Strictly's Toyah Willcox hopes show stint inspires those who feel ‘age is the end’
Toyah Willcox has expressed her hope that her stint on Strictly Come Dancing will inspire those who feel "age is the end" to realise that everyone deserves a "positive and brilliant experience" every day. The 66 year old singer and actress was the second celebrity to be eliminated from the 20th anniversary series of the BBC dance competition, after facing off against former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson in a dance-off.
After performing her samba to the song Poor Unfortunate Souls from The Little Mermaid during Sunday's results show, the judges unanimously decided to save Merson and his partner Karen Hauer, resulting in Willcox and her partner Neil Jones being sent home.
Speaking on the spin-off show Strictly: It Takes Two on Monday, she admitted she was "gutted" to be leaving the show, but wouldn't let her early exit overshadow the "fantastic time" she had.
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She continued: "I was not off first, which meant a lot to me. I've had the most brilliant life-affirming experience in the last two months, I'm in a good place."
Willcox managed to survive the first dance-off the previous week against 24 year old Olympic gold-medallist swimmer Tom Dean and his partner Nadiya Bychkova.
Reflecting on her motivation to challenge stereotypes about age by participating, she said: "It's incredibly important that everyone has a good day every day of their lives."
"I'm 66, I've never been shy about that, and I have to say that Strictly has made me feel so incredibly healthy, which I love."
"But we all deserve every day of our life, no matter what age we are, for it to be a positive and brilliant experience, and if I can put that across to people who are feeling that age is the end, then I've done a good job."
The It's A Mystery songstress shared that she discovered "joy" and laughter anew during her stint on the show, crediting her dance partner Neil for the uplifting experience.
Her performance for movie week was a showstopper as she transformed into Ursula from Disney's The Little Mermaid, donning a purple fringed dress and sporting dramatic white and purple hair.
Despite her efforts, she received the night's lowest score of 15 out of 40, with judge Craig Revel Horwood commenting that she seemed "stuck in the mud", placing her at the bottom of the leaderboard once again.
Willcox expressed how "brilliant" it was to perform as Ursula and lauded the makeup and costume teams as the "best in the world".
Neil, her professional dance partner, assured her that their connection would last "for life", reflecting on the "so much fun" and laughter they shared during rehearsals.
"We've had really great conversations as well, and it was so nice to hear you've been waiting so long to do the show and it's brilliant when she came to the show and she asked for me, that meant a lot to me," he said, touched by her request to dance with him.
Toyah playfully tipped comedian Chris McCausland as the contestant to beat, humorously suggesting: "If you don't want to do a dance-off, get rid of Chris."
Love Island's Tasha Ghouri topped the movie week leaderboard, scoring 34 points for her rumba with Aljaz Skorjanec to Billie Eilish's What Was I Made For? from the Barbie movie.
Strictly Come Dancing will be back on Saturday at 6.20pm, with the results show airing on Sunday at 7.20pm on BBC One.
