The Strictly Come Dancing film crew has been back in Penrith – but this time their focus was on another homegrown star.
Instead of Eden’s dancing queen Helen Skelton getting a close-up, they were there to film super-fan Karen Radcliffe, of the Caffeine Rush mobile coffee van in Penrith’s Market Square.
Helen and her professional partner Gorka Marquez have become regular customers, thanks to their training base being located nearby, and Karen has a signed poster of the pair with coffee cups in hand on display.
Karen was interviewed on camera and the film crew also recorded her saying a special keep dancing message which is set to be part of a montage of people from all over the country being broadcast as part of the final show of the series on December 17.
Called Strictly Nation, it will show clips of people from all around the UK, saying who they are supporting and what they think of those taking part in the hit BBC1 show this year.
“They just asked me about Helen and about Gorka and who I thought was going to win. They also asked me did I think the right ones went out and I said, ‘yes, definitely, they all should go out, apart from Helen’,” said Karen.
Karen also held up a picture for the film crew to video which had been drawn by Lucy Edgar, nine, of Penrith, who attends Stainton Primary School.
Lucy, who does ballet and street dance, is a big fan of Strictly, and had drawn the picture in the hope that it could be given to Helen and Gorka — the camera crew promised to do just that.
“She loves to watch Helen because she knows that I used to work with Helen’s mum at Kirkby Thore Primary School,” said Lucy’s mum, Valerie.
Karen added that her signed poster of Helen and Gorka had proved to be a big talking point. However, it had yet to transfer into extra sales.
“They stop and talk, but they don’t buy a coffee!” she joked, adding that this was not a problem as long as they vote for Helen and Gorka to win!
This week’s Strictly Come Dancing will be shown on BBC 1 on Sunday night.
