Amy Winehouse told me I had terrified her

THE 15-year-old soul singer Dionne Bromfield was our guest singer on Strictly in 2009, and her godmother turned up unexpectedly to help out on backing vocals — the great Amy Winehouse. Amy was a superstar with impossible demands on her time, but she made sure she was there to support Dionne, a gorgeous, generous thing to do. Backstage, Amy shocked me by announcing that I used to scare her out of her skin. I didn’t think my singing was that bad, but she explained one of her favourite childhood films had been Walt Disney’s 1971 classic Bedknobs And Broomsticks... in which I play a sinister spiv called Swinburne. ‘I had to jump on my dad’s lap when you were on screen,’ Amy said. ‘It was the look in your eyes. You are a very scary man!’ At first I thought she was joking, but I quickly sensed she genuinely meant it. If only the rest of the world had recognised the power of my acting, what a leading man I could have made!