STRICTLY JOHN I want to make people gasp and go, wow
Star admits nerves about sexy rumba
They have quickstepped their way into TV history as Strictly’s first all-male pairing, and tonight John Whaite and Johannes Radebe take on their most significant dance yet, the famously sultry rumba.
Known as the dance of love, the rumba is the hottest, most intimate dance in ballroom and Latin.
It means John and Johannes will finally be able to drop the “pally”, “laddy” routines and really turn up the heat – and they can’t wait.
Chef John says: “Hopefully the whole routine will make people gasp and go, wow. From the very first step we’re very intimate. What we’ve done so far have been very masculine, laddy kinds of dances. We’ve had bantery dances, pally dances, now it’s time to be romantic.”
And that should go down well with viewers. Strictly’s first same-sex couple, boxer Nicola Adams and Katya Jones, faced criticism that they were dancing less like a couple and more like “girl pals” before having to leave last year’s contest following a positive Covid test.
Now John, 32, and Johannes, 34, are proud to be finishing what they started.
John, winner of Bake Off in 2012, says: “The rumba is the most sensual dance, and we’re not going to shy away from that. We’re here to make the point that gay people and same sex couples should be allowed to dance together.
“I’m a bit nervous about how it’s going to be received because it’s a very intimate dance. Some people have already expressed their distaste for Johannes and me as a partnership, so I’m expecting to get a bit of flak over it.
“But you know what? We’re over that kind of nonsense. We’re over people trying to be hateful and hurtful, because we’ve had it all our lives. So the more I think about it, the less nervous I get.”
Johannes has set the routine to Sting’s Shape Of My Heart. John says: “We’re definitely not holding back. Why should we? The minute we do that it’s suggesting there’s something wrong in what we’re doing, and there isn’t.”
But John confesses he was initially unsure about being a Strictly history maker.
He says: “They asked if I would like to dance with a woman or a man.
“At first, I had to think about it, because I grew up being bullied because of my sexuality. Did I want to put myself in a very vulnerable position in front of 10 million people every week, and open myself up to attack?
“But then I just thought, ‘Well, sod it. I haven’t fought for freedom and equality all my life to shy away from it when it all hits the fan’.
“And I really wanted Johannes as my partner. In the future it could be two straight men, or a straight man and a gay man. But for the first one it was particularly important to be two gay men, and I know Johannes has tried to implement that
Dancing with John has allowed me to be myself. It’s liberating
change on Strictly.” Addressing his trolls, John says: “People have said, ‘I don’t care what they get up to in the bedroom, I don’t want to see it on TV’. Well, we’re not bonking on TV, we’re dancing! “Fortunately, though, 99.9% of fans have been overwhelmingly positive.” Johannes, who previously partnered actresses Catherine Tyldesley and Caroline Quentin, says this year has so far been his “best experience” on the show. Johannes, who is from South Africa, where he suffered homophobic bullying growing up, says: “Dancing with John has really allowed me, more than anything, to be myself.
JOHANNES RADEBE STRICTLY DANCE PRO
But they’ll go for it and make it sizzle
It’s been liberating.
It’s nice to dance with someone who measures up to you in strength. I’ve always lifted my partners, but John lifted me in one of our routines and that was incredible.”
John, from Wigan, Gtr Manchester, is a lot stronger than he used to be, not that his fiance of five years, graphic designer Paul Atkins, is impressed. John says: “I’ve been weight-lifting for 15 years, but I’ve never allowed myself to eat.
During lockdown, I found out more about nutrition and how 80% of the build is in the kitchen.
I used to eat 1,500 calories a day, but I actually needed 4,000.
“When I started eating more and eating the right things, my body started getting bigger.
“But I think Paul finds it exhausting because if I don’t get a gym session in I feel guilty, if I don’t eat properly I feel guilty.
“I said to him recently, ‘Would you still love me if I let myself go and just ate Haribo all day? He said, ‘I was hoping you’d ask me that’.
“Paul doesn’t care what I look like, he’s been coping with me for 13 years and I’ve been overweight, underweight, he’s never once told me I needed to change. He’s happy if I’m happy.”
They are at a last getting around to planning their wedding. John says: “It will be the biggest day of our lives so we have to do it right. I think we’ll run away to Canada, which is our spiritual home, and we’ll get married on the farm I
worked on there. We’ll have poutine, a Canadian comfort food, for our wedding breakfast.”
John is talking about the place he credits with saving him after “bouts of allconsuming darkness” following his Bake Off win, when he was plunged into depression after the initial high of victory. He decided to pack up and volunteer on a farm in the mountains of Barrière, central Canada, for six weeks.
Since then, he has been open about his mental health, talking about his depression and bulimia.
Therapy got him through his most recent tough time. He says: “Luckily, I could afford private therapy because waiting eight weeks for NHS therapy just wasn’t an option. It was urgent. We really need to look at how we improve the speed and access of quality therapy. It’s something I’d look to try to lobby for.”
He is sure he won’t suffer the same problems when Strictly comes to an end as he did after Bake Off. He says: “The Strictly team is very conscious of mental health. It’s one of the things that made me want to join.” So for now he is just trying not to think about the dreaded F-word – Final. He says: “It would be great to be in the final. It would mean we’ve done well and had a dozen great dances under our belt.
“But if you think too far ahead you can trip up. In this competition you can only think about the next dance. Right now we’re completely focussed on that dance, and on each other.”