Coronation Street actor Helen Flanagan, who played Rosie Webster between 2000 and 2012 and 2017 to 2018, has revealed why she turned down the opportunity to compete on Strictly Come Dancing.
The soap star has done her fair share of reality TV projects in her time, including Celebs Go Dating and I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!
It turns out that it's the ITV series – which has just returned for its latest season – that's the reason Flanagan never took to the dancefloor.
"I was offered it but I chose the jungle instead," she told the Daily Star. "In a way, I think, obviously it was the right choice. You can never have regrets."
Flanagan was famously voted to take part in seven Bushtucker Trials in a row, and overall only managed to earn 33% of the possible stars for camp in them.
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One major Trial saw her give up early on before earning a single star, before it was brought back later on in the season for another campmate to attempt.
The notoriety she earned from being on the show led to her featuring on the all-stars season I'm a Celebrity: South Africa, where she finished in seventh place.
"I suppose, really, even though I was bad in the jungle, I wasn't bad in it," she added. "I was rubbish in the trials [but] I suppose it kind of gave me a name, if that makes sense."
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Even though she turned down Strictly, she is still keen to participate if she gets asked to do it again.
"I would absolutely love to do Strictly. I think everybody wants to do Strictly, don't they? I would adore to do Strictly," she said.
Flanagan added that this year she was "really rooting" for her friend Vicky Pattison, who won her season of I'm a Celebrity before going on present aftershow Extra Camp. Unfortunately for Pattison, she was eliminated this weekend.
Strictly Come Dancing airs on Saturdays on BBC One, while spin-off Strictly: It Takes Two airs on weeknights on BBC Two. Both shows are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
