Hello, I'm Kirstie Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Disks from BBC Radio 4.

For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

For more information about the program, please visit BBC.co.uk.

Radio 4. My My cast away this week is Len Goodman, a star and the head judge of Strictly

come dancing. He was tripping the light fantastic when today's hoofers were shuffling around in Nappies.

Born in London's East End as a kid he was the original Barrow Boy,

selling fruit and veg on his grandfather's stall, he went on to work on the docks as a welder.

But come Saturday night he would scrub up, don his best threads and head for the embassy ballroom in

welling where he'd wow them with his fleckles. A TV phenomenon now on both sides of the Atlantic,

his success would surely confound his head teacher who predicted little Len would be a failure in life,

adding, if you think you're only in this world to have a laugh and

enjoy yourself you'll be in for a big shock when you do get a job and you must look

back at that and laugh yourself well I do laugh a bit but you know he was he was pretty near the truth and it was only a bit of luck that things turned out how they did.

You know, if I hadn't hurt my foot playing football and one of my mates used to go to a dance studio and I used to take the Mickey out of him terrible and he said come up there so up I went with him

I had a winkle picker on my left foot and a carpet slipper on the right foot and I just loved it and of course there was about four boys and about 30 girls and I was 21 and all you're interested in is meeting girls and off I went so without that little bit of intervention

by that who knows where I would have been?

Like millions of others I watch you on strictly come dancing and I know that clearly as a judge

and somebody who understands and knows what he's looking for you do take the judging seriously

But it looks to me like you are having a tremendously good laugh

It's the best don't tell the BBC or anyone else, but it's the best job in the BBC or anyone else, but it's the best job in the world. I turn up on a Saturday night

I just say keep your head up cock your leg up higher and you know and and they pay me for it it's just a lovely job it's the best job

and you say you came to dance by accident more on that later I'm sure but in terms of strictly

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