A tearful Alex Kingston opened up about the condition that made dancing the paso doble “difficult” during Saturday night’s episode of Strictly Come Dancing.
The Doctor Who and ER actor, 62, told host Claudia Winkleman that she is “numerically dyslexic” and has therefore struggled to dance to music without lyrics.
Kingston and her dance partner Johannes Radebe performed to “Amparito Roca” by Jamie Texidor, a traditional paso doble track without lyrics.
The judges noted that she seemed considerably less confident than she has in previous weeks, with Motsi Mabuse noting that this marked “the first time that I’ve felt a little bit of insecurity from you”.
She also suggested that the performance “lacked spatial awareness and fire”, while Craig Revel Horwood went a step further and branded it “a little bit middle of the road”.
When Kingston headed up to the “Clauditorium” for her post-routine interview with Winkleman, she revealed that she struggles with numerical dyslexia, or dyscalculia.
According to the NHS, dyscalculia is a persistent difficulty in understanding numbers. It is thought to impact one in 20 people.
“The thing is, I'm numerically dyslexic so I can't count,” Kingston said. “And that's quite difficult.”
Winkleman reminded her that as a contestant, she is “not supposed to love every dance”, prompting Kingston to reveal that performing without lyrics had been a struggle.
“But I should love this one because it's drama,” she said. “But I'm used to dancing to lyrics and I didn't know that I can't do that.”
Winkleman encouraged the rest of the contestants and professional dancers to comfort Kingston, prompting praise on Twitter/X.
“Claudia really is the perfect presenter and her moment comforting Alex demonstrates this so clearly – she’ll be a real loss to the show,” one fan wrote.
“Watching Claudia and the rest try to cheer Alex up in the Clauditorium on Strictly was so sweet omg,” another agreed.
Kingston received 30 points, leaving her in the lower half of the leaderboard after a high-scoring episode that saw Vicky Pattison receive her first perfect 10s from the judges.
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