DANCING feat!

ANGELA RIPPON on making her TV acting debut in period whodunnit Father Brown

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FATHER BROWN FRIDAY, 2PM, BBC1 DRAMA

Across nearly 60 years of working in television, Angela Rippon has done almost everything: dancing with Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise in a now-classic Christmas sketch, presenting the Nine O’Clock News on BBC1, and even hosting the 1977 Eurovision Song Contest.

This week, however, the broadcaster breaks new ground as she makes her TV acting debut in an episode of BBC1’s clerical crime caper Father Brown. Angela plays The Dancing Duchess, presenter of a fictional TV show, Go Dancing!, that Father Brown’s housekeeper Brenda Palmer (Ruby-May Martinwood) is competing in.

But when Brenda’s partner Frederick Thorncastle (John McCrea) is almost crushed by a falling spotlight, it looks as though someone is planning a murder on the dance floor!

In an exclusive interview, Angela, 80, tells TV Times why she was delighted to be offered an acting role, and how her stint on Strictly in 2023 inspired her to ‘keeeep dancing’…

So, how did your guest role on Father Brown come about, Angela?

I’m a huge fan of the series; I’ve been watching it since it started [in 2013], so when my agent rang and said, ‘Ange, they’d like you to do an appearance on Father Brown,’ I was absolutely thrilled!