Strictly Come Dancing star Alex Kingston was left “mortified” after suffering an awkward blunder (Image: BBC)

Strictly Come Dancing star Alex Kingston was left “mortified” after an unintentional innuendo while filming left the studio in stitches – but the gaffe never made it to air. The 62-year-old actress, best known for her roles in ER and Doctor Who, is one of this year’s celebrity contestants on the BBC ballroom show. She appeared in the pre-recorded launch episode, which aired two weekends ago, but it’s now emerged that one of her funniest moments was left on the cutting room floor.

During the launch, Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman introduced the line-up and quizzed them on their Strictly journey so far. While the broadcast showed a string of safe answers, it’s since been revealed that Alex’s off-the-cuff response left the cast and crew howling with laughter at the time. Her co-star George Clarke recalled the moment on his Useless Hotline podcast last week. When Alex’s name came up, George gushed: “She’s so unintentionally funny just because of how sweet and lovely and nice she is.”

Her co-star George Clarke recalled the moment on his Useless Hotline podcast (Image: The Useless Hotline Podcast/YouTube)
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He went on to explain that not every interaction from Tess and Claudia made it to the final edit. He explained: “They asked Alex one, and it was so good her response.

“[…] Somebody came round beforehand backstage, just sort of speaking to us and they’d just be like ‘that’s good so we’re gonna get Tess and Claudia to ask a question if you could just sort of lead into that story.’”

According to George, the hosts teed up Alex by asking how she broke the news to her family and friends that she was joining the show. Her answer took a very unexpected turn.

George recalled: “She said, ‘Well, I was actually at my friend’s husband’s birthday and I know he’s a massive fan, so I thought I’d give him a little birthday gift, so I waited until everybody was asleep and then I snuck into his room and I told him I had a secret to give him.

“And then he was… I could see him getting stiffer and stiffer’… and we all just wet ourselves. And she was like ‘No! with fright, with fright!’” The slip only made things funnier as Alex desperately tried to clarify what she meant.

George admitted: “I can’t even remember what she said after that to try and save it, but it basically just doubled down on the bit, and we were like, ‘Not helping Alex!’ And it was just so funny. Claudia was wetting herself, just like said something like back. It was so good, but she was just mortified afterwards.”

A source told the Mirror: “Alex’s unintentional innuendo had everyone howling with laughter in the studio. She was so shocked when she realised how it sounded.

“Sadly, there wasn’t time to do the full story justice in the launch show, but everyone’s dying to see what Alex might come out with on air now that Strictly’s live every Saturday night. She and Claudia together should be TV gold.”