Entertainment
Anita Rani wonders if she would have reached Strictly Come Dancing final if she ‘didn’t have a brown face’
Anita Rani with Gleb Savchenko on Strictly Come Dancing in 2015 (Picture: BBC)
Anita Rani feels her heritage may have affected her progress on Strictly Come Dancing, and suspects she could have got further if she wasn’t Asian.
The presenter made it all the way to the semi-final with professional dancer Gleb Savchenko on the dancing competition in 2015.
The 43-year-old told Radio Times that there have been moments throughout her career where she suspects things could have taken a different direction if she was ‘blonde-haired and blue-eyed’.
Anita, promoting her memoir The Right Sort of Girl, shared: ‘I still find myself wondering whether I would have got into the final if I didn’t have a brown face.
‘There are various points in my career where I wonder what would have happened if I was blonde-haired and blue-eyed, and sometimes I don’t think things would have played out the same way if I was white.
‘I’ve put that Strictly question into my book to leave people pondering, because I’m just not sure.’
Anita went to the semi-final (Picture: BBC)
The Countryfile star added that she loves seeing people from different backgrounds on Strictly, calling the BBC show a ‘national institution’.
‘I still rush excitedly over to the telly if there’s someone Asian on it,’ Anita said.
‘And that’s why seeing a brown lass doing all right on Strictly meant such a lot to Asian people. It’s a national institution, and you don’t see many brown faces on it, certainly not many that do well.’
More: Strictly Come Dancing
The TV star confessed that she often thinks about taking part in the competition again and taking the trophy.
Anita has previously called 2015 her ‘magic year’ because of her success on Strictly and her appearance on Who Do You Think You Are?.
She told Metro.co.uk: ‘It took me to a whole new level.
‘And now I’m in this position as pretty much the only Asian woman making the sorts of programmes that I do in a wonderful landscape of female presenters, but the only brown one there, and I’m owning it.’
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