Strictly was terrifying, says weather presenter Carol Kirkwood

Former BBC weather presenter Carol Kirkwood says she found Strictly Come Dancing "terrifying" and would look for an escape route if she was first on.

The 63-year-old, from Morar on the west coast of Scotland, said she did not say "yes" when asked on to the show immediately as she was afraid of looking silly.

But on Sunday she told the Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, that doing the programme with dancer Pasha Kovalev was "amazing" and something she would never forget.

Kirkwood admitted getting up close and personal with someone she had never met did not come naturally.

She told the festival: "It's quite embarrassing to get that close... to somebody that you've only just met. We're not Love Island kids."

Quizzed by former former BBC Breakfast co-host, Sian Williams, she said: "I'll never forget that nor regret doing it. It was a wonderful experience."

When she was asked onto the show she hesitated, she said, adding: "I was scared of making a fool of myself. And then I thought, 'just get over yourself. You're not going to be in the West End'."

She told the festival while she could not dance, her partner was so good he "took seconds" to learn his moves.

Each week contestants' costumes were taken in because they were losing weight, Kirkwood said.

"On the Saturday, you go in at eight o'clock in the morning, you have your hair done for an hour, so you might be having hair pieces and whatnot added," she said.

"Make-up takes an hour, and then you get straight into your costume.

"Now, your costume is a leotard with a skirt sewn onto it, so that if you raise your arms, it doesn't come adrift.

"And it's the same for the gents. They're attached to their trousers."

Then was dress rehearsal.

"It was the crew that marked you, and that's the only time I got four 10s," Kirkwood said.

At the top of the set's illuminated stairs she would forget her steps.

Kirkwood said: "I would stand there and say, 'Pasha, I can't remember how this starts'.

"And he'd say, 'you'll be fine'. I would say, 'seriously, Pasha, I can't remember how it starts. Can we just quickly run through it?'. [And he would say] 'You'll be fine'.

"And so we would start, and he would drag me around the dance floor, and we would get through it somehow.

"But it was terrifying, but the relief when you had done it."

While at the top of the stairs she would look for an escape.

"You're looking for the nearest fire exit, because you're thinking, I'm out of here," Kirkwood said.

One reality show she had no plan to be on is I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

Asked by an audience member whether she would go into the jungle she said: "When you see the snakes around their heads, I think I would have a heart attack."

Race Across the World held more appeal. She told Williams: "If we started in Singapore, we'd go straight to Raffles, have a few cocktails, and we'd be on the next plane home."

Weather, she said, was "in the back window", though she said she had a couple of presenting jobs coming up which she could not talk about.