A star from this year’s Strictly Come Dancing line up has admitted that her agent advised her not to take part over fears it could have a negative impact on her career. Dr Who star Alex Kingston, 62, shared that she has always been keen to don her dancing shoes on the BBC ballroom show, but had to put real thought into the decision.

Speaking at a roundtable ahead of the show’s launch, Alex Kingston told the press: “It’s funny because I’ve been asked in the past and at that time, my agent always sort of said, ‘No, you can’t do it, you can’t do it.’ And now I think it’s just that I’ve got to a certain stage in my life where he’s like, ‘If you want to do it, Alex…’ because I’ve been wanting to do it for 20 years. And my friends have all said, ‘you’ve been banging on about it, thank God you’re finally doing it.’”

She added: “But I did have to think about it because I know that it’s going to be really challenging, and we’re all going to be pushed really to the edge and beyond our comfort zone.

“But that’s what life’s for, isn’t it? Just jumping in, going for it. Doing things you’ll never regret.”

When asked why her agent said no, knowing how keen she was to get involved with the competition, Alex replied: “I think there’s been, for a long time, there’s been a sort of stigma around Strictly and popular television.

“And if you’re a theatre actor, theatre actors don’t participate, which is silly and not true, but I think it is changing now, they’re more generous in their opinions on Strictly, maybe because it’s been going for so long, and maybe you’ve got more actors saying, ‘sod it, I want to do it’.”

Alex is known to millions of Doctor Who fans as the iconic River Song, aka The Doctor’s Wife – a role she has played opposite three Doctors on screen and continues in audio adventure and novel form.

The actress said: “Aaaaagghhh!!!!!!” as the news of her lining the Strictly lineup was announced on The One Show.