DID YOU KNOW? Bruno Tonioli

After 13 years on Strictly Come Dancing (6.45pm, BBC1), Bruno Tonioli, 62, is one of TV’s most popular faces. Here are a few things you may not know about the flamboyant Italian…

Bruno was born in Ferrara, northeast Italy, in 1955. His father, Werther, was a bus driver and his mother, Fulvia, made car seat covers.

Aged 18 in the early 1970s, Bruno headed to Paris to begin his dance career, joining La Grande Eugene and later the Lindsay Kemp Company.

As well as choreographing music videos, stage shows and tours for big-name artists including Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones, Freddie Mercury and Sting, Bruno has also helped to choreograph several feature films including Little

Voice (1998), Me Without You (2001) and Ella Enchanted (2004).

Bruno took part in the competition to select a UK entry for the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest. His group, Duke And The Aces, lost out to Prima Donna, who went on to finish third in the contest.

He is one of the dancers on the beach in the video for Elton John’s 1983 hit I’m Still Standing. In 2004, Bruno shot to fame when the BBC launched Strictly Come Dancing.

The following year, he joined the American version of the show, Dancing With The Stars; he continues to appear on both shows, spending three days a week filming in LA alongside Len Goodman, who is still head judge in the US.

Along with Italian and English, he is fluent in Spanish and French.