You’ll like this… not a lot, but you’ll like it — the ‘lovely Debbie McGee’ will be getting up close and personal with Nottingham fans to share 50 years of showbiz stories. Of course, there’s a moment of TV gold that’s sure to crop up. Even though it happened 30 years ago, it’s gone down in comedy history. The dancer and magician’s assistant, who had a 38-year relationship with Paul Daniels, was asked the infamous question by Mrs Merton: “So what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?” “People still talk about it,” says the 67-year-old, whose Evening with Debbie McGee takes place on Thursday, May 14, where she will be talking her highs and lows and favourite memories over the last five decades, including her early career as a ballerina, life with magician Paul and her time on Strictly Come Dancing . A chirpy Debbie answers the phone from her home in Berkshire, saying that she’s in the middle of writing her autobiography that will most likely be called Debbie McGee: A Magical Life. “My life has been magical in so many ways. It’s not just about magic with Paul. It’s the magic of life,” she says, adding that the book will be sprinkled with inspirational quotes “because sometimes just a little quote kicks you up the bum.” The tongue-in-cheek question on The Mrs Merton Show from comedian Caroline Aherne in 1995 really tickled her. Debbie says: “Money never ever attracts me, it’s always about the person and their personality so that would make me laugh anyway, that she even thought it was Paul’s millions but he wasn’t a millionaire when I first worked with him, he was just becoming famous. “I knew she’d just married a millionaire, which at the time was her bass player Hooky (Peter Hook) so in my head, all of that just made me laugh so much.” The conundrum is not so much what to put in her autobiography but what to leave out. Debbie began her career as a professional dancer and was a backing dancer for ABBA and Lady in Red singer Chris de Burgh, performing across Europe. She trained with the Royal Ballet School and was dancing with the Iranian National Ballet Company, in Tehran, when the revolution started in 1978, forcing her to flee the country and her dream job. Back in the UK she auditioned to become a commercial dancer for summer seaside shows, leading to a season in Great Yarmouth. “They’d audition 1,000 girls and then choose eight or 10 for each show. I got put in the Paul Daniels group of girls and I had no idea who he was or what he did. “I hated magic because I’d only every seen the sort of very formal magicians on the royal gala shows that produced doves and it wasn’t my thing.” Recalling the first time she met Paul at rehearsals, she says: “I was early and so was he. The rehearsal hall wasn’t open so I was sitting on a wall and he came up and we got talking. Then when he watched the rehearsal he picked four of us to be his assistants.” Her first impression of the man with the famous catchphrase “you’ll like it… not a lot, but you’ll like it”? “He was funny and we made each other laugh. “He always said he couldn’t believe that a 19-year-old girl was having this banter with him, that he said something and I threw things back at him and we just giggled. We got on from that very first day.” Despite a 20-year age gap, her relationship blossomed with the magician. Teenage Debbie branded a gold-digger by the tabloids but as she points out she was an ambitious young woman with her own flat and a brand new car. “I learned to have a thick skin that people could think what they liked but we knew the truth and so did our friends and family so I never let what the press said at that time bother me. When people met us, they could see we were in love.” The couple were together for 10 years before tying the knot and were married for 28 years. She recalls: “It took Paul a long time to propose. He kept saying to me, ‘you’re too young, go and find someone your own age’. “I was in the garden, sitting on a swinging sofa and he got down on one knee. He had a bottle of champagne and said ‘I’m not very tall, I’m not very good looking, I’m going bald but I promise you it will never be boring’ — and it never was with Paul around. “He always used to say, with us life just got better and better. I think I had a fairy-tale life, but also we both had very strong backgrounds with supportive parents through our lives, which I think really helps.” One of the most famous couples in entertainment at that time, they appeared on stage and television , just not performing magic, but in panto, Stars In Their Eyes: Celebrity Duets and The X Factor: Battle of the Stars, alongside public appearances switching on Christmas lights and judging the best British banger. Paul, who affectionately referred to his wife as the ‘lovely Debbie McGee’, died in March 2016, aged 77, shortly after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. She threw herself into work to keep busy. “Being part of a double act so often when one person dies or can’t work anymore, it’s very difficult to carry on as that independent person but I picked up my career from where it was before I met Paul and pushed which is why I’ve kept working,” says Debbie. The following year (2017), she signed up for Strictly, where she was partnered with Italian professional Giovanni Pernice. Fans will recall that Giovanni was a professional dancer on the show for nine years, winning in 2021 with his celebrity partner, actress Rose Ayling-Ellis, who made history as the first deaf contestant on Strictly. However, Giovanni’s departure from the show was a result of a high-profile controversy involving his 2023 celebrity partner, Amanda Abbington. The BBC officially confirmed that Giovanni wouldn’t be returning the following year after an internal investigation into “serious complaints” about his training methods was launched. During the nine-month investigation, Giovanni strenuously denied any wrongdoing, stating that he was simply a “perfectionist”. Debbie, who reached the 2017 final after wowing the judges and viewers alike with her agility, doing the splits and dramatic lifts, was shocked by his departure. She says: “I was devastated with all of that and the fact he’s gone from the programme. I just think he was a good choreographer. “He knew what suited his partners. If you look at his history of what he got out of his partners, he always got them through a hell of a long way. “I had a fantastic relationship with him, and we both had the same work ethic, so we got on from day one. We worked our socks off for hours and hours and hours, but we loved that. “He saw that I had potential and then saw that I was prepared to work and improve. Yes, he was tough, but I would never have got through to the final if he hadn’t been that tough on me. He brought out of me what I didn’t know was inside. “My teachers at the Royal Ballet School were much tougher than Giovanni. And I’ve worked with directors in shows. where they were much tougher than he was. “We worked hard and laughed hard. But he was so caring because it was the year after Paul died. He made sure I was alright. “I thought if I was lucky maybe I’d get through four weeks if the audience liked my performance so I was as amazed as anyone that I got through to the final. It’s like training an athlete.” Giovanni moved away from the show to join the cast of the Italian version, Ballando con le Stelle. Debbie, who hadn’t danced since her 20s, attributes her youthfulness to here genes, alongside yoga, pilates and having an energy for life. “My mum is 89 and she still looks really good for her age. Mum and dad didn’t crumble once they got to 60. Thinking back to when I was growing up people who were 60 were old. Mum and dad were very youthful. If my dad popped to the shops for a loaf of bread he would run there and back,” she says. When she’s not working Debbie enjoys cooking for friends, going to the theatre, walks in the countryside, taking her motor boat called the ‘lovely Debbie McGee’ out on the river Thames or driving her convertible classic car. “Writing my autobiography I’m thinking wow, what a life I’ve led. I mean I am such a lucky girl. I still find life very exciting. I came into show business because I loved it and I still love it.” * Johnny Moore presents An Evening with Debbie McGee, including a Q&A and selfies, at The Refinery, in Melton Road, West Bridgford , at 7.30pm. Tickets, priced £20 per person, are available by emailing info@therefinerywb.co.uk or telephone 0115 9825681.