Stacey Dooley to be Strictly's biggest winner as audience approval sets her up for flagship BBC role

Stacey Dooley will be Strictly Come Dancing’s biggest winner regardless of Sunday night’s final results, as executives plan to make her a new star of BBC One.

Dooley made her name as a presenter of hard-hitting documentaries on BBC Three, the corporation’s youth channel.

But she has proved so popular with Strictly viewers that she is now being lined up for other work on the BBC’s flagship channel. Bosses are said to want her as maternity cover for Alex Jones on The One Show, after Jones recently announced she will be having her second baby in the New Year.

A source said: “We’re working on lots of varied and exciting projects with Stacey for next year, alongside her upcoming projects for BBC Three. Stacey is unique and brilliant, she is a real talent.”

Dooley, 31, said that she joined the Strictly line-up to show people that she is suitable for entertainment and consumer programmes.

Asked what she would like to do with career after the show finishes, she replied: “Documentaries are my passion and I am going back to them after Christmas. But one of the reasons we did Strictly was just to show my lighter side.

“I am a documentary-maker who makes serious programmes but also I am just a young girl who enjoys the entertainment side of things. So I suppose [I would do] a bit of both, in an ideal world.”

She added: “My BBC Three documentaries are often repeated on BBC One so the transition was already happening, I suppose. The lovely thing about Strictly is you’re able to have conversations with the general public about lighter things.

“Work is so intense and it can be so harrowing - it’s very serious and it has to be. So for people to stop me in Sainsbury’s and say,. ‘I loved your samba…’ What’s lovely is when they say, ‘I danced to that song at my wedding.’ They’re so invested.

“I’ve loved it. I didn’t realise I would love it this much.”

Dooley was discovered as a 20-year-old working behind the make-up counter of Luton Airport duty free, and invited to take part in a documentary about the child ‘sweatshops’ used to produce some High Street clothing.

Her empathetic style led the BBC to hire her for dozens of other films about tough subjects that include sex tourism, drugs trafficking and ISIS.

She described Strictly as “one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done” and goes into the final as the bookmakers’ favourite. She said this week: “I just want to go into this final with no real expectations of what’s going to happen. I want it to feel like a massive party.”