Strictly's Ross King almost quit after receiving lowest score in over 20 years

Last weekend, Ross King earned himself the dubious honour of becoming the second lowest scoring contestant in Strictly Come Dancing’s history. After performing his tentative Cha Cha with partner Jowita Przystal, he was awarded two points each from Craig Revel Horwood and Shirley Ballas, while Motsi Mabuse and Anton du Beke gave him a not-much-better three.

“At least I can say I got a 10 on Strictly Come Dancing in my first week,” he laughs, when I speak to him ahead of his performance tomorrow, in which he will waltz to The Proclaimer’s much-loved song Sunshine on Leith. The great thing is that we all know that nowadays you can rewrite history. So, in years to come, people will ask me about my experience on Strictly, and I will say, "Can you believe it? No one ever needs to remember that it was a collective 10.”

Facing up to the fact that he’s one of the favourites to go home, Ross is still determined to give tonight’s show his all, and is desperate for the public to back him. "I think it's just Stefan (Dennis) that's older than me. So I'm hoping to inspire people,” he says. “I’m representing everyone who’s never danced before, but might have a go with some lessons."

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The good news is that this week he’s got a waltz, which he’s hoping might be a bit more straightforward. “It’s such an emotional one and Sunshine on Leith is such a beautiful song. I’ll have a bash at being the comeback kid,” he laughs. "Maybe I'll dance better, maybe I’ll get better marks. Who knows with the public?”

Despite looking a bit wobbly when he appeared on It Takes Two with Jowita during the week, Ross says he’s absolutely fine. While the judges marked him the lowest since Quentin Wilson took to the floor back in 2004 and scored 8 - he says he’s just in it for the experience. “I’m always cheerful. It’s been really lovely, nice to do something different,” he says. “I said right from the beginning ‘I can’t dance’ - it was the truth and I’ve proved it! My whole thing was to see how much I could improve. It’s not like I’m competing with the others, for me I’m running my own race."

The LA-based Scot says he found last week’s Cha Cha so difficult, he didn’t actually know if he’d get through the whole routine. “At one point I thought I may have to put my hands up and just say ‘maybe this is not for me’,” he admits. “I was disappointed because I had done it better. And I think the slide was a little bit slippier than I realised. As we were dancing, Jowita was actually going, ‘Are you OK?’” Ross, 63, was extremely happy to get to the end. “But I did genuinely have fun. For me, it's a TV show, it’s not a competition.”

He’s not even miffed by the low scoring that some viewers have complained about since last Saturday. “When it comes to the judges, I don't think anyone was too harsh, I think they all have to play their part,” he reasons. “And they're all experts. I thought it was lovely that Motsi brought it back round and said, ‘Look, this is someone who genuinely has never danced before’. And Anton saying, ‘You're a performer’. I’m lucky to have that side of me, and the live TV I love. But with the dancing I do definitely need all the help I can get.”

Craigappearing horrified by his performance, and Shirley following suit, didn’t bother Ross in the least. “I have loved every single minute of it so far,” he insists - while also acknowledging that he’s encouraging family members to come and watch him from the studio sooner rather than later. “It's funny when people talk about either getting to Blackpool or Halloween week or movie week or whatever - I genuinely haven't been thinking past tomorrow,” he laughs.

This week, he’ll again have his 43-year-old girlfriend Bridget Siegel in the audience, along with his niece Hollie, who’s flying in from a work job in Spain. “Bridget, amazingly enough, is going to come back,” he says, seemingly amazed that she wasn’t put off by his first effort.

He’s also juggling work, which in recent days has seen him deliver his regular reports for Lorraine, travel to Scotland to film in Loch Lomond, and interview Gary Oldman. Whatever happens, he’s determined to remain cheerful. “Right from the beginning, I said I will do it all with a smile on my face.” And if the worst happens, and he does become the one who goes out first, Ross is going to remain philosophical. “I’ll have given it a good go - I haven't shirked it in any way whatsoever. I've been training eight hours a day and I have committed to it. My mum always said, ‘Just do your best. That's all you can do.’ I'd like to think I have.”

He doesn’t want to let down those members of the public who have shown him solid support.”It's incredible. They've been so, so lovely. And with humour as well.”

And Ross has also found Jowita to be incredibly encouraging. “She’s one of the nicest people you could meet. Sometimes we laugh more than we dance and sometimes we just laugh at me dancing,” he reveals. “But she's so patient, so kind. She's not once said a harsh word to me, or anything at all like that. With all these things, it’s about building up confidence. I completely lucked out when I got Jowita."

One person who is totally in his corner is Lorraine Kelly, with whom he’s worked on the Lorraine show for many years. She was incensed over Shirley’s score of two, calling her “really harsh”. Ross says her support means the world, and offered some back over her decision, revealed in the Mirror this week, to strip off for charity with only some iced buns protecting her modesty.

Speaking about the shoot, in aid of her show’s National Check Your Boobs Day initiative, Lorraine has said: “I just loved this idea. It’s cheeky and funny and is a nod to the wonderful Calendar Girls.” The programme campaigns hard over breast cancer awareness, after one of the show’s producers, Helen Addis, was diagnosed in 2018 and has become an avid champion of checking for lumps.

Ross declares: “I love Lorraine. She just enters into these things wholeheartedly and she really gives it a go. I think that the changes made with the whole appeal, which was started obviously by Helen, has just been phenomenal. That’s the wonderful thing about Lorraine, she really commits to things.”

And she could say the same thing about him, after all the hours of training he’s put in for Strictly. So will he live to fight another week? It just depends on whether he waltzes off with more points - or straight out the door and back to LA.

Strictly Come Dancing airs tomorrow at 6:20pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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