Angela Rippon to miss out on ‘ideal’ Strictly Come Dancing pro partner

Legendary newscaster and TV presenter Angela Rippon is the oldest ever contestant to take park in Strictly Come Dancing and two former show pros have revealed who they would pair her with. Angela has already let slip on live TV that she is dancing with a man , forcing Helen Skelton to intervene but it is still unknown who her partner is. However, Ian Waite and Vincente Simone have speculated about the ideal pairing for the 78-year-old Rip Off Britain presenter. ” Anton [du Beke]!” Vincente answered when asked who her perfect partner would be and Ian agreed: “Yes, Anton would’ve been perfect for her.” However, since he no longer trips the light fantastic on the BBC Saturday night show, having swapped the dancefloor for the judign panel, they also weighed up the current crop of professionals as a potential pairing for the star. ‘You know, Angela’s not small, she’s quite tall so she’ll want a tall partner I would have thought,” Ian opined. Angela Rippon has already let slip some details about her Strictly dance partner (Image: BBC) Ian Waite and Vincente Simone said Anton Du Beke would be an ideal partner for Angela Rippon (Image: Getty) “So somebody nurturing like a Johannes [Radebe] type of partner or Graziano [di Prima] I think would be great with Angela because they would be tall, they would encourage her and I think she’d do well with them,’ he told GB News . “I think the producers are very mindful of putting certain personalities together. “So, they’ll make sure that if Angela needs somebody who is very nurturing and intelligent, and will give her the sort of inspiration that she needs,’ he pondered. The two former Strictly stars, who are currently on tour with their own show The Magic of Dance, also admitted that Angela’s age would be a factor when to came to the competition, acknowledging that older contestants tend to be more restricted in their movements. Angela Rippon with the rest of the Strictly Come Dancing 2023 cast (Image: BBC) Despite this, they believe that the popular star will do well due to the fact she is ‘loved by the nation’ although they said that her partner will have to be clever with the choreography of the routines. There remarks come as Angela was forced to rubbish claims that her previous dancing experiences gave her an advantage on the show . Almost as soon as she was announced as a contestant on this year’s show a classic clip of her dancing on the Morecambe and Wise’s 1976 Christmas special went viral and she was also the host of the original Come Dancing series on BBC One for many years. “I was 37 for [Morecambe and Wise]! It was a very long time ago,” she pointed out. “I presented Come Dancing, I didn’t dance in Come Dancing. So I know what’s required and I did go to ballet class until I was about 17,” she told Express.co.uk and other press at the launch event for the show. “My brain says, ‘oh I can do that’, my body says, ‘what the hell do you think you are doing?!'” she confessed. Strictly Come Dancing begins Saturday on BBC One at 6.35pm.