Arlene Phillips reveals how Strictly Come Dancing sack didn't knock her for six
Arlene Phillips seems to have dropped a decade and a dress size in the past year. She looks simply fantastic. I cant help staring at her face, trying to figure out what work shes had done.
Come on Arlene, whats the secret? Botox? She nods. Fillers? She shakes her head, before saying, Oh, but Im about to have I cant remember the name of it some other lift.
OK, OK. But theres something else, something I cant put my finger on. If Arlene wasnt so happily settled with Angus, her partner of 26 years, Id hazard a guess shed fallen head-over-heels in love. She has that sort of starry-eyed glow about her.
Back on track: Arlene Phillips feels more relaxed and less frazzled
Shes more relaxed, less frazzled than shes been in the two-and-a-half years since the BBC booted her off Strictly Come Dancing and received more than 1,350 complaints, mostly accusations of ageism. Arlene-Phillips-68 (her sisters nickname for her) emerged as a reluctant poster girl for the wronged older woman. Indeed, even dear old Sir Brucie, bless him, said she should never have been sacked.
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Weve met twice since then, most recently a year ago when she was choreographing the musical Flashdance and seemed so wired, so fidgety, I worried she was heading for a breakdown. In fact, Arlene was hardly sleeping and oh-so-touchy that you mentioned Strictly at your peril. Now she brings it up.
Shall we get Strictly out of the way? Go on, say, Are you missing Strictly? she prompts. On past form, youd expect Arlene to get cross. But she doesnt. Ive come to accept it. Whats been a real surprise is the endless tweets, emails, comments on Facebook and in the street. I really thought it would have completely faded by now. But I realise Ill be forever tangled up with it in some way. Its a huge programme a mega programme. I just live with it now.
Fitness guru: Arlene says she wants people of any age and shape to get up and enjoy her book
And so she should. After all, since Strictly Arlenes ricocheted from clothing deal to publishing deal, from jewellery line to choreographing Flashdance The Musical, from working on Andrew Lloyd Webbers The Wizard of Oz to well, you get the picture. Its the most bizarre thing, she says. For someones career to explode for not doing something is actually extraordinary. Its sort of the wrong way round.
Today, we meet to talk about her new fitness book, Dance To The Musicals. Accompanied by a DVD and step-by-step instructions to routines from hits such as Mamma Mia!, Night Fever and We Will Rock You, its got to be the most fun way of shaping up since the Green Goddess leapt about in Lycra. I wanted people of any age and shape to get up and enjoy the book, she says. Even Im in it wobbling in my heels. For some reason I wanted to look glamorous.
Which she does today in her size 10 black leather-studded bikers jacket. OK, Ar! lene, le ts stop beating about the bush. You were in pieces two years ago. Whats changed? I was very fragile because Id had a great loss but that was nothing to do with Strictly, she says and, for a moment, the huge sadness that passes across her face makes her look her full 68 years.
For the past two years, you see, Arlene has been grieving the untimely death of her agent and dear friend of more than 40 years, Michael Summerton. He died suddenly of cancer within a day of her being booted off Strictly. There are others who were close to him so she didnt want to make his death her tragedy. But it was.
It was so hard to separate the emotion because it came one after the other, she says. My personal loss was greater than Strictly and my grieving went on and on. Strictly was actually floating up somewhere. It might not have happened but Id stillhave been a very fragile person talking about me and my life because, when you lose somebody you love, it completely unsettles you and destroys you.
Michael had cancer but certainly wasnt expecting to die. He went back into hospital for some treatment and, within ten days, passed away. It wasnt meant to happen.
Its really hard when you love somebody and you lose them and youve got no time to adjust to it all. It just pulls the rug from under you. Theres so much left unsaid, so many things that are left like threads through the air and you cant pull them in, so youre struggling to cope. I certainly was.
We were deeply close. He was there from the early Hot Gossip days those early struggling days. There for me 24 hours a day, always on the other end of the phone. When that supports gone, youre left floundering and trying to understand who you are. And now? After two years of loss, I suddenly stopped, she says.
Screen star: Arlene with fellow judges Craig Revel Horwood, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli on the Strictly panel
I took a lot of the summer off and spent some time in the country having some good walks and just easing up. Suddenly, I thought, My gosh, I remember who you were. I now feel as strong, as feisty and as empowered and in control as I did when I was doing Strictly. I know now how much I suffer from loss. As far as Im concerned it brings back the people Ive lost again. Even the loss of my mother.
Arlene lost her mother, who she remembers as gentle, very soft, the perfect mum, to leukaemia when she was just 15. After the tragedy she hotfooted it to London to study American jazz dance and never really stopped after that. I didnt really grieve her loss properly, she says. I didnt have time. I had to carry on with a life. Youre 15 and everybody just expects you to get on with it.
Which she did. By 32, when her dance group Hot Gossip had appeared on ITVs Kenny Everett Video Show and became an overnight sensation, she was running ahead so fast she didnt stop long enough to notice the cracks forming in her seven-year marriage to fashion designer Danny Noble. Soon after their divorce Arlene found herself pregnant, at 36, with her oldest daughter Alana.
Happy family: Arlene with her daughter Abigail, who she had when she was 47
She has never named the father and doesnt remain in touch with him. As a single mother with a baby, she pushed herself harder. Michael and her close friend, Strictly judge Bruno Toniolio who used to do the hair and make-up for her Hot Gossip dancers were her supports throughout.
Alana was six when Arlene met her current partner, Angus, on the set of a Freddie Mercury video she was choreographing.
Mummy and me: Arlene pictured with her eldest daughter Alana when she was little
Shes been with the former set designer for more than 20 years. They have a daughter, Abi, 21, who was born when Arlene was 47. But still she didnt stop. My mind is this hive of activity, she says. I try to go swimming most days and the moment I put my arms in the water I start thinking of ideas. They come tumbling one after the other. With every breath I think, OK, focus on one thing, one idea, one moment.
At home I need everything to be calm, clear, clean so I can think. Id be happy living in a white box. Ive been OCD for a long time. My poor children. Id come home and their toys would be all over the floor and the first thing Id say is, You know what, were going to play the toys away game, which was seeing who could put the toys in the cupboard the quickest. It was a way of making OCD work for you.
She laughs, but in truth it all sounds exhausting. Yes, she says. It can be. Doesnt Angus ever say, Stop, enough!? Hed never ask that of me, she says. It was her daughter Abi who told her to slow down and take a deep breath last year. And, finally, she did.
I was holding onto this inner grief while this outer person was carrying on all the duties. But nobody really understood that. Everybody thought it was all about Strictly, which it wasnt. Now Im back on this rollercoaster. But now Im doing the things I want to do. I just feel this amazing strength. It was never a case of having to prove myself after Strictly. It was more that I was trying to come to terms with a loss and it was sitting somewhere inside me so I didnt really feel quite me.
Now its in a place I understand and, with the book and everything else, I feel very much alive but Ill never stop running. And, given Arlene-Phillips-68-going-on-58s extraordinary joie de vivre, Id say there are a good few miles left on the clock yet.
Dance To The Musicals by Arlene Phillips is! publish ed by Kyle Books on Thursday, priced 18.99, including a free DVD.
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