Tom Fletcher has said he consulted his McFly bandmate Harry Judd before he signed up for Strictly Come Dancing, but wants to “not worry about competing” with his friend.
The musician has joined the line-up of the 2021 series 10 years after Judd beat actress Chelsee Healey to win the Strictly title with professional Aliona Vilani in 2011.
Fletcher said: “I can’t shut him up about Strictly. I haven’t been able to stop him talking about Strictly for 10 years.
“I don’t know whether I should trust his advice, or if he’s trying to secretly steer me in the wrong direction, because he’s quite competitive.
“I don’t know how far he wants me to go. I always felt like if I did it, there would be pressure.
“Strictly has been a part of McFly’s lives, part of our history, it was an amazing time for our band when he won Strictly.
“So it has been his thing for a while so I guess I did feel like there will be pressure to for me to go far, but I feel like, after 10 years, I just want to have a fun experience.
“You need to do Strictly once, it’s a national treasure, this show. And so I just want to have the best time and not worry about competing with Harry Judd.”
A bit of Dad dancing to a cheesy dancefloor filler? #Strictly is ready for it all @tomfletcher! pic.twitter.com/EciVM6aoFs
— BBC Strictly ✨ (@bbcstrictly) September 11, 2021
However, he said he did consult his bandmate without signing up, adding: “I checked with Harry first, he was the first person I asked because it was his thing, so I wanted to make sure he was happy with me doing it.
“But he was fully supportive and said I should totally do it and I would have the best time.
“The other two, they just kind of laughed and said they’ll support me if it’s something I wanted to do.
“We’ve all been through it with Harry before, so they know what to expect, and it’s funny seeing your mate do something that you would never normally do. So I think they’re looking forward to seeing me get Strictly-fied.”
Fletcher said even though he is a musician, he does not believe his theatre school background will help him very much on the dancefloor.
He said: I’m the king of the dad dance. I went to theatre school and I’m a musician, so I love music, and we did some dancing at theatre school, but this was 25 years ago, and it definitely wasn’t ballroom and Latin.
“I don’t think it’s going to come in useful at all, unfortunately.
“Other than that, I kind of avoid all dancing. I’m the last person to get up on a dancefloor at a wedding, I’m the person who awkwardly hangs around the edge and says no, unless I’ve had a few glasses of wine.
“I think the confidence to move my body is going to be the biggest thing to overcome.”
Fletcher said he will also have to work on his fitness, adding: “I can’t touch my toes, I’m so not flexible, and when I signed up for Strictly at the beginning of the year, I thought: ‘I’m getting in shape, I’m going to do yoga and pilates, I’m going to eat well’. And that just went out the window.
“Literally I tried to touch my toes this morning, I tried to do some stretching this morning before coming in here, knowing full well it’s way too late, that ship has sailed.
“So I think I’m in for a shock when we start actually dancing. Maybe by the end of it, I’ll be able to touch my toes. Whenever I leave Strictly, I’d like to be able to touch my toes.”
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One on Saturday September 18.