SERGEANT DANCES OFF ON A HIGH
John Sergeant: Dancing to the tune of his wife?
Saturday November 22,2008
By Richard and Judy
RICHARD WRITES...John Sergeant bullied off Strictly Come Dancing by judges – that was the general tone of Thursday morning’s headlines.
Don’t make me laugh.
Sergeant is a journalist of the old school. He’s tough as old boots. Don’t be fooled by that grandma face and soft, breathy voice. Or by the much-repeated clip of him being shouldered aside by Thatcher’s heavies (including the formidable Bernard Ingham) in Paris all those years ago.
Notice how Sergeant muscled straight back into the impromptu press conference, his outstretched microphone thrusting all competitors aside? Sergeant has never been anyone’s pushover.
So what made him retire from Strictly? Certainly not a bit of teasing from the judges. Sergeant will have worked for many different news editors in his time (as have I) and I can assure you a tongue-lashing from any top-table newsman makes the worst that Len, Arlene, Craig or Bruno can dish out look like a hymn of praise.
Pressure from the BBC, worried that its Saturday night smash was being subverted by mischievous viewers manipulating the voting? Hardly. John Sergeant was ratings gold.
The headlines and column inches generated by popular support for his terrible dancing couldn’t be bought. The story dominated the media for weeks and you can bet your bottom dollar that record numbers of viewers will tune in to tonight’s show to witness Sergeant’s swansong (he’s performing one last waltz, apparently).
The schmaltz factor couldn’t be higher.
So he has not been biffed off by the judges or the corporation. He’s not injured. He was a near-racing certainty to win, thanks to a co-ordinated campaign on the internet.
He was having the time of his life. For once, he was the story and he loved it. I can testify to that – Sergeant joined us on our new show the other week and he positively glowed with happiness.
Here’s what I think happened. I think the guy was nobbled by the one person who has been mysteriously absent from this story thus far. His missus.
Sergeant said at the outset of the whole thing that his wife was not at all happy with his decision to go on Strictly Come Dancing. Since then, he’s never mentioned her.
Intriguingly, before we interviewed him we were told on no account to ask even a single question about what Mrs Sergeant thought about her husband prancing around with a sloe-eyed Russian beauty.
So my guess is that ’Er Indoors put her foot down; told her old man that enough was enough.
If there’s one tune a wise man dances to, it’s his wife’s.
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