory’ remarks that a producer made about her while she was working on another BBC show.
The TV presenter hosted the revived Robot Wars alongside Mock The Week comedian Dara Ó Briain. The show was broadcast on BBC Two between 2016 and 2018.
For the uninitiated, the competitive show saw robots – made by amateur and professional creators – go head to head in fights.
And it seems Angela, 39, was facing a battle of her own behind the scenes.
Impostor syndrome
Her career was at a critical point, after working her way up with stints on The One Show, the BAFTA red carpet and The Voice’s digital series.
Describing Robot Wars as a ‘big gig’, Angela told Tiffanie Darke’s podcast Fashion as a Force for Good that she was – understandably – a little anxious about it.
“It was Sunday night, eight o’clock, a big entertainment show and I had wild impostor syndrome,” she said. “So I felt very nervous about the actual doing of the job.”
Nerves turned to anger when she discovered – through a friend – that a producer on the series viewed her as the ‘t*ts and teeth’ of the show.
Read more: BBC producer told Claudia Winkleman to cut her fringe: ‘It’s just annoying’
‘So presumptuous’
Angela continued: “The next meeting I had with this person, there was a conversation less around the content – which in my mind was my job – and more around what are you thinking you’ll wear? I was like, ‘That’s not important.'”
Angela said that there was ‘absolutely no way in hell’ that she was going to walk around an industrial estate for two weeks in a mini skirt, noting Robot Wars was a family show.
She added: “It felt so reductive and so presumptuous that I would have arrived with my lippy on and my legs out to entertain the lads, and that was my value. Absolutely not.”
Angela further made her feelings known by insisting on wearing outfits that didn’t ‘flash the flesh’.
Strictly glory?
Good for Angela – that attitude certainly did her career no harm. Next month, she really hits the big time as one of this year’s stars of Strictly Come Dancing.
And Angela is already one of the favourites to lift the 2023 glitterball – before even stepping foot on the dance floor.
Are you looking forward to watching Strictly Come Dancing with Angela Scanlon this year? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and then let us know.