BBC Breakfast star Dan Walker has dropped a major hint that he could temporarily be leaving the morning programme to balance his Strictly Come Dancing workload.
It comes just days after his regular co-host Louise Minchin quit the show for good after 20 years on the programme.
The presenter is soon to take to the dance floor to compete for the coveted Glitterball trophy – but the new commitment means that three o’clock starts might no longer be doable.
Speaking to Daily Star and other publications, Dan explained: “Having watched the programme or a long time, I know that everyone does things differently.
“Some people give up their jobs for three months, some people move to London and concentrate on the programme fully. I’ve always been busy so I don’t quite know how it’s going to work with three o’clock starts at the beginning of the week.”
(Image: BBC)
He went on: “I’m also doing The NFL Show – on Fridays we record that, so yeah I’ve got a few jobs plus Strictly!”
But Dan wasn’t quite ready to confirm anything on the BBC Breakfast front yet, as he added: “I’ll fit the [Strictly] training in where I can. I’m determined that I won’t go out of this competition for not trying hard enough, so that might be my curse!
“But I will definitely do as much training as I possibly can, and fit that around other stuff.”
Keen to see the silver lining in his rather hefty workload, Dan mused: “I think not doing 100 percent Strictly gives you a good bit of perspective, and a sort of normal life as well, which I think is probably important.”
(Image: BBC/Ray Burmiston)
And his Breakfast co-stars have already been supporting him through the process, as he said Louise will definitely be watching him take to the ballroom floor.
“Louise is gonna watch, she likes the programme, I know that,” Dan explained. “I know that Naga [Munchetty], Carol [Kirkwood], Mike [Bushell] and Chris Hollins, who used to be on Breakfast, and Ore [Oduba] – they’ve all been lovely in their advice, and been really supportive.”
But Dan’s presenting stint has also landed him in a bit of hot water – as he hit headlines for accidentally revealing Strictly’s start date for 2021.
The slip-up has even won Dan a brand-new nickname on the WhatsApp group he set up so the celebs could get to know each other.
(Image: danwalker/Instagram)
“They’re all calling me the dad of the WhatsApp group – but the other nickname they’ve got for me is StrictlyLeaks, because I inadvertently gave away the start date of Strictly Come Dancing on BBC Breakfast, which was a total error!” he chuckled.
“The reason why I did that is I go in the local Post Office quite regularly because there are four lovely ladies I always have a good chat to. They’re Strictly obsessed, and the day before I mentioned it on BBC Breakfast they told me, ‘We’re really looking forward to it starting on the 18th!'”
Dan continued: “So in my head I thought everybody already knows it’s the 18th! But it turns out they’d just been guessing, and I talked about it on Breakfast and I didn’t realise it hadn’t been announced yet.”
Opening up more on his competition, Dan said he’s keen to help ease any anxieties surrounding their appearance on the show – which is why he established the WhatsApp in the first place.
(Image: BBC)
“I’ve been in this situation before – I don’t worry about things like this, I’m excited about it and really looking forward to it – but I know it’s really easy to get anxious and feel a bit concerned and worry about what’s going to happen,” he explained.
“So I set the group up and everybody wanted to be involved and it’s been lovely to share pictures and have a really good laugh, and we’ve also gotten to know each other quite well.”
Dan’s kids, in particular, are ecstatic about his Strictly appearance – but they, too, nearly learned the news too early.
He shares three children with wife Sarah – Susanna, Chuck and Jessica.
“The kids have only ever asked me to do two programmes,” he said. “Saturday Mashup and this, so I did Saturday Mashup in summer and here we are on Strictly!”
“I nearly gave the game away, actually. We all share a YouTube account at home and the kids were looking something up, and the last thing they saw on YouTube was ‘How to Charleston for Beginners’ or something!”
Dan laughed: “My eldest went, ‘Dad, is there something you want to tell us?’ – that was a few months ago, but I literally told hardly anybody!”
Strictly Come Dancing begins on Saturday, September 18 on BBC One.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
