It's strictly Len Goodman!
By Lee Knights - 14/09/2010
At the beginning of 2004, something was getting on Len Goodman’s wick. “Everyone was talking about a new BBC dancing show - they were going to have celebrities and professional dancers performing together. They were looking for someone from the ballroom scene to join the judging panel. And no one had given me a call!
“I lied about it, told friends I didn’t think it was my cup of tea, but the truth was I was hurt. In the end, Erin Boag put in a good word in for me with the BBC – ‘there’s this old boy Len Goodman, he’s a bit of a character’. Then, I got me a call from Izzie Pick, the producer of Strictly Come Dancing. She asked if I had heard about the show. ‘Yes,’ I said. But I was thinking: About bloody time!”
I caught up with Len at another Strictly spin-off – a Warners’ Strictly Come Dancing break at Littlecote country house in Hungerford. Offering dance lovers the chance to compete in Strictly style dance competitions and meet dance stars and judges, these breaks give dance lovers a real taste of what it’s like to be part of the TV show.
Life, he says, has never been better and it’s obvious he’s enjoying every minute of it. The Len you see on the TV is the Len you get in the flesh – dapper, off-beat humour, down to earth, with an expansive, natural smile. “Celebrity means nothing to me. My life hasn’t really changed, I’ve always done the things I wanted to do, even when I couldn’t afford it. I turned the right corner at the right time and got lucky.”
Says Goodman with gusto: “I’m the luckiest boy on the planet. I’m the pin up of the Saga set and have a fantastic pension plan!”
The East-End boy sure ‘dun good’. Len has never lost touch with his roots – his grandfather was a costermonger in Bethnal Green, his father an electrician and Len himself started out as a docker. “Life is a matter of luck, I could have walked down one road and ended up dead, instead I turned down another and ended up here.”
Len is a natural showman. “I’ve always been the same. As a kid, I’d sit on anyone’s lap, or stand in the fireplace and sing. I was always an outgoing person, confident and cheeky. As they say, give me a child up to the age of seven and I’ll show you the man. I’ve always had that ring of confidence.”
As a youngster, “I was only interested in football, that was my first love. When I was 14, a friend egged me on to go to the Court School of Dancing in Welling. I’d never had any contact with girls, I was really shy – dancing was just a way to meet girls. I went a few times, that was it. When I was 20, I broke my foot playing five-a-side. The doctor recommended ballroom dancing as a way of recuperating.”
Len discovered he had a natural talent. “Ballroom dancing was great for me – it was the first thing I found that I was good at.” Despite making a late start as a dancer, he rapidly made up for lost time and in only eight years won the British Championship. “I stopped competing after that. I was never that keen on performing – I always much preferred teaching.”
Len’s dance career now spans some 40 years. He set up his own dance school, the Goodman Dance Centre, in Dartford, Kent, now run by his son James. “I didn’t tell anyone I was a ballroom teacher. I used to lie – I said I worked on a building site. People’s perception of a ballroom teacher at the time was just like the couple off Hi De Hi - right posh and drippy, it was embarrassing,” Len recalls.
“Strictly changed all of that – the show has had a phenomenal impact. Ballroom dancing is a cool thing to do now – especially for blokes. Just look at the top sportsmen we’ve had competing on the show, people like Darren Gough.”
How does he feel about recent changes of personnel on the show and the departure of many of the TV show’s professional dancers? “I understand the show’s a lot like a plant – it needs to be pruned to keep it healthy. On the other hand, you don’t want to mess around too much and start chopping up the roots. Just because a formula works for the US show, doesn’t mean it’s right for the UK show. I have regrets about the decision to drop Arlene Phillips in particular. It’s all a question of balance.”
Just when Len thought things couldn’t get any bigger or better, Len got signed up as a judge for the US version of Strictly – ‘Dancing with the Stars’, where audiences see a very different side of the Goodman persona. “The other judges, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli, are very nice to contestants – and I felt someone needed to comment on the technical side of the performances, so I’m much more critical.”
How does he feel about being called the show’s Simon Cowell? “Awww, I can’t take that seriously,” he says, “Americans think anyone who speaks with an English accent is intelligent. My answer to them is ‘Gertcha!’”
More on Warners Strictly Come Dancing Experience breaks: call: 0800 138 2633 visit: www.warnerleisurehotels.co.uk More on dance classes at the Goodman Dance Centre: www.goodmandance.co.uk Call: 01322 222 508. Lee Knights is the founder of www.londonsalsascene.co.uk, a qualified IDTA dance instructor and co-author of ‘Find the Rhythm! The Dancers’ Guide to Feeling Salsa Music’ – www.findtherhythm.com.