Helen Skelton says she’s find it “very difficult” to turn down a stint on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.
The former Blue Peter presenter admits she’d have to reluctantly decline any invitation from the BBC to join the hit show.
The 37-year-old from Cumbria explained how she’s booked up for a lot of upcoming work and wouldn’t be able to find the time to get into the sparkles and fake tan, even if she wanted to.
“I’m in the middle of filming two series for Channel Four and a live series for Channel Five,“ she said.
She has her hands full looking after two sons, Ernie, six and Louis, four, as well as presenting on Countryfile for BBC1 and This Week On The Farm for C5.
Busy Helen has also taken on a new role, working with the National Grid, to find out more about how consumers use electricity and gas.
“I’ve got this National Grid podcast starting next. It’s 12 months of me exploring the nation’s clean and green energy,” she continued.
“To be honest, I’m chock-a-block full at the minute and I’m kind of really excited about the podcast.”
If Helen did ever find herself in the ballroom, it wouldn’t be the first time. She appeared on the 2012 Christmas edition of Strictly, when she was partnered with Russian pro Artem Chigvintsev. She did a jive to All I Want For Christmas by Mariah Carey.
Helen reminisced about her time on Strictly saying, “It’s one of those shows I think that is such a, you know, in terms of a telly gig, it’s the biggest and the best.
“[It has] a fantastic makeup team, a fantastic costume team and a fantastic lighting team.
“Anybody who works in telly would find it very difficult how to say no to it,” she added.
The mum of two shot to fame on Blue Peter, starting in 2008 and staying for five years. During that time, Helen got a reputation for being a daredevil, as she completed several hair-raising challenges, including a high-wire walk between the chimney of Battersea Power Station, 66 metres above the ground. She set a new record for the highest wire walk by a woman in the UK.
She has also kayaked over 2,000 miles along the Amazon river, and cycled 500 miles to the South Pole for Comic Relief, and appeared on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
Helen said that the years in children’s telly were some of her happiest. “On my first day at work, I went to Alaska for six weeks,” she recalled.
” I went to the Amazon for two months, I went to India and filmed children with a cleft palate for two months.
“Blue Peter was the dream gig,” she revealed. “I was so lucky to do it at a time when I did it.
“If you’re a TV presenter, that’s the gig you want to do,” she added.
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