He’s the judge we love to hate on Strictly Come Dancing, but Craig Revel Horwood says he’s simply misunderstood
Strictly’s most villainous judge, Craig Revel Horwood, says his reputation is unjust.
“By telling the truth that some of the celebrities were awful, people decided I was Mr Naaaarsty,” he says. “I found that – and still find it – quite funny.”
Craig will be in his element on Saturday night, when the show is broadcast live from the splendour of the Blackpool Tower Ballroom.
Alongside dances from the remaining couples, viewers will be treated to a special performance by Steps and a group dance from four returning finalists.
READ MORE: Strictly’s Craig Revel Horwood reveals wicked new role and admits he ‘loves villains’
Although for Horwood no star will ever eclipse Dame Shirley Bassey.
“Oh I love her,” he says. “One night she came on to Strictly Come Dancing. I’ll never forget her, it was brilliant, she literally waltzed on, came up the stairs, belted out the tune, walked down the stairs, got in the taxi and went home.
“I mean Bette Midler took four hours over a sound check and we had to do it five times. Dame Shirley is my diva.”
Horwood’s often acerbic disclosures come in his new book Revelations: Songs Boys Don’t Sing, released this month as a celebration of his one man tour earlier this year.
“If you’re holding this book, you’ve either seen the show, stumbled upon it while searching for a Mary Berry cookbook, or you’re one of my exes checking to see if you’ve been mentioned,” he says.
Cheekily talking of intimacy with his fiance Jonathan Myring, he continues: I suppose I’m what you call, “verse? In the gay world, that means versatile.”
Also opening up in about his childhood with an alcoholic dad in Australia, Horwood, now 60, says: “Somehow – in a household filled with dirty bikes, goats, and didgeridoos – I found my way to a ballet.
“I was a porky little kid. I was quite voluptuous, darling. In fact, I was so much so that my PE teacher said ‘Craig, you need to take your top off and run round the oval.’”
Taking up the trumpet, then going to dance classes on the advice of a pal, Amanda, he says: “I absolutely fell in love with jazz ballet.
“So much so that I started training in classical ballet, jazz, tap, modern, and all of that stuff.”
His first job, aged 17, in an Australian production of West Side Story, opened up a world of possibilities for the young dancer – taking him to Paris in the 1980s – only for him to be sacked on his first night at the world famous Moulin Rouge, over a row about duets.
He blames his demise on “this woman, a cow, called Debbie.”
But it didn’t hold him back and, in the UK, he found himself starring in Cats and Miss Saigon at the same time.
He says: “I was doing a matinee of Cats and then going over to Saigon, in the evening, or vice versa. I was very confused. I didn’t know if | was a Gl or a pussy.”
Perhaps his biggest career surprise has been the phenomenal success of Strictly.
Recalling how he joined in 2004, he says: “I got the call and was told ‘they are calling it Strictly Come Dancing. It’s where celebrities learn to dance with professional dancers in three weeks.’ I said ‘No, that will never work.’
“I said ‘it sounds terrible. It sounds like car crash television. I’m not interested in it.’
“I was stressed out because I had a show that I was working on. I had a timeline and it was my debut as a director/choreographer in the West End. I just really didn’t have the time.
“I went outside and took the call from the BBC. I slagged a few things off and I said, ‘the show will never work, you know.”
“Bizarrely, they said ‘Oh, fantastic. Can you come up? We want to do a screen test.’ I went ‘Oh, what have I done?’
“I didn’t think anyone would watch it, but I mean, it’s gone to 63 countries worldwide and is still huge. I mean, it’s a little bit insane.”
Craig will soon be waltzing into a festive role as the Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella.
“I absolutely love playing the villains because I think they’re so much fun,” he says. “I’ve played loads of wicked queens.”
Craig Revel Horwood’s new book Revelations: Songs Boys Don’t Sing is available to order now priced £39.95 from A Way With Media
READ MORE: BBC boss gives update on new Strictly hosts as finding replacements ‘on hold’
Source: Mirror
Leave a Reply