Strictly’s Les Dennis reveals he lost 3st after secret health battle and admits takeaway binges saw him pile on pounds
LES DENNIS’ return to Saturday night TV in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing marks a glorious comeback in more ways than one.
As well as being his first primetime stint in seven years, the telly legend has faced a fight back to full fitness following a health crisis in 2017.
Now actor Les, who turns 70 in October, says signing for the BBC dance contest has given him a new lease of life.
He was revealed to be the final name on the latest line-up yesterday and said: “I’m thrilled to be doing this iconic, wonderful show as I approach my 70th birthday.
“In my career I’ve always gone for challenges outside my comfort zone and this is the ultimate one.
“I can’t wait. I had a knee replacement two years ago and remember thinking to myself, ‘It’s time to slow down’.
“But you get offered something like this and it puts a spring in your step.
“I’m excited and terrified. People of any age can do anything.”
Les, who has been in showbiz for 50 years, is the second oldest star of the series behind Angela Rippon, 78.
He got his big TV break on talent show New Faces in 1974, with career-defining roles to follow as host of Family Fortunes, in Extras, plus on Brookside and two years in Coronation Street.
But in recent years he’s accepted fewer acting parts and has opened up about why he took time out.
‘Biggest wake-up call’
In 2017 he was starring in a touring production of The Addams Family when he was struck down by ill health.
He said: “When you are on tour, you are doing two shows a day and I was playing Uncle Fester.
“I was wearing make-up and you can’t go out and you order in Deliveroo and you just eat pizza.
“Wagamama’s was a favourite and it meant that not only was I piling on the pounds, I was not getting any fresh air.
“So I was relieved in many ways that I got laryngitis because it gave me the biggest wake-up call and made me look at my health.
“I had to miss the last 10 weeks of the show. I’ve never done that. I was doing eight shows a week.
“It was like an alarm bell. I knew that I had to take stock of my health.”
Les has a grown-up son Philip from his first marriage to Lynne Webster, which lasted from 1974 to 1990.
In 2008, after his divorce from Amanda Holden, he welcomed a daughter, Eleanor, with his third wife Claire Nicholson. Their son, Thomas, followed in 2011.
Recalling how his health scare made him determined to stay well for his kids, Les went on: “I went to get a check-up with a doctor and they said I was pre-diabetic.
“Luckily I caught it early enough to say, ‘Right, here we go, I have to do something’.
“It has made me take responsibility for my own health. Being an older dad I want to be there for my kids. I want to be here when I am 100.
“They are the most important thing to me.
“I have to fulfil the responsibility to my kids.”
Les’ health overhaul has seen him drop from 15 stone to 12 stone thanks to cutting out booze and bread, and doing 10,000 steps a day.
It’s meant he has been able to reverse the Type 2 pre-diabetes diagnosis — but he’s still partial to a treat.
He said: “I was touching just under 15 stone, which I knew was too high — I am 5ft 9in — and I’m now able to get into my old clothes. I changed my diet and rather than eating white bread, I will go for rye or sourdough bread.
“I have cut down on my meat intake, my sugar intake and I follow the Mediterranean diet, which has proven for people to have less diabetes and heart attacks.
“I have cut out white wine and I might have the odd beer. I have the occasional Magnum ice cream.”
‘In my career, I’ve always gone for challenges outside my comfort zone and this is the ultimate one. I can’t wait. Although I am excited and terrified’
The changes mean Les feels ready for the physical challenge of Strictly.
But his varied CV, including a successful stage career, means fans have already moaned that he will have an unfair advantage.
He’s starred with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the English National Opera and in hit plays and musicals such as Hairspray, Legally Blonde and 42nd Street.
Entertainer Les told Good Morning Britain yesterday: “I do a little soft shoe shuffle with Michael Ball in Hairspray, but I’m not trained and certainly not when it comes to ballroom and Latin. I don’t know about the cha-cha-cha.”
The star says he is also ready for Strictly’s mental challenge, which includes a tough schedule, scrutiny from judges and a public vote. It comes after he suffered a very public breakdown while appearing on Celebrity Big Brother in 2002.
It was at the time his marriage to second wife Amanda 52, was on the rocks and viewers were shocked to watch his depression unfold as he spoke to chickens in the garden.
The couple had a temporary split in 2000 when Amanda’s affair with actor Neil Morrissey, 61, was exposed, before divorcing in 2003.
Les later admitted the appearance was “not his wisest move”.
In his 2008 book Must The Show Go On?, he confessed it was while inside the TV house that he realised his “charade of a marriage was over”.
Les said: “I have had depressive episodes and, when I have felt low, I have realised that as well as our physical health, we have to look after our mental health and I believe very much in therapy.
“I see someone once a month to have a mental check up to see that I am feeling ok. It’s good to let go and talk to somebody.”
Now Les will take on the likes of Krishnan Guru-Murthy, 53, Annabel Croft, 57, and EastEnders actor Bobby Brazier, 20, to compete for the Strictly Glitterball trophy.
He said: “I am still lucky to be around when I think I have lost friends like Keith Chegwin [who died age 60 of lung disease].
“He was a dear and wonderful guy. He seemed really fit and healthy and things like that are a reminder of how fragile life is.
“I was able to prove that you can reverse pre-diabetes by diet and by exercise and by a strong will. I am happy to still be around.”