The spat that led TV bosses to give me a bodyguard: Craig Revel Horwood's waspish memoir spills ALL of Strictly's secrets
My life has taken many twists and turns — and, of course, the odd plié — in the past few years. I have celebrated my half-century and moved to a country pile. I have loved and lost, and loved again. And I have, sadly, lost my father.
Throughout it all, though, Strictly Come Dancing has remained a constant in my life. We have witnessed the triumphs of the most amazing finals ever and the sad departures of key players, including Len Goodman and Bruce Forsyth. But as all great shows do, it goes on — and from strength to strength, I’m happy to say.
When I joined the judging panel for the first series in 2004, Brucie was like a father figure to me. Throughout the years, whatever problems I was having, personal or professional, I could always go to him and he would make time to listen.
Strictly Come Dancing has remained a constant in my life, wrote Craig Revel Horwood. As all great shows do, it goes on — and from strength to strength, I’m happy to say
He was a lovely guy, and genuine. We had absolutely no inkling that 2013 was to be Bruce’s last year on the show. The series ended with the usual wrap party where we all said goodbye after another fantastic run.
But in April 2014, two months after he turned 86, he announced he wouldn’t be coming back in the autumn. It came as a big surprise because it meant he never got to go out with a bang. We’d all have loved to give him a big send-off.
Three years after he announced his departure, Bruce passed away at the age of 89. Despite his age, it was a shock.
We had known he hadn’t been well for a couple of weeks but we hadn’t known how serious it was. Strictly’s executive producer, Louise Rainbow, phoned me three minutes after I got an alert on my phone. The BBC had tried to tell everyone in the Strictly family before the word got out, but it was impossible. I felt very sad.
It was the end of an era, and part of Strictly died with him. But we feel Brucie’s presence every time we hear the music, and his spirit lives in the studio with us.
Bruce Forsyth with current Strictly hosts Tess Daly, right, and Claudia Winkleman. Sir Bruce died in 2017 after stepping down from the show in 2014
After Bruce decided to step down, it was announced that Claudia Winkleman would be taking over. I thought that was a great idea because I love Claudia and I’d worked with her for years on It Takes Two and I knew she was quirky enough and mad enough to make it her own.
I remember her coming up to me on her first night and saying: ‘Oh, Craigy’ — yes, that’s what she calls me — ‘Craigy, I’m really nervous.’
‘Why would you be nervous?’ I said. ‘You’ve worked on It Takes Two for years and you know all the ins and outs of Strictly.’
But I suppose hosting a show going live to 12million viewers is very different. Bruce’s were enormous boots to fill but I think she filled them in her own spectacular and kooky way.
‘Just be your own wonderful self,’ I told her. Claudia and Tess are genuinely best friends, and they’re always having little parties together after the show. Claudia will corner me and say: ‘Craigy, we’re having a party in Tess’s dressing room, you must come in.’
The last time, she was really insistent that I joined her, even though I had guests of my own in my dressing room. When I finally agreed, she said: ‘Oh, good, we’ve run out of wine. Can you bring some of yours?’ The cheek!
At the end of 13 weeks of that series, presenter Caroline Flack lifted the glitterball trophy which, I must confess, was a surprise to me. But she won the hearts of the nation and that is half the battle.
For me, the unforgettable contestant from series 12 had to be Judy Murray. She’s probably the most wooden dancer I’ve seen — and that was a big surprise, too.
She is so high up in the tennis world, used to hitting a ball with precision timing, as well as being able to coach people like her magnificent sons. It was quite crazy to see her come on the dance floor and make a real pig’s ear of it.
Judy would come to the bar afterwards and say: ‘Do you have to be so nasty to me?’
‘Well, just improve, darling,’ I would say, ‘and then I won’t be.’ But it was all in very good humour. After 15 series people know that I’m not out to be nasty, but that I do like to be honest and tell the truth. Sometimes it’s misconstrued as negative comment, but we are there to judge.
Presenter Naga Munchetty was always coming up to me at the bar during series 14, saying: ‘Craig, why do you always have to be so awful?’
‘Because your dancing’s awful, darling,’ I told her. ‘It’s not my fault. If your dancing was better, I’d be kinder, but don’t you want to know what’s going wrong?’
‘You could do it in a nicer way,’ she said. ‘You don’t have to be so abrupt.’
Professional dancer Ola Jordan quit the show after the 2015 season, two years after husband James also left. 'The spats between me and James have been well-documented,' Craig wrote.
The original Strictly judges, from left, Bruno Tonioli, Arlene Phillips, Len Goodman and Craig Revel Horwood
‘Yes, I do,’ I said. ‘Sometimes I’ve only got ten seconds to speak — especially if Bruno has been rabbiting on!’
The reality is the judges get two minutes between us and, if Bruno chats aimlessly for a minute and a half about dancing like Hoovers and artistry, or whatever he goes on about, then I have ten seconds to speak — and I want those ten seconds to make a difference.
I need to tell them what they did wrong so that they get it right next week. Sometimes that means I have no time to add the positive.
In real life I am not anything like I am on TV. Everyone thinks I’m going to be nasty but I am lovely and beautiful and delicious and loving and generous and sweet. Honest! But just put a bad dancer in front of me and I turn evil.
Professional dancer Ola Jordan threw in the towel during the 2015 season, after she and sprinter Iwan Thomas were voted out. She had stuck it out for two years after her husband James left the show but quit after giving an interview accusing the judges of fixing the score. Per-lease!
I can assure everyone we have never fixed anything in our lives. Our scores are honest reflections of what we see in front of us.
I do have empathy for James and Ola because they play their cards in the wrong way. You can leave Strictly and still be nice about it. The show gave them a platform and made them famous, which they should be happy about.
The spats between me and James have been well-documented. There’s no real hatred or animosity and, in my opinion, his comments about me are a way of gaining publicity. In person, we get on. But he has a temper and a tendency to go off on one.
The beauty is that I really don’t care because it doesn’t affect me. It seems, however, that some in the industry believe the hype and think a big fight is going to break out if we ever see each other.
During a recent filming of the panel show Celebrity Juice we were appearing in different shows being shot on the same day.
Suddenly a bodyguard appeared outside my dressing room.
When I asked why, they said it was because James and Ola Jordan had arrived and were five doors down from me, which made me absolutely howl with laughter.
I thought: ‘Things aren’t that bad between us!’ The fact is that James is extremely opinionated and so am I. We were probably never going to be the best of friends but I bear him no ill will and wish them both the best.
Two years after Brucie stepped down, Len Goodman announced in the summer of 2016 that he would be leaving Strictly after the next season. It was a sad moment, but it came as no surprise to me.
For years he had been doing both Strictly and the U.S. version and, because they overlapped, that meant flying back and forth to LA every week. It was killing him.
By the time Len decided to give up the UK show he was 72 and dealing with constant jet lag. But boy, did he pick a great year to leave! The celeb dancers in that series were phenomenal.
Judy Murray, who was partnered by current judge Anton Du Beke, was Craig's unforgettable contestant from series 12. 'She’s probably the most wooden dancer I’ve seen,' he wrote
The final, between Ore Oduba, Danny Mac and Louise Redknapp was the most amazing we’ve seen. Every year has been amazing, but 2016 for me really stood out.
It wasn’t just the great dancers that made it an unforgettable year. Ed Balls’s routines will be forever etched on the memory of the nation. It’s not every day you see a former shadow chancellor of the exchequer dancing Gangnam Style, but it was tremendous, and Ed was so much fun.
Compared with most politicians, he seems incredibly human. He has a clear head, he’s approachable and you can understand what he’s talking about.
He can convince anyone of an argument. I want Ed Balls to be prime minister. He would be brilliant.
Louise Redknapp was a fantastic dancer. Of course, when she split with her husband Jamie, the red-tops were bleating about the ‘Strictly curse’, but I don’t think the show splits anyone up.
Sometimes marriages or relationships are already coming to an end and maybe some people take the job in order to be separated or distracted from their problems.
Strictly gave Louise a new lease of life after putting her career on the back burner to raise the kids. Being a mum is a wonderful job but some women miss the career they had before. When the kids grow up a bit, you’re then free to become yourself again. That time had come for Louise.
If you didn’t know Len was leaving at the start of the series, it wouldn’t take too long to work it out. They took the entire series to tell everyone, every week, that he’d brought out a DVD, or they’d stage a tribute, or whatever.
But the finale was spectacular, and a fitting send-off for him.
Len and I were and are great friends, although we never see eye to eye artistically. He believes ballroom should be ballroom and that the tango should be danced to tango music, but I believe dances can be reinvented. I have to confess, though, I miss his comedy. I don’t miss the backstage, moaning grumpy Len Goodman — but he’s not always like that. He’s made a personality out of complaining but he’s also very, very funny.
We created the show together all those years ago, and he’s taught me so much. It will never be the same without Len and his earthy humour and quick wit.
With Len gone, speculation was rife about who would be ‘head judge’ on the Strictly panel for the 2017 season. I had already stood in once when he took a week off, but I don’t see that as my permanent role and I didn’t want it. I couldn’t be happier with my role as it is. I earn more money from my other work than I ever would from the programme. I do Strictly because I get a front row seat at the best dance show on telly. If they try to get rid of me, I won’t go quietly!
I was asked to take part in the screen tests for Len’s replacement, to sit with each candidate at a desk, judging as if it were a real show. The BBC wanted a bit of banter, and to choose someone that seemed to fit in. When it came to Shirley Ballas’s turn she certainly made an entrance.
She wore a massive ballgown with the highest heels, so she tottered up to the desk like Betty Boop. Then she leaned across and we air-kissed dramatically. But when she got on to the critique, she was spot on and straight to the point. She knew her technical stuff.
The current line-up of Strictly judges, from left, Craig, Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse and Anton. I was really pleased when Shirley got the job, Craig wrote
I was really pleased when Shirley got the job. She was a bit worried about her broad Merseyside accent and asked me if she should be more ‘LA’. ‘Be yourself, darling,’ I said. ‘That’s the whole point. Be where you are from.’
I know I don’t have an Australian accent. I gradually lost that after living in London for almost 30 years. Also, being involved in a lot of public speaking, as I have, means you tend to over-enunciate words so your speech is clearer.
Of course, all the ‘darlings’ are just me, naturally. I’m trying to stop saying it this series, though, because I have been told that some viewers have drinking games at home. Every time I say ‘darling’ they have a slug of wine or knock back a vodka. I’m doing it for the health of the nation.
The finale of the 2017 series, with Gemma Atkinson, Alexandra Burke, Debbie McGee and Joe McFadden was fantastic. Everyone mocked me when I bowed down at the feet of Debbie, but she was extraordinary. What a woman! Joe was voted the best man to win in the end and congratulations to him but I would say that three of them, Alexandra, Debbie and Joe, all deserved the trophy.
Although we didn’t know it at the time, series 15 turned out to be the last one for Brendan Cole. Brendan has his live shows and had already signed up to play Prince Charming in panto, so he was moving on.
We’ve had our run-ins in the past, some of them on screen, but he is extremely talented. I told him I would consider writing a one-man show for him, because this is the perfect time to do it. I know how it feels when you have to take a new direction in life. It’s scary.
When I was ousted from my job on The Witches Of Eastwick theatre show, I found myself in the dance gutter.
I couldn’t pay my mortgage. I had to give up my mobile phone. But I had to pick myself up and get on with it.
You have to take a different tack sometimes. I wish Brendan all the luck in the world.
So here we are again, with a new series well under way. I still adore making the show every year, as well as all the other opportunities it brings. Strictly has opened so many doors for me.
I will be forever grateful to the programme and its many devoted viewers for that.
Now, I have one word for my life. Three syllables. Fab-u-lous!
- A version of this article was originally published in the Mail on October 15, 2018.
- In Strictest Confidence by Craig Revel Horwood (Michael O’Mara Books Ltd, £20). © Craig Revel Horwood 2018. To order a copy for £18 (offer valid to 09/03/24: UK P&P free on orders over £25) go to www.mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937.
Face to face - with myself
Craig stands with a wax figure of himself at Madame Tussauds in Blackpool, where Strictly has hosted shows in past
Just over a year ago I had the most astounding e-mail from my agent, Gavin. ‘Darling,’ it read, ‘Madame Tussauds want to make a waxwork of you!’ ‘OMG,’ I thought. ‘What an honour!’ I had been given the opportunity of being captured in time before any more wrinkles arrive! I thought I was dreaming.
Fast forward to July 2 this year, when I came face to face with myself (pictured right) at the Blackpool Tussauds in the form of my lovely new waxwork — definitely one the most extraordinary moments of my life.
The full-sized effigy was so realistic that when I was standing next to it even my own mum had trouble telling us apart. At the age of 53 I had found myself — literally.
Who would have believed that this boy from the Australian gold-rush town of Ballarat would one day stand among the most legendary names in showbusiness, sport and world politics?
