Strictly winner Bill Bailey hits out at 'disrespectful' stars who fail to take BBC show seriously
Bill Bailey won Strictly Come Dancing after throwing himself into the challenge.
Bill Bailey has hit out at "disrespectful" celebrities who fail to take Strictly Come Dancing seriously.
The 61-year-old comedian thinks contestants not giving their all to the challenge show a lack of respect to the professionals on the BBC Latin and Ballroom dance show, which he won with Oti Mabuse, 36, in 2020.
He is quoted by the Daily Mail newspaper's Eden Confidential column as saying: "When I see a challenge, I want to throw myself into it out of professional pride and out of respect to the dancers as well.
"They put in huge amounts of time and have sacrificed so much. So people showing up and going, 'Anyone can do this.'
"I slightly felt it’s a bit disrespectful. It’s like when people say, 'Comedy’s easy, isn’t it?'"
Bill "lost the feeling" in his toes because of the "all-consuming" experience and pushing himself to the max during the 12-hour daily training sessions.
In July 2023, he told the Metro newspaper's SixtySeconds column: "It was a lot of hard work. We’d train 12 hours a day. I lost feeling in two toes - the middle ones. Oti Mabuse, my dance partner, said, 'You don’t need those two.'
"So my toes have been 'passengers' my whole life. Strictly was all-consuming. But it was great fun. And who knew I could dance? Not me."
But the hard work paid off as he and Oti went on to be declared the winners of Strictly Come Dancing 2020, an experience that "profoundly" changed him.
In July 2021, Bill told The Sun newspaper: "Outwardly, my life goes on. It’s the same. I am still doing comedy.
"But there is something, I think, profoundly, that has shifted a little bit as a result of it.
"That’s partly because it’s sort of going out of your comfort zone and doing well.
"But also the experience of it. It toughens you up a bit. I felt incredibly exposed because I was not in my comfort zone at all.
"You’re dancing live in front of millions and millions of people, and every week they would be like, ‘Oh, we are going to get 12million this week.'
"And you think, ‘Oh, crikey.'"
