Comedian Susan Calman has said her smart watch once called an ambulance for her when she was training for Strictly Come Dancing, as it sensed her heart rate was too high.

Calman, who took part in last year’s series of the dancing show, told BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen that she was training for “eight, nine hours a day” with professional partner Kevin Clifton.

She said: “My favourite moment, we were doing the jive, and I’ve got a smart watch that monitors your heart.

“And I was dancing away, and I heard ‘woo woo woo’, and my smart watch had called an ambulance because my heart rate was 210.”

She joked that the watch thought she was “dying”.

The Scottish stand-up said that taking part in Strictly impacted her life and helped inspire her to write her new book Sunny Side Up, about sharing kindness and positivity.

She said: “It all came together really beautifully and accidentally, that my feelings of trying to be more positive and have more kindness just came to a head when I started doing Strictly Come Dancing.

“I’d never experienced such joy in my life than I did dancing, and the kindness of audiences… I mean, we were meant to be the first out, and we lasted until week 10, which was an extraordinary thing.”

Calman, 43, added: “The physical part of it is unexpected, but beautiful.

Susan Calman and Kevin Clifton
Susan Calman and Kevin Clifton (Guy Levy/BBC)

“I’d never danced and I’d never worn high heels, and suddenly I was dancing in front of 11 million people in heels and a dress, and it was very odd.

“It was beautiful and joyous, but it was quite difficult.”

She said that Clifton has become one of her “best friends”.

Calman and Clifton finished in seventh place on last year’s series of Strictly.