Strictly Come Dancing winner Bill Bailey says the show has cha-cha-changed his life and “propelled” him into mainstream TV – after fans loved him proving not all dad dancing is bad.
Bill wowed over ten million viewers with pro partner Oti Mabuse to lift the glitterball three months ago.
And despite lockdown he has still enjoyed a massive career boost.
He told the Mirror: “There is very much an assumption – and I think this is true – that men of a certain age are quite self-conscious about dancing.
"A lot of blokes feel awkward on the dance floor. It is summed up by that term, 'dad dancing'. There was something about the fact that I found some kind of ability on the show that maybe inspired men to dance. Viewers loved to follow that storyline.
“I'm getting a lot of offers to do shows that perhaps I wouldn't have been asked to do before. I'm being invited to do more mainstream shows because Strictly propels you into an area that stand-up comedy doesn't get you to.
"The reach the show has is extraordinary. So there has been a change, and I'm very grateful for that. At a time when the arts are in strife and we're all looking to be resourceful and imaginative and finding different ways to pursue our careers, this show came along. I feel very lucky to have been part of it.
"It's quite unique.”
Bill also told how he has been emotional as he got back on stage this week.
The comedian is in New Zealand on tour, where lockdown has ended and the country is more or less coronavirus free and he spoke of his delight and freedom there after coming out of quarantine.
He said: “I felt overwhelmed, almost emotional about the sheer normality of this experience which has been forbidden to us for so long. I was sitting down in a cafe having a coffee on a balmy morning, and there were people around not wearing masks or having to socially distance. I just couldn't take it all in. It's a measure of the leadership which New Zealand have had, which we sadly have been denied.”
Putting the boot into the Tory government further for the handling of the pandemic in the UK and the way they tried to force creative people to change jobs.
He said: “We had these meaningless, spurious and I have to say sometimes disingenuous slogans – 'Stay calm, watch out, look out, it's behind you'. It's like panto. 'Stay alert. Don't nod off, or the virus will get you. Stay alert about something that you can't actually see!'
“Coming to New Zealand, you realise how different it could have been in the UK. Our government made a shambles of the situation. Thinking about how things could have played out differently in Britain, it makes me very angry. If the government had locked down earlier, if they had had more PPE, if they had taken it a bit more seriously at the beginning, how different it could have been.”
On his career and others in the arts industry, he added: “After my first gig when I was 18, I thought, 'This is all I ever want to do'. And I still think that. They think it's some kind of hobby and you can probably re-train as something else.
“Do you remember those patronising government ads about Fatima the ballet dancer re-training in 'cyber'? They were basically saying, 'Give up your dream of being a ballet dancer and work in IT. It's just a hobby anyway. What's the matter with you?'
“I couldn't work in IT – that would be a disaster. I think a lot of people want to get back to being in a group and in an audience watching a live show. Nothing can replace that. There's something else that happens between a performer and a live audience.”
Bill spoke as he will be back on screen next week in one of his new projects appear a new BBC1 series This Is My House next week, where you have to guess who owns which house.
Celebrity judges Bill, Emily Atack, Judi Love and Jamali Maddix watch the four 'owners' interact and figure out which one is telling the truth and who are the impostors.
Explaining the show he said: “It's also about the joy of entering someone else's house because we can't do that at the moment. It's a rare glimpse into the way other people have been living. It's a bit of escapism as well, a bit of fun to take our minds off the grim reality we've been living in.
"This show is a huge boon for actors. It's not just playing a porter in Holby City. They have to actually improvise and think on their feet and inhabit the lives of someone else completely. So it's a fantastic acting gig. I was so impressed by the acting ability on display. It's not a spoiler to say that I was fooled on more than one occasion, we all were.”
*BBC1 property series This Is My House starts on Wednesday at 9pm.
