Strictly Come Dancing's Dr Ranj has opened up about how he's managing his day job alongside his new training regime with Janette Manrara – admitting it's been an "exhausting" transition. Writing in his new column for the Radio Times, the paediatric doctor revealed he is juggling his dance rehearsals with long night shifts in A&E. "Not only is dance choreography totally out of my comfort zone, but going from six hours of exhausting rehearsals straight into a 13-hour night shift at the hospital has definitely taken it out of me," he said.
Ranj is juggling Strictly with his job as a hospital doctor
He also revealed that his Strictly job offer came just as he had accepted a new job at St Georges Hospital in London. "After screaming in a train toilet as my agent broke the news over the phone (I dread to think what the other passengers thought), the reality started to sink in," he wrote.
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"How could I possibly do this? I had already organised the next six months of my life, including starting my new NHS job in a major trauma centre in London as a paediatric emergency medicine physician! But there was no way I could pass this up."
He and Janette Manrara won plenty of praise for Saturday's cha cha cha
He added: "There have been times when even standing up on my ward rounds has been a struggle, as my legs felt like jelly. And I’ve looked a right plonker trying to practise my steps down the corridors when nobody’s looking."
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Dr Ranj is also one of This Morning's resident TV doctors, so he certainly has one of the busiest schedules of all the Strictlycelebrities this year. On Saturday night, after scoring rave reviews for his cha cha cha on the dancefloor, he even told Claudia Winkleman that he had delivered a baby the night before. "Not only have I done night shifts at St George’s, I’ve also been rehearsing with this lovely lady and yesterday at 3.03am we welcomed the lovely Olivia into the world. It’s been a tiring week," he said.
