Although I initially doubted the wisdom of Ed Balls accepting the invitation to appear on Strictly Come Dancing ('I would drop Strictly like a shot', 3 September, his representation of the death of New Labour through the medium of dance made for fabulous viewing.
I would keep Strictly, but a Saturday night on BBC1 would have either a drama serial, or some form of family entertainment".
"If I got a call saying, 'We think you can solve the problem, come back and rescue us', I would drop Strictly and drop Harvard, I'd drop everything except Norwich, to go and do it.
Before I arrived, they warned me that I would be strictly monitored at all times and that if I took photos of anything they thought might re-start the Cold War, I'd have my camera smashed and I'd be forced to swallow a plutonium bomb.
When I made the album it was before I'd done Strictly Come Dancing (4) and so I was thinking, "Oh God, people are probably going to want to hear me do something more mainstream and pop," but this felt a little bit unexpected and that was a nice feeling but scary too.
"I would never argue with Strictly, I think it is the most perfect BBC show they invented here.
After my first dinner there, I would have recommended it strictly for drinks: the bar was standing room only and the place was a wall of noise (which increased with live music later in the evening).
If I had hung around for the latest episode of "Strictly" I would have seen a surge as millions switched on the kettle to make a cup of tea, having seen the result.
But the truth of a counterfactual to the effect that if I were in circumstance C I would do A is strictly inconsistent with my refraining from A in C, and so my refraining from A in C is precluded by something prior in the order of explanation to my act in C.
"I told them, very strictly, that I wouldn't allow them to do that," Das recalled.
