Actress Lynda Bellingham has admitted that she is terrified about taking part in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing series.

She said she was chuffed to land the job, but her happiness soon turned to terror when she though about what was involved.

“The idea of being myself out there terrified me,” she told Yours magazine. “I don’t have a lot of self worth.”

She added: “I felt very flattered and thrilled I had got the job and had not been rejected. That was lovely. But within half an hour I was thinking ‘I can’t do it – they’ll find out’. It’s a classic actor’s thing.”

“Yes I am nervous and excited but you can’t let yourself think ‘I am going to be watched by 12 million people and I might fall over’,” she told the magazine.

She added: “It’s the dance I’m most nervous about. I could never do it as a girl. I dreaded anyone asking me, because I couldn’t let them take control, but hopefully Darren will take the lead. It was so uncool not to be able to do the jive in my youth – I don’t want to visit that spot again – certainly not in front of millions of viewers.”

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