It’s been 20 years since former Top Gear host Quentin Willson appeared on Strictly Come Dancing yet he’s still happy to hold the title of the show’s worst ever performer.
The TV presenter and motoring expert is best known for hosting Top Gear for a decade, before going on to front other programmes including Britain’s Worst Driver and Fifth Gear.
Then in 2004, three years after Top Gear was cancelled, Quentin signed up for the second season of Strictly.
However, despite his best efforts to impress on the dancefloor alongside professional dancer Hazel Newberry, he fell flat.
Following his first dance, a Cha Cha Cha, Quentin was infamously dubbed ‘Britain’s Worst Dancer’ by judge Craig Revel Horwood.
The pair were then awarded a grand total score of 8 out of 40 – with the four judges, which also included Len Goodman, Arlene Phillips and Bruno Tonioli – handing out a 1, 1, 3 and 3.
After that Quentin and Hazel, who only ever competed on that season of Strictly, were voted off.
Despite still holding what might be assumed to be an unenviable record, Quentin said he doesn’t regret his time on the BBC dancing series at all.
He’s previously called his time on the show his ‘proudest television achievement’.
‘No, it was lovely and one of the nicest things I’ve ever done. I get asked to do lots and lots of things like Big Brother, which you routinely say no to, but Strictly was something I really admired because you had to work at it and practice and put in the hours,’ he told Metro, speaking on behalf of Motorway.
‘I did and I lost half a stone, but it was to no avail because I got the lowest ever recorded score, which is still unbeaten! 8 out of 40.
‘It was terrible, and Bruno said it was like “watching a Reliant Robin making love to a Ferrari”,’ he added.
The feedback from those watching at home was just as brutal, with Quentin recalling how TV critic Clive James said it was ‘like watching a JCB dancing’.
But looking back at that time, Quentin said he thought it was ‘really important for people in the public eye to make fun of themselves and to be made fun of’.
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‘We mustn’t take ourselves too seriously at all. I look back on that like a really humbling experience and I did something in front of 12 million people, and I didn’t do it, and I failed, but I did it with hopefully good grace and I tried.’
‘I think you have to realise that success in life is about knowing your limitations and I wouldn’t want to do those now and my kids would howl in shame,’ he added.
The 2024 Strictly finale takes place tonight, with those in the running to take out the Glitterball Trophy being comedian Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell, former Love Island star Tasha Ghouri and Aljaz Skorjanec, Miranda actress Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola and JLS member JB Gill and Lauren Oakley.
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The Strictly Come Dancing final airs tonight at 6pm on BBC One.
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