Holby City star explains why she didn't enjoy time on Strictly

Holby City's Laila Rouass may have finished in fourth place when she competed in the 2009 series of Strictly Come Dancing, but she wishes she had been booted out a lot earlier.

While appearing as a guest on The Graham Norton Radio Show recently, the actor, who played Sahira Shah in the BBC medical drama, described her time on the reality show as "a nightmare", and opened up as to the reasons why she wanted to quit after the first live performance.

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"Oh my god, I didn't enjoy it," Rouass admitted, candidly. "I love the show but I wanted to do Blackpool and that's six weeks, and so I go on, we do Blackpool, Rod Stewart's there, I'm thinking I'm living the dream.

"[After being voted through] you've got to go to the camera and go 'Thank you, thank you so much', and I go 'I can't believe this, I want to go home!'" she continued. "Six weeks and I wanted to go. You get paid the same anyway, whether you're in the first week or the 17th week."

When she took part in series 7, Rouass danced with Anton Du Beke. The pair just lost out in a space in the final, bested by the likes of Brian Fortuna and Ali Bastian, runners-up Natalie Lowe and Ricky Whittle, and eventual winners Ola Jordan and Chris Hollins.

anton du beke, strictly come dancing judge november 14

Guy Levy//BBC

Rouass stopped by the radio show to promote her upcoming crime drama Traces, which premieres on Tuesday (February 15) on Alibi, and sees her share the screen with the likes of Three Girls' Molly Windsor and Line of Duty's Martin Compston.

"It's really explosive," she teased. "It's just brilliant, and it's so nice being on the show. I'm a complete true crime addict. I know every crime that's ever happened across the world so to be on a show where you’re dealing with crime, it’s just fantastic."

Holby City airs on Tuesdays on BBC One. Strictly Come Dancing airs on BBC One.