Man of the moment anton du Beke
The 52-year-old Strictly star is dazzling us on the dance floor once again and has just released his debut novel, One Enchanted Evening
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Anton lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife, Hannah Summers. They welcomed twins, George and Henrietta, in March 2017.
My rise to fame… When the
BBC came along and said “We’re doing this show called Strictly Come Dancing and we need some professional dancers”, I was sceptical, and I know a lot of the other dancers they approached were too. Dancing had moved on a lot since the old days of Come Dancing [the BBC show that ran from 1950 to 1998], and we were worried that wouldn’t be reflected in this show. How wrong we were! In fact, it was such a hit they did two series in the first year.
My favourite Strictly moments…
I have some incredible memories, from my first waltz with Lesley Garrett to falling over doing the paso doble with Ruth Langsford! On a personal note though, doing a number with Brucie [Bruce Forsyth] was amazing, and I’ll never forget Erin [Boag] and I dancing to Tony Bennett as he sang live on stage. That was unbelievable.
My fans… I really enjoy it when people come and say hello or ask for a photo. If you ask people to buy your book, buy your album, come and see your show, the least you can do is give them a bit of your time.
Hannah and I are loving being parents. We’re lucky because George and Henrietta do everything at the same time – eat, sleep, play. They’re my favourite things in the whole world.
I can’t tell you how excited I am. We’ll be spending it at home this year, and the house is going to be full of Christmas trees – I love them. We watch Scrooge on Christmas Eve and Hannah does the lunch because she’s rather marvellous at it.
My first novel, One Enchanted Evening… I’ve always wanted to write a novel, but never thought I’d actually do it, so this feels really special. I hope people will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
One Enchanted Evening by Anton du Beke (Zaffre) is out now.