Angela Rippon on Strictly and TV career still going strong in 70s

She made history as BBC TV’s first full-time female newsreader and went on to dance her way into the hearts of the nation.

Angela Rippon – who in 1976 wowed audiences as a guest on the Morecambe & Wise Christmas show with a surprise high-kick dance routine – is still dancing today.

Now 79, she is the oldest ever contestant in TV’s Strictly Come Dancing – which is heading for Scotland this week, specifically Glasgow’s OVO Hydro, where from Friday to Sunday she will perform in the sparkling, star-studded Strictly Tour.

At the age of 79, Angela Rippon was the oldest contestant to appear on Strictly with professional dance partner Kai Widdrington.

And Angela, who was the eighth to leave the 2023 series after an impressive run with professional dancer Kai Widdrington that took her all the way to Blackpool, reveals it will be something of a homecoming.

She remembers how, aged five and listening to her Scots granny’s musings about her home of Killiecrankie, she could never have imagined the glittering future that lay ahead, which includes more than six decades hosting TV shows such as Top Gear, Antiques Roadshow, Eurovision, Good Morning Britain, Come Dancing, The One Show and, currently, Rip Off Britain.

Angela’s Scottish family

“My grandmother came from Killiecrankie. She was a Sanderson,” Angela said as she took a break from gruelling rehearsals for the tour that kicked off in Birmingham on Friday.”

“Granny died when I was six. She always called me ‘my wee hen’. When I was a little girl, I didn’t believe there was a place called Killiecrankie. I thought my granny made it up. She showed it to me on the map one day and the poem about the battle of Killiecrankie.

“My mum was brought up in Edinburgh. So, I am half Scottish on my mother’s side, and I am only the second girl born to my grandmother’s family that was not born in Scotland. There is a whole branch of the family in Scotland that I have never met.

“I could never have imagined back then where I am now – not that I had a crystal ball. I have ended up having a career over half a century where I have been doing things, going to places and meeting people that others would give their right arm for.”

Angela at the Pebble Mill studios. — Angela at the Pebble Mill studios for her debut in The Archers.

It’s a career that might have been cut off in its prime if the then BBC director John Birt – now a Baron – had had his way. She revealed: “John Birt 40 years ago said ‘Angela, you have to accept you have had your day and it’s time to let the younger women coming up behind you have their chance’.

“My response to that was there is room for everybody. You’re not going to throw away all that professional expertise and knowledge. And I am still here.”

‘Age is totally unimportant’

Angela was at the vanguard of female broadcasting along with her great mates, the legendary That’s Life presenter Esther Rantzen, 83, whose BBC TV career began in the early 1960s, and Gloria Hunniford, also 83, who joined the BBC TV news team in Belfast in 1969.

Another dear pal is “youngster” Julia Somerville, 76, who joined the BBC radio newsroom as a sub-editor in 1972, just over a decade later going on to present the Nine O’Clock News, as Angela had before her.

“I do Rip Off Britain with Gloria who is in her 80s and Julia who is in her 70s,” said Angela, of the show that is heading into its 17th year. “Look at all the women who have come behind us.

“It is brilliant we now have so many women in television, and in sport, engineering, and commerce. Women have demonstrated they can do the job and they are there on merit. Age is totally unimportant.”

Angela Rippon performing Bring Me Sunshine with Ernie Wise on The Morecambe & Wise Christmas Special in 1976.

Esther, she says, is a prime example. The TV veteran was awarded an OBE for services to broadcasting in 1991, a CBE for services to children in 2006, and made a Dame in 2015 for her work for children and older people through Childline and The Silver Line. Dame Esther only stood down from her role with Childline last month despite having been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in May.

She revealed in December that she is undergoing a “miracle” treatment but told Radio 4’s The Today Podcast that if it does not work, she “might buzz off to Zurich”, where assisted dying is legal.

A pensive Angela said: “Esther is very ill. She and I have been mates for 30 years. I worked with her late husband, producer Desmond Wilcox, too.

“All her friends just want her to hang in there because we love her so much.”

A life in broadcasting

Angela took ballet and tap classes as a child in Plymouth, but after leaving school and going into photojournalism, later getting her start in broadcasting with the region’s Westward Television, she didn’t have time to pursue her hobby.

She married childhood sweetheart Christopher Dare in 1967 before a painful break-up and divorce in 1989. They did not have children.

She likes to keep her personal life private and although admitting she loves to cook and entertain, is reluctant to reveal her dearest friends outside of those she’s met through work – so there’s little chance of hearing about her love life.

Filming the Antiques Roadshow, which began in 1979.

Fitness and dancing are her passion. “When I was a very young reporter at Westward Television, I interviewed Eileen Fowler who was a keep fit expert during the Second World War. She was in her 60s and said the body is like a machine with thousands of moving parts and if you don’t use it as you get older, it will seize up.

“So, you have to keep your body moving so that you can be strong and fit and supple well into your 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond” she said.

“I’ve still a full-time job in television and have to be fit for 12-hour days. So I cycle, do Pilates and play tennis. Five years ago, I became ambassador for the Royal Academy of Dance Silver Swans programme for men and women over 50. So when I am not working, I go to ballet dance classes.

“And I love Strictly. I have the most wonderful partner in Kai. There is a 51-year age gap between us, but you’d never know it when we are together because we have become such mates. He has a keen sense of humour, and we get on like a house on fire.

“My mission in life is to get everybody dancing. With dance you use every single bit of your body and you are not going to be isolated and lonely if you go to a dance class. I would love it if people have been energised or inspired by what I have done. I’d love that they might think, “if she can do it, I can too.”

Angela Rippon is part of the Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour with judges Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke and Craig Revel Horwood will be at the OVO Hydro Glasgow from Friday to Sunday with four shows. Visit strictlycomedancinglive.com/tour-dates-2024