Bill Bailey jokingly compares Strictly to a ‘cult’ 6 years after winning BBC series

Bill Bailey might have won Strictly Come Dancing in December 2020 alongside Oti Mabuse, but he still feels very much part of the family.

So much so that he even jokingly compared the BBC series to a ‘cult’, or a ‘brotherhood’.

Winning at a time when partying wasn’t allowed (for most of us) might have curtailed his celebrations, but he was still willing to show off his Glitterball Trophy when he spoke to Metro over Zoom.

In fact, it now functions as a keyring, albeit ‘a bit of an ostentatious one’.

We’re speaking ahead of the release of the fifth series of Extraordinary Portraits on BBC One, which fans have described as a ‘wonderful’ watch… and even brought them to tears.

Originally hosted by rapper Tinie Tempah, Bill took over the presenting duties from 2023, introducing audiences to the extraordinary stories of people from all walks of life.

They’re matched up with portrait artists who immortalise them in sculpture, paintings or photography. One artist on this year’s series who you might be surprised to see is Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson, who used to be an art teacher.

This series promises to be a powerful one, with the first episode focusing on the man who fought off the London Bridge attacker with a narwhal tusk in 2019.

Bill, 61, was a fan of Extraordinary Portraits when it was fronted by Tinie, telling us: ‘What I loved about the show was that it democratises art in a way that I think is really important.’

The comedian’s wide-ranging career has seen him sing, act, perform as a comic, and, of course… dance in the Strictly ballroom.

Reminiscing about his time in the dancing competition and the impact it has had, Bill told Metro: ‘Once you’ve been part of it, it’s almost like you’re then connected with everyone who’s ever been on the show.’

He went on: ‘It’s such an intense experience. You feel like you’re in a kind of club, almost like a special brotherhood I suppose. It feels like that.’

‘Maybe it’s a cult,’ Bill laughed to himself.

‘I can phone up anyone who’s ever been on it. Immediately, we’ll just have something in common that we can talk about.’

When asked if there was anyone in particular he was referring to, Bill mentioned 2025 quarter-finalist Lewis Cope.

The Emmerdale actor was eliminated earlier than many were expecting, considering he was tipped as a frontrunner to win the whole competition.

‘I think he would have been a very worthy winner. He had all the elements of what Strictly’s about,’ Bill stated.

Bill particularly enjoyed Lewis’s Halloween dance, which saw him achieve a perfect score of 40/40 with his professional partner Katya Jones, after they performed to Creep by Radiohead.

Bill loved it so much that he messaged Lewis to pass on his praise: ‘I said, “This has made me want to get up and do this again.” You see a dance sometimes, and you think, “That, I want to do that again.”‘

When Lewis was added to the Strictly cast as a replacement for Game of Thrones star Kristian Nairn, accusations were made that he was too experienced a dancer to take part.

A similar sentiment was shared around the inclusion of theatre performer Amber Davies, who rose to fame on Love Island before securing lead roles in some of London’s biggest musicals.

Bill called this age-old debate ‘a funny old thing’.

Defending Lewis, the 61-year-old said: ‘I’ve spoken to all sorts of people who’ve been contestants on Strictly. I’ve spoken to the actual dancers themselves, and they say it’s really, really hard.

‘I’ve spoken to sportspeople who are at the elite level of their sport, who are gold medal winners, who are super fit, who train hours and hours and hours every day at the peak of physical fitness.

‘And they’ve said to me: “How did you do it? I’m absolutely knackered.” So I think there’s a lot more to it than people realise.’

The show is currently undergoing a big change. With Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman no longer at the helm, speculation is mounting over who could take their places as hosts.

Bill thinks whoever it is needs to meet some criteria: ‘I think you have to be good at that whole technical idea of presenting. […] But you’ve got to keep a sense of fun, really.

‘You’ve got to sort of have a bit of tongue in cheek because it’s meant to be fun. It’s meant to be an entertainment show. I think Zoe Ball would do a great job. She’d be great, actually.’

It’s been over half a decade since Bill and Oti soared to victory, but he’s still dancing ‘at any event, birthday, celebration’, assuring Metro that he’ll ‘always up on the dance floor, in a sort of flailing [way] and with a degree of abandonment’.

This said, he admitted: ‘Learning how to dance properly was a real joy. It was it was wonderful, a real treat.

‘I’ve always been very envious of people who were able to just wheel around the dance floor in holddancing ballroom and then finding myself doing it, I just couldn’t quite believe it.’

He continued: ‘It was a revelation. And I always try and incorporate a little bit of it into my live shows now. Partly because when you learn the skills like that, they’re in your bones and in your muscles.

‘And I think: “Well, I don’t want to let this go. I love the feeling that this elicits in me.”‘

Extraordinary Portraits airs on Friday 27 March at 7.30pm on BBC One.

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