From salsa to censor! Natasha is film chief

STRICTLY Come Dancing champion Natasha Kaplinsky is to become one of the country’s top film censors.

Former BBC newsreader Miss Kaplinsky, who also worked for Sky News and ITV News, has been named as the new president of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).

In the role, the 50-year-old, who was awarded an OBE in 2017 for services to Holocaust commemoration, will each month chair the board that oversees decisions on the most ‘complex and controversial’ of cases. She will also chair the Advisory Council on Children’s Viewing.

The BBFC, which provides age ratings for film and other visual content such as DVDs, said Miss Kaplinsky would be bringing a ‘high-level approach and independence to difficult cases and policy issues’.

Miss Kaplinsky, who is president of Barnardo’s and an ambassador for Save The Children, said: ‘For over a century, the BBFC has done fantastic work to help families have a positive viewing experience.

‘It’s crucial that children’s welfare is at the forefront of policy decision-making and this is central to the BBFC’s efforts in the online safety space.’

Miss Kaplinsky became the UK’s highestpaid newsreader in 2007, when she signed a reported £1million-a-year deal to leave the BBC and become the face of Channel 5’s news. She was the first winner of Strictly Come Dancing in 2004, with professional dance partner Brendan Cole.