the times Saturday December 18 2021Body + Soul 11
C
onfined in a glass coffin as
25 snakes slithered over and
around her, Arlene Phillips
was as cool as a cucumber as
she competed to win stars
for food for her camp-mates
in this year’s series of I’m a
Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!
“Snakes? Bring them on now, any
amount,” says Phillips, back at home in
Belsize Park in north London. “All my life
I’ve hated spiders and snakes and every-
thing that crawled and wriggled. But I
didn’t want my granddaughter Lila, who’s
nearly three, being brought up in fear too.
Fear is something that holds us back.
“I threw myself in at the deep end with
this show and my gosh it’s been tough,
harder than I thought.”
The ITV reality show, which has for two
decades made celebrities endure grim
trials in the Australian jungle, was set —
because of Covid-19 travel restrictions —
in the bleak and chilly Gwrych Castle in
Wales for the second year running.
“The first five days when half of us were
isolated in the Clink was just like prison,”
she says. “It was freezing. We slept on mat-
tresses on the floor in thin sleeping bags,
spikes on top of the walls, windows with no
view. It was a shock, but really bonding.”
Her companions included the TV present-
er Richard Madeley and the football
legend David Ginola. “I called him my
Hercules: he is a god of a man, so strong.
And he knows himself, he has a surety.”
The series culminated last Sunday with
the Emmerdale actor Danny Miller being
crowned king of the castle, beating the
bookies’ favourite, Ginola. “Danny is a
lovely guy,” Phillips says. “So sensitive and
gentle and vulnerable, and I don’t think we
saw David question himself. That just
nudged that, I think.”
At the age of 78, the oldest contestant in
the show’s history — as viewers were con-
stantly reminded — Phillips was voted out
first. Was it ageism? “I wouldn’t say that,”
she says. She comes over as a sincere and
sensitive woman, who thinks and cares
deeply. “I was so happy to be out, I’d 100
per cent achieved what I wanted. And with
age, in this situation, you are maybe not as
strong or as fast or as energised. And I did
feel my age, I did feel old.
“It’s strange, it’s the first time I’ve
thought about age. I’ve always bounded on
through. It was mostly after Richard went.”
Madeley was unwell in the night, taken to
hospital and out of the show because the
Covid bubble had been breached. “He was
closer to my age than anybody [he’s 65],
and I felt comfortable with him, but with-
out him I thought, ‘Wow! I am the great-
grandmother here without him to bridge
that gap.’ ”
As with every other aspect of Phillips’s
life, dance was her salvation. “Dance is in
my DNA. I did little pieces to teach the
others. I danced with a broom when I was
trying to disguise the fact that I was clean-
ing the place, which was filthy. I can’t func-
tion with mess, but it wasn’t my task and Iwasn’t allowed to. I danced with the broom
like Snow White, brushing the leaves.” She
laughs. “ ‘Put the broom down, Arlene!’
would come over the loudspeaker. I’d say,
‘I can’t, I’m dancing.’ ”
Phillips was awarded the DBE in the
Queen’s birthday honours list this year for
services to dance and to charity. She
already has a CBE and an OBE. “It was a
thrill, a shock, laughing and crying at the
same time. I just didn’t think I was dame
material! No ceremony yet, I think there’s
a massive backlog. But I’ve met the Queen
at the others and at first nights. Just so
incredible. Even though she’s not tall, she
has the elegance of a tall woman, this deli-
cacy and charm. I think I stared over-
closely at her skin, it’s so beautiful.”
Phillips’s career as a choreographer and
director started in the 1970s when she
formed the raunchy dance troupe Hot
Gossip. The West End and Hollywood
followed — with her working on shows
from Starlight Express to We Will Rock You
and Grease — as did iconic music videosMy perfect
we ekend
Wine or water?
Water, but sparkling to
add a touch of glamour
Hiking boots or Chelsea
boots?
Since the pandemic I’ve
lived in trainers
Disco or pub?
Disco. A place I can dance
where the music is loud
Glamping or B&B?
I’ll take B&B any time.
No more camping
Signature dish?
I make the best salads
with the most unusual
ingredients
I can’t get through the
weekend without...
My Sunday papersChoreographer
Arlene Phillips
tells Nina Myskow
about ageism and
how I’m a Celebrity
changed her life
I’m 78. I’ll never be too old to dance
Phillips with fellow contestant Richard
Madeley on ITV’s I’m a Celebrityfor Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Duran
Duran, Tina Turner and the like.
She says that she adored working with
Mercury on I Was Born To Love You. “He
was a glorious mover and he wanted to
know everything about it, how he could
express himself, totally committed to it.
Both he and Elton, divas extraordinaire.”
They filmed John’s I’m Still Standing in
Nice and featuring a glimpse of a very
young, skimpily clad Bruno Tonioli. “He
loves to show off his body, which he keeps
in perfect shape, he does a lot of work on
it,” Phillips says. She loved the video shoot,
even though she told John that he was the
worst dancer she had seen, something he
still quotes and laughs about to this day.
Her stint as a straight-talking judge on
Strictly Come Dancing ended in 2009 when
the BBC summarily replaced her with Ale-
sha Dixon and she became something of a
heroine for older women. “Let age not de-
fine you, let what’s inside define you,” she
says. “I’ve worked my entire life with
people who are younger than me and Inever usually think about it. I’m just me,
age is a number. But on Celebrity I had end-
less hours to think.
“It had a strange effect,” she says. It was
like therapy. “I thought about things I put
aside, that I hide from. Even way back to
the death of my mother.”
Born and brought up in Manchester,
Phillips was 15 when her mother died of
leukaemia. “I thought back to those days of
trauma. I shut them away when I was 15
and we were told just to carry on. There
was no one to counsel us, three young
teenagers. Go to school, don’t go to the
funeral, children don’t go to funerals. Get
on with it.
“Now I’m not afraid to sit down quietly
without something to read, to hold, to lis-
ten to, to watch. I’m grateful that it gave me
a chance to reflect and I’m stronger for it.
At the same time I don’t feel afraid to cry
now. I’m not a crier, I always felt it was a
sign of weakness, but after Celebrity I’m
not afraid to let emotion overtake me. I’m
not shy to cry now.”
It also reinforced the importance of
family in her life: her partner, Angus Ion,
67, a set builder whom she met on the
shoot of the Mercury video in 1985, her
two daughters, Alana, 42, and Abi, 30, and
granddaughters Lila, two, and Emme, one.
“When I came out, oh my goodness what
I wanted was to see them all, and the hugs.
I just ached for the hugs. I’m a huggy per-
son.” It will be a family Christmas.
Work has revved straight back up again;
she zips from meetings to auditions every
day. “Up next I’m directing The Cher Show,
the musical of Cher’s life with Oti Mabuse
from Strictly choreographing. And there’s
a new production of Grease going out on
tour for a year and then coming into the
Dominion Theatre next year.” She did the
choreography for the original production
at the same London theatre and was nomi-
nated for an Olivier award at the time.
Despite everything, when she has
time she watches Strictly. Who will win to-
night? “I love the three finalists, but Rose
[Ayling-Ellis, the EastEnders actress] is
such an exquisite dancer, I cannot praise
her enough.”
Phillips is very far from hanging up her
own dancing shoes. I suggest that John’s
I’m Still Standing could be the mission
statement for older women. “Oh,” she says,
laughing, “let’s make that I’m Still Danc-
ing. Keep dancing every time.”Arlene PhillipsDAVID FISHER, KIERON MCCARRON/ITV/SHUTTERSTOCK