The comedian has been training for the Saturday-night extravaganza ever since she was a child on the holiday camp dancefloor. She talks about TV snobs, loathsome standups and losing her big sister Jenna
During the very first series of Strictly Come Dancing in 2004, Jayde Adams turned to her sister or her mum – she can’t quite remember which – and said: “I’m going to be on Strictly.” This year, she is doing just that. Adams – actor, comedian and force of nature – has realised her dream and she is very excited, flipping between not quite believing it and shrugging at its sheer inevitability. What does she love about the show? “It’s what I know,” she says. “I grew up wearing fluorescent costumes with crystals on them – that’s normal to me.”
As a child, growing up in Bristol, Adams would enter freestyle disco-dancing competitions alongside her sister Jenna, who was two years older than her. It is not something she thinks will give her any particular advantage on Strictly – except maybe her experience in learning a routine – because of disco’s frenetic, techno pace. “But we used to do the cha-cha-cha quite a lot together,” she says. “It wasn’t part of dancing for us but we knew it. We used to go clubbing and do synchronised dance routines, and everyone would watch.”
