Shirley Ballas may have switched to fiction, but that doesn’t imply the lines between fiction and reality have been completely erased.
The 62-year-old Strictly Come Dancing judge has temporarily traded the dancing floor for, um, a desk in order to write her debut novel, Murder on the Dance Floor.
The drama follows investigators as they try to solve the mystery surrounding the collapse and murder of promising young dancer Lily at Blackpool Tower Ballroom’s famous Dance Festival.
The book, which is expected to be released on October 12, is the first in the professional dancer’s detective series, The Sequin Mysteries.
Shirley joins on Saturday’s episode of The Jonathan Ross Show, where she discusses her novel, including the motivation for the’saucy sequences.’
Shirley estimates that around 90% of the sensual sequences are based on her own experiences. Some of those scenes will make your toes curl.’
She goes on to tell Wossy, 62: ‘It’s loosely based on every story that I’ve witnessed that’s gone on in my industry, but with fictitious characters. Some of it’s fun, some of it’s really intriguing, very sensual…
‘The lady that drops dead, while she’s doing a Tango, is closely entwined with her partner… you have to find out who is the murderer. She dies, right there in the Tango!’
Shirley adds: ‘I absolutely have covered everything. My mother and I were reading the book in the kitchen and she was like, “Oh Shirley, oh dear,” [while reading a saucy bit]. Next thing we turned around and Charlie [the dog] was bonking the toy duck. Even he enjoyed the book.’
She continues: ‘But my mother, who is very critical, she loves to read, she read it overnight, she didn’t go to bed and she loved it.’
Shirley also says she’ll be writing her second novel next year and that she got into writing because she wanted to ‘do something she’d never done before.’
She continues: ‘I like to write. I enjoyed the process. Along with a wonderful writer who helped me. She just brought all my stories to life.’
Shirley has stated that she may not return to Strictly after receiving ‘out of control’ online harassment.
She added that the terrible comments she received during the 2022 season had brought her to a ‘all-time low’ since joining Strictly, with trolls bombarding her with thousands of ‘really awful’ messages regarding her decisions to send contestants home.
‘Last year I was struggling. It wasn’t just a little bit, it was a lot – the majority of it was in silence,’ she said.
‘I felt the abuse snowballed out of control and impacted me in such a negative way. I’m a pretty stoic person, and I tend to hold everything in.’
Shirley told The Mirror that the negativity was the most she’s ‘ever experienced’, adding that the BBC was ‘brilliant’ at checking in on her and offering her counselling and support.
The Jonathan Ross Show continues on Saturday on ITV at 9.50pm.
