Anton Du Beke talks about the Strictly Come Dancing Tour coming to Birmingham and his new album

For those just back from a long holiday in Outer Mongolia, we’ll recap. At the start of the month, Strictly’s Anton Du Beke unexpectedly found himself pinned to the ground beneath the beautiful, perfectly-manicured Singapore-born presenter. And then she sort of wriggled a bit. And shimmied. Jeez.

Anton laughs. No doubt he’s recounted that moment dozens of times, but he’s game again this morning. Was he horrified when the two of them went down?

He laughs again. “No, I told Ruth it had been her best move.”

There’s a pause. Then we both laugh.

“It was one of those things. It was not her fault. Everything goes into slow motion when things like that happen.

“You think: ‘I’ve got this, I’ll just adjust.’ Then it’s ‘Jesus, I don’t think I’ve got this. And you wait for the ground to arrive at your back side.’”

Anton thought it was a hoot when it happened – and still does.

“It was hilarious. It was one of the funniest moments ever on strictly. The crowd went mad.”

We have more to talk about, however, like Anton’s forthcoming tour and his decision to try to emulate his Rat Pack heroes like Frank and Sammy D.

Anton, TV’s most sartorial man, is The Entertainer. And in addition to tripping the light fantastic on Strictly, he’s been recording a debut album in the studio, From The Top.

“I’m so excited to announce my debut album. It’s been a passion project of mine for years to be able to do something like this.

“I hope people enjoy it. I’ve loved every second of it. There’s some old songs. Some new songs. And definitely some songs you can dance to.”

It features classics like Putting On The Ritz, Fly Me To The Moon, Don’t Rain On My Parade and It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.

It’s something he’d wanted to do forever, but took a while to bring together.

“I’m never quite sure how one gets from Point A to Point B sometimes. The same was true when I was watching Fred Astaire when I was young, I wanted to be like him but I wasn’t sure of the path from a Church Hall in Kent to becoming Fred Astaire. And with music, I’ve never been sure how to get from the shower to singing Fly Me To The Moon in a studio with a great producer.”

Anton worked on the record with Polydor and he was delighted with their support.

“You just want someone to say to you: ‘Listen, it’s great, keep going.’ You get self conscious and you don’t really know whether it’s any good. But it’s been a wonderful experience.

“It’s the music of my life. It’s music I loved growing up with and music I danced to. Being able to sing it and get others dancing is the greatest joy.”

Anton grew up watching the greats. He was enchanted by Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra as well as the wonderful arrangements by Nelson Riddle and Quincy Jones. He worked with a 36-piece orchestra on his album to create new arrangements and the results are plain to see.

Anton is habitually tied up during the run-in to Christmas, what, with Strictly an all. But he’ll be road testing some of the songs when he tours the UK from January to March.

“I’ll be back on tour after the new year and I’ll be coming back to the Symphony Hall in Birmingham – I do love that venue. I’ll be dancing and singing, as I normally do. But if anybody’s been to see me on tour, they know I sing a bit both on Strictly and on my own tours.

“I keep saying this, I don’t want it to sound odd, but the sound of the album is incredible. It’s such a brilliant sound they put together in the studio.”

The team who worked with Anton to produce his album blew him away. They were simultaneously supportive and honest, scrutinising everything he did to make sure he reached his potential. “I worked with a guy called Brian Rawlings, who has worked with the greats. He’s done projects with Andrea Boccelli, Cher, everyone. When I went to the studio, the walls were lined with platinum discs.”

So does Anton want to follow in those footsteps? Does he want to be lining his own walls with a bunch of silver, gold and platinum discs? You can bet he does.

“I hope it goes absolutely massive, I hope I get a platinum disc and people say it’s incredible. But we’ll have to wait and see whether that actually happens, we’ll have to wait and see. I love it so much that I want other people to love it.

“This type of big band music is still being done and has stood the test of time. We’ll have to wait and see in the future what still gets repeated in the same way from today’s era. The songs I’ve re-recorded are great in their own right. The hard bit for me was choosing what to leave out.”

In the final analysis, making people happy is what The Entertainer is all about. And he plans to keep dancing for as long as possible. “For now, I still love dancing. Doing the paso doble and samba and ripping my trousers off – I live for those moments. Or dancing with Nadiya and doing a beautiful foxtrot while Seal is singing: those are the moments you live for.”

Andy Richardson