My life through a lens

Celebrities share the stories behind their favourite snaps – this week it’s dancer and choreographer Wayne Sleep

1961 I played rugby for my school – this is me in action aged 13 – but I gave it up to concentrate on my ballet. A scholarship place became available at the Royal Ballet School so I travelled down to London from my home in Hartlepool to audition. There were 300 applicants, and when the letter arrived saying I’d got in my mother cried at the prospect of me leaving home. Lee Hall said he based his screenplay for the film Billy Elliot on my autobiography.

1969 I’m having a Christmas drink here with my mother and sister, when I’m 21. But my mother became a Jehovah’s Witness, so Christmas wasn’t celebrated in our house much longer after that. Later, when I was an established dancer, I always looked forward to Christmas, and if I was in a panto, my family would make an effort to come to my opening night.

1978 I was hired as choreographer for the film Death On The Nile. I’d first seen the fabulous Angela Lansbury (above) in the musical Mame in New York – I had a very minor part in the show – but I never thought I’d end up choreographing her, as well as David Niven, Olivia Hussey, Mia Farrow and Peter Ustinov, with Bette Davis and Maggie Smith also on the set during the tango scene. No pressure then for a relative unknown! I was being paid an hourly rate, which was great as nobody turned up to the rehearsal and I had to go and find David Niven and persuade him to come.

1981 I was a huge fan of Trevor Nunn, so when I heard that he was directing the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats, I wanted to get a part. I went to see Andrew, and he asked me to sing a few bars, and suddenly I was auditioning. Then his first wife Sarah came in and said, ‘Oh Wayne, I didn’t know you could sing,’ and I said, ‘Neither did I.’ There was a bomb scare on the opening night and we all had to go home in our costumes. But after that the show was, of course, a big hit – here I am toasting its success with the producer Cameron Mackintosh, fellow cast members Elaine Paige and Brian Blessed, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

1982 It was a privilege to work with those showbusiness legends Morecambe and Wise. Before I met them I didn’t know how to ad lib, and who better to teach me? In this Singin’ In The Rain sketch for their ITV show I’m playing Gene Kelly, Ernie is Debbie Reynolds and Eric is Donald O’Connor. Of course none of us looked like who we were playing, which made it even funnier, and to top it all there was a picture of Lionel Blair on the wall which would fall off every time we started to do a routine.

1985 I met Princess Diana after she’d asked my agent if I could give her dance lessons. We secretly worked at choreographing Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl for a Royal Opera House event. On the night, Diana sneaked out of the audience and suddenly appeared on stage with me in front of Prince Charles. I was more nervous than she was as I could have dropped the future queen!

1986 This was taken at a ‘hat party’ held by Freddie Mercury for his 40th birthday at his house. I’d first met him when he came backstage one night when I was a lead in a ballet. He had a huge respect for dance, and I think if he’d lived longer, he’d have composed a ballet. I’d met him again when I was a guest at Live Aid. He was coming off stage and I said, ‘You were amazing, no one will be able to follow that!’ Elton John, who was in earshot, said, ‘Thanks very much, I go on in five minutes!’

2017 I didn’t know we were going to take our clothes off when I signed up for The Real Full Monty, the London Palladium celebrity show to raise awareness of men’s cancers. I was there to promote my work with Prostate Cancer UK – I had treatment for the disease in 2015. We all had a stiff drink before the strip scenes, but the smiles in this photo are genuine as we all supported each other.