The broadcaster, 79, told how she has been stopped everywhere by members of public saying she has given them a new lease of life and had been “flying the flag for older women”.
Angela, who had been partnered with professional dancer Kai Widdrington, aged 28 and 51 years her junior, said that whilst she was still “fit and flexible” she knew she would never win the series.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour last week she said: “I did say right at the very beginning I did know I was never going to win the competition, my goodness there are some stunning dancers this year and getting closer and closer to that Glitterball.
“I was never going to be one of them, I knew that, but if I could get that message across that dancing is not just a joyous thing to do but one of ways that as you get older, when you get into your sixties, seventies, eighties and your nineties, it will help you in your mind and your body, to stay stronger, stay fitter and more flexible.”
And she she echoed the much loved late host Bruce Forsyth’s catchphrase, saying: “As Brucie used to say Keep Dancing!”
She added: “I know there will be people who perhaps have medical conditions which will make that impossible but movement is still important so they can live a full life.
“If I can get that message across, just by having done what I have done, that will be my Glitterball. I will see that as an achievement.”
Angela revealing the outpouring of support she had been given from complete strangers said: “I was at the supermarket checkout, doing my weekly shopping. and the lady next to me tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘I’m so please you are doing Strictly because women of our age and our hair colour, we were both grey, we disappear and we become invisible but you’re going to make a few headlines for us!’
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“I was so touched by that and hope I can get that message across.
“I think that one of the things I have found completely overwhelming in all of this are the comments that I have had, online yes, and in the street, in the supermarket, when I have been on the bus people have come up to me and stopped me.
“There’s no way of saying this without sounding as if I am blowing my own trumpet but they used the word inspirational and said we know that you are 79.
“But the number of people who have written or said to me in person that I have been an inspiration to them and I have been flying the flag for older women, that I have persuaded people to be fitter, to do something physical for themselves has been overwhelming.
“I was speaking to Kai earlier and he said ‘Have you seen what’s on the internet?’ and apparently half a million people had liked us and had added comments about how inspirational we have been.”
She admitted that it had been gruelling at times, saying: “It is a punishing schedule and the week leading up to Blackpool could not have been worse because I was in Manchester all week recording the brand new series of rip off Britain which is going out in January.
“I was getting up at 5.45 every morning, being in the studio, recording the programme then leaving at two and fitting in the training and going backwards and forwards.
“But I loved every minute of it.”
She revealed that she will be back on the dance floor as she has signed up for the Strictly tour next year, saying: “I’m going to go on the tour with Strictly which means I will be in my eightieth year which is just bizarre and crazy to think about!”
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