Adam Thomas might have been manifesting his appearance on Strictly Come Dancing for many years now, but he admitted he had second thoughts when the offer finally came through.
The Waterloo Road actor is one of 15 famous faces taking to the floor on this year’s series of the BBC ballroom show.
However, Strictly fans will likely remember he appeared to announce himself as part of the 2022 line-up, which ultimately turned out not to be the case.
Laughing about the incident during a conversation with HuffPost UK and other outlets, Adam said: “Every fucking year! I’m like, take the hint guys! The papers were going ‘Adam’s doing Strictly this year’ and I’m like ‘am I?!’.
“Because I’d been putting it out there for so many years, when they actually asked me to do it, I was like ‘I don’t know if I want to do it now’.
“But I’m so happy that I did because again it’s one of those shows I’ve always wanted to do.”
The former Emmerdale star, who also took part in the 2016 series of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, also got a typical reaction from his famous brothers – Coronation Street star Ryan Thomas and former Love Island contestant Scott Thomas – when he told them of his Strictly news.
“They just laughed. They were like ‘I don’t understand why you’d want to do a show when you cannot dance’,” Adam said.
He continued: “My kids are great dancers so they’ve been teaching me and showing me a few things, my son’s nine this week, Elsie’s five, so they’re going to be watching it and they’re huge fans of the show already.
“We’re going on this journey, but it’s not just us, it’s our family as well. They’ll be watching us every night, cheering us on, that’s what it’s about for me.”
Those joining Adam on this year’s Strictly include Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy, TV presenter Angela Rippon and West End star Layton Williams.
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One on Saturday 16 September at 6.35pm.