CLAUDIA Winkleman has revealed she “never sleeps” before hosting a Strictly live show with co-star Tess Daly as she battles with nerves.
The presenter joined Strictly in 2004 and despite the time that has passed she still suffers from pre-show jitters.
She said: “If you ever see Tess doing the show wearing something with a big sleeve, it is because I have hurt her arm where I have squeezed it because I am so nervous.
“I can’t do that right now, but I do get really scared.
“Not because I think I am doing anything important – I am not in scrubs holding a scalpel – it is just because I don’t want to let this magical team, which is what they are, down.
“In live TV, we are tiny cogs and if you go off-piste and talk too long then you mess it up for everybody.
She added to Sunday People: “I just want to be obedient. Being obedient at work, not at life, is a good thing. So I never really sleep the night before Strictly.”
Claudia is said to be worth around £10million and scoops a salary of £370,000 a year for her work on the BBC.
A large portion of this covers her role on Strictly, which she became a main host of in 2014 after rising through the ranks from spin off It Takes Two.
However, the busy broadcaster also has a Radio Two show and takes part in numerous other BBC programmes – which makes up the rest of her salary – and hosts Britain’s Best Home Cook.
The Strictly Come Dancing host recently revealed she would take over Graham Norton’s BBC Radio 2 show after the chat-show star left for Virgin Radio.
She said: “I’m not often speechless but the chance to be with the wonderful Radio 2 listeners every Saturday has left me, quite frankly, gobsmacked.
“I hope my voice comes back in time for the first show as I can no longer simply rely on a fake tan and a fringe.
“There’s nobody I’d rather be with at the weekend, it’s a privilege and an honour.”
Graham, 57, stood down from his show earlier this year after ten years at Radio 2.
