Ed Balls has revealed how his wife, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, saved him from playing a “paedophile” in film week Strictly Come Dancing.
The Good Morning Britain presenter and former cabinet minister was a contestant on series 14 of the BBC quiz show and survived until week 10.
He was paired with professional dancer Katya Jones, who told him after his “cautious” first-week waltz that he needed to “let go” and take on the character he was dancing for his second-week Charleston.
The dance went well, prompting the BBC programme directors to ask Ed to dance to Jerry Lee Lewis’ Great Balls of Fire during film week.
But when he told his wife he would play the role of Lewis, she pointed out that the American singer’s career had collapsed after his marriage to Myra Brown, his 13-year-old first cousin, was revealed.
Ed Balls has told how his wife Yvette Cooper saved him from playing a ‘paedophile’ on Strictly film week
BBC programme directors asked Ed to dance to Jerry Lee Lewis’ Great Balls of Fire for film week, but Ed’s wife Yvette (pictured) said the American singer’s career had collapsed after his marriage to her 13-year-old first cousin Myra Brown was revealed.
Speaking about his improvement during his time on Strictly, the ITV presenter revealed on the Walking the dog with Emily Dean Podcast about how he and the show’s bosses saved themselves from embarrassment.
He said: ‘I learned to let go of myself, to let go of my inhibitions, to get into character and just go with it.
‘In politics, you are always yourself in acting, whereas in show business, what you are really allowed to do is to step aside a little and then get into character.
‘The Charleston had worked and I thought, ‘I’ve got a real chance of getting through’ because the audience reaction was so great, and then they said they wanted me to do Jerry Lee Lewis’ Great Balls of Fire for film week.
‘They wanted me to come down from the roof onto a burning piano.
‘But at two in the morning we were driving back from Elstree and Yvette was on her phone and she said to me, “You know this film, where you’re going to take on the role of the main character? You realise the biopic it’s based on is where he has an affair with his 13-year-old cousin.”
She said: “I think this makes Katya the 13-year-old and you the paedophile. I think it’s a bad idea.”
“So I was like, ‘Oh my God. ‘ On Sunday morning at 10 o’clock, I called the producers and said, ‘I don’t think I can do this. ‘”
After calling producers to refuse to perform the dance, the BBC asked him to become Jim Carrey from The Mask. He said: “The green makeup was great. It took three people 50 minutes.”
They said, “Give us an hour.” And they came back and said, “We want you to play The Mask, Jim Carrey and Cuban Pete, the samba.”
‘I said, ‘Only if I can have a green face, don’t do it halfway, let me be Jim Carrey, the mask with the green face.’
“It was fabulous, the green makeup looked great. Three people did it in 50 minutes.”
This comes after an ITV boss has vowed to never again allow Home Secretary Yvette to be interviewed on Good Morning Britain by her own husband Ed.
The broadcaster’s chief executive, Dame Carolyn McCall, made the pledge as media watchdog Ofcom announced it would not conduct an investigation.
Thousands of people have lodged official complaints with the regulator over the August 5 episode of the breakfast show, which included Yvette’s questioning of the Labour government’s handling of last month’s riots across the UK.
Her husband, Ed, a former Labour MP and Education Secretary, was presenting the programme alongside Kate Garraway on the morning his wife was interviewed.
Dame Carolyn said today: “Would we do it again? No. Was it impartial, fair and balanced? And did they behave professionally? Yeah”.
Ed is now a regular presenter on GMB after losing his role in 2015 and pursuing a career in media.
This comes after an ITV boss has vowed to never again allow Home Secretary Yvette to be interviewed on Good Morning Britain by her own husband, Ed.
Ed and Yvette, who became Home Secretary after Labour won the general election on July 4, have been married since 1998.
Many critics raised concerns about an apparent conflict of interest when the Aug. 5 show aired live, with some suggesting Ed should have stepped aside.
Ofcom said last week it had “carefully” considered the matter but would not take action.
A spokesman said: “Given that their relationship was made clear twice, that the programme as a whole included a number of views on Labour’s handling of the riots and given that the vast majority of the interview was conducted by co-presenter Kate Garraway, we will not be proceeding any further.”
But Ofcom added that it had warned ITV “to take particular care in carrying out such interviews in the future to ensure due impartiality”.