The royal, the punk and TWO blonde bombshells behind Strictly’s star turn
WHEN Ore Oduba was revealed as one of the celebrity stars of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, many viewers were left wondering: ‘Ore Who?’ But the former Newsround presenter has since become a firm favourite — and his skills on the dance floor are such that he is now tipped to win the glitterball trophy.
Not only did the 30-year-old and his dance partner Joanne Clifton record the first perfect ‘tens’ of the series, but their take on Singin’ In The Rain was such a hit it was praised by the widow of Gene Kelly.
Ore has also won over viewers by crying when topping the leader board and for the fact that, unlike many other celebrities who have taken part, he has had no formal dance training.
But what’s behind the tears and the perfect tens?
From his super-posh childhood to the punk rocker in the family who never turned down the opportunity to sign a fan’s breasts, the secret side to Ore is very revealing.
The son of a high-ranking lawyer — his father rose to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, equivalent to Queen’s Counsel — Ore was born in London and educated at the exclusive £33,500-a-year Canford School, where he played in the first teams for rugby, hockey and cricket.
He later went to Loughborough University, where he studied Sports Science and Social Science.
He then joined the BBC, presenting the children’s news programme Newsround between 2008 and 2014. Sport has always been his passion, though.
THIS summer he covered the Rio Olympics for BBC4 (although one critic was less than impressed at his observation that ‘water polo is not a sport for anyone who’s not that good at swimming’.)
Ore lives in Manchester, moving there in 2011 following the BBC’s relocation to Salford. Keeping a close eye on his partnership with Joanne Clifton is his stunning 26- year-old wife Portia. It is a task made somewhat easier by the fact that Portia, a former Leeds University student, also works for the BBC.
The programme researcher, who has done stints with children’s channel CBEEBIES and Blue Peter, has been on set every week. As a result, says Ore, Portia and his dance partner are now firm friends.
He said: ‘I wanted her to meet whoever my partner was immediately. It was important for her to be as involved as possible. My wife and Jo get on so well, I’m the third wheel, I’m the outsider. To have those brilliant blonde bombshells in my life, I’m the cat who got the cream. They go out for dinner more than I do.’
All this is just as well, because there is one other reason why Ore doesn’t dare risk upsetting his new wife — his father-in-law is Nick Culmer, the tattooed lead singer of a punk rock band. Nicknamed Animal, Culmer was once thrown out of Top Of The Pops for smuggling a 3ft axe into the studio.
The frontman of the foul-mouthed Eighties band The Anti-Nowhere League left school at the age of 16 and joined a motorbike gang called The Chosen Few — similar to the Hell’s Angels.
After a tumultuous few years, the son of a builder from Kent found music in 1980 and admitted: ‘Punk saved me from a life of crime.’ Not that it was exactly plain sailing thereon in.
In 1983, the Obscene Publications Squad seized copies of the band’s LP because their song, So What, was deemed too offensive. The band were then removed from Top Of The Pops when producers found Culmer’s axe, something he often used as a prop on stage.
Today, the happily married father of three — Portia has a lookalike younger sister Oona, 24, and brother Dexter, 22 — lives in a £1.7 million, six-bedroom detached mews house in Tunbridge Wells. He works as a property developer, but still performs with the band.
However, things have certainly calmed down in recent years. ‘When the bikers come round, the conversation’s not about fighting,’ he has said. ‘It’s more: “How’s the family?”’
Ore’s mother-in-law Sophie, 51, was privately educated at Kent College, where she once performed in a school production alongside classmate Sophie Rhys-Jones, now the Countess of Wessex.
SHE has said: ‘I remember Sophie Rhys-Jones as always being up for a laugh. Once we put on an end-of-term play and, because it was the Eighties, it was very disco. ‘She wore a really short white skirt and white cowboy boots and threw herself into the part. We all sang a song about the teachers and it went down really well.’
Of course, Ore’s mother-in-law had a very different upbringing to that of her husband.
Her father ran a successful agricultural business in Kent and after leaving school she briefly worked for a stockbroking firm.
She met her husband-to-be while helping in a record shop in Tunbridge Wells and they married in Las Vegas in 1988.
As well as having performed with future royalty, Sophie also learned
how to deal with groupies — something her own daughter might need to do should Ore win.
‘Nick had groupies hanging around him all the time,’ sophie said.
‘initially, i used to get upset because the groupies didn’t care whether or not Nick had a girlfriend — they’d just barge past me to get to him.
‘Once, a girl ran up to him, lifted up her top and asked him to sign her naked breasts with her pen. Nick did it, of course — he’s very polite — but i was really angry.
‘however, i soon realised there wasn’t any point in getting upset. i couldn’t stop them coming up to him, so i made up my mind to ignore them.’
As strictly fans know, the body language between professional and celebrity is watched as keenly as their steps. in the past, the so-called Curse of strictly, in which a celebrity becomes romantically involved with their partner, has been blamed for wrecking numerous relationships.
But, fear not, Joanne Clifton is already taken — by none other than the actor grandson of the late Ronnie Corbett.
Joanne is reported to have fallen for Joseph Edward-Bader while starring in Norma Jeane The Musical, a dark take on Marilyn Monroe’s final days. Joanne was playing Marilyn and Joseph was playing Marilyn’s uncle.
‘Joanne is absolutely smitten with Joseph and the pair have been inseparable ever since they started dating in June,’ said a source.
‘Joseph is really supportive of Joanne and is constantly coming to cheer her and Ore on.’
Which means the relationship between Ore and Joanne — or Team O-Jo as they have been dubbed — should stay strictly professional.
But Ore is in danger of becoming as well known for his crying as for his dancing. The two occasions when he and his partner topped the leader board have seen him reduced to tears. When he married Portia last November, he spent most of the day crying.
‘On my wedding day i cried from 11 in the morning until 2am that night,’ he says.
‘There’s a picture of me wailing, my best men there laughing and Portia absolutely cracking up next to me — i am the only one crying.’
it is not just his emotional vulnerability that fans have warmed to.
Unlike other contestants who previously learned to dance at stage school or in West End shows, Ore has had no formal training. The closest he got to dance lessons was when he suggested to his fiancee, before their wedding day, that they take some classes ahead of their first dance.
‘i said, “shall we have a practice and
get a couple of steps in, so when it comes to the first dance we’ve got something to show?” ’ he recalled.
‘She was like, “Absolutely not!” That would have been the first dance lessons I’ve ever had, but she refused them.’
Ore’s parents live in Wimborne, Dorset, from where mum Folawemi, 69, told the Mail she had been to see him dance.
‘I’ve been up [to London] when it was first on,’ she said, speaking from her £300,000 end-of-terrace house. ‘He is dancing very, very well.’
And, who knows, she may be hoping for divine intervention — having recently helped set up a new branch of the church to which she belongs in nearby Bournemouth.
CALLED The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), it was established in Nigeria in 1952 but offshoots have since spread around the world. The only potential problem is that, according to its website, followers are instructed to ‘abstain from all appearance of evil’.
‘Therefore,’ it states, ‘we must not see our Church members in dancing halls, or cinema halls, revelling, for such things are works of the flesh.’
Which could prove tricky for Ore should he ever be tempted to strut his stuff closer to home.
Of all the praise Strictly celebrities have received over the years, none can beat that which greeted Ore’s tribute to Singin’ in the Rain.
Afterwards Strictly judge Bruno Tonioli declared: ‘Gene Kelly himself would be proud.’
His widow Patricia Ward Kelly, who was married to the star from 1990 to his death in 1996, posted on Facebook. Her message read: ‘It was a beautiful tribute to Gene. Gene always said that the point of his Singin’ In The Rain number was to bring joy.
‘I was proud of Ore and Joanne for celebrating Gene Kelly, The Legacy. Gene would have been, too.’
Another appreciative fan is Joan Collins — although it’s not his dancing that she has been transfixed by.
Following his first dance, the 83year-old Dynasty legend tweeted about Ore’s tight trousers. Dame Joan wrote: ‘Is it just me or wasn’t there enough fabric in Ore’s trousers?’ She then privately messaged him wishing him good luck.
When later asked if Joan’s focus had been on his physique, Ore replied: ‘Yes. Joan messaged me that she was keeping an eye on my trousers.’
He also joked that, if necessary, he would dance ‘in the buff’ to avoid being voted off. Quite what Joan’s reaction to that would be, one can only imagine.