Comic who gets thrills from peeling satsumas

NOW a feted role model for older men, Bill Bailey was previously best known for appearances on TV shows Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Have I Got News For You and QI.

His quirky humour also made a hit out of his book Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide To Happiness, in which he wrote about 36 subjects that make him happy.

Published this year, it includes dancing, paddle-boarding, wild swimming, jogging, trees, birdsong and ‘caring for plants’.

Others topics are more general, such as love, generosity, ‘being someone to rely on’ and swearing.

The 55-year-old has said: ‘I’m a simple soul for whom simple pleasures bring ample rewards.

‘Removing the peel from a satsuma in one piece, making the perfect cup of tea and finding one last oatcake in the packet will elicit from me a clenched fistpump of victory.’

Kindness makes him happy, too – as does Britishness. He said: ‘Britain gives more to charity per head than any other country in Europe.

‘We may be a strange and contradictory bunch, prone to eccentricity, self-deprecation, awkwardness, deflection, arrogance, absurdity, humility and outbursts of nostalgia, but we are generally good people.’

Unlike his much younger fellow finalists, the comedian had to graft – and found some unusual ways to give himself an edge. When he knew he was to take part in the show – something he says he could never have done if coronavirus hadn’t hit, because he would have been touring – he went paddleboarding to improve his core strength and balance.

And once partner Oti Mabuse got her hands on him she tried some even more bizarre tactics to give him the best chance of making the final – including tying him to a wooden cross. He explained: ‘One of her methods to improve my posture and frame involved strapping me into a wooden cross-type frame.

‘I resembled a dancing spatchcocked chicken, but it really paid off. To encourage me to keep my head up, she also fitted me into a neck brace to familiarise myself with dancing in this position.’

Bailey, a former punk rocker who grew up near Bath in Somerset, has a 14-year-old son, Dax, with his wife Kristin.