He is partnered with professional dancer Oti Mabuse on this year’s series of Strictly.
And Bill Bailey discusses his experience so far on the ballroom show during the upcoming episode of the Graham Norton show, where he jokes about his ‘cosy’ bubble with his wife Kristin and dance partner Oti, 30.
The 55-year-old comedian admits he is ‘absolutely loving’ taking part on the show, after performing his first dance – an energetic Cha Cha Cha to Miriam Makeba’s Pata Pata – last Saturday night.
Playful: Bill Bailey discusses his experience so far on the ballroom show during the upcoming episode of the Graham Norton show, where he jokes about his ‘cosy’ bubble with his wife Kristin and dance partner Oti, 30
Speaking to host Graham, Bill said: ‘It feels like I’m on a different planet and I absolutely love it.
‘I am taking it seriously and have even researched the history of dance. I love the idea of it and the process of it. It’s going very well and it’s fantastic fun.’
Joking about being in a social bubble with Oti and his wife, he says, ‘It’s quite cosy in there!’
Loving it: The 55-year-old comedian admits he is ‘absolutely loving’ taking part on the show, after performing his first dance – an energetic Cha Cha Cha to Miriam Makeba’s Pata Pata – last Saturday night
Speaking to host Graham, Bill said: ‘It feels like I’m on a different planet and I absolutely love it’
Adding: ‘Our teenage son lives with us, but he’s not allowed to be part of the bubble. To be honest, he’s loving it!’
Elsewhere during the interview, Bill also discussed his new ‘how to’ book, Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to Happiness.
He said: ‘A lot of guides to happiness offer up equations, which are all very complicated, so I have written about the little things that can make you happy like coffee making rituals, birdwatching and tree hugging.
‘I love tree hugging – it’s a lovely intimate thing to do and it works!”
Quick on his feet: Ahead of his first performance on the dance floor, Bill admitted in his new book he had already received some ballroom training, encompassing ‘the waltz, the foxtrot and the quickstep’
Ahead of his first performance on the dance floor, Bill admitted in his new book he had already received some ballroom training, encompassing ‘the waltz, the foxtrot and the quickstep.’
He writes in his Remarkable Guide to Happiness that he ‘had ballroom dancing lessons’ as a teenager, attending a ‘dance school across the road’ from where he lived.
And Bill’s apparent advantage in the competition lies not only in his prior dance experience: he is also coupled with last year’s champion Oti.
Bill describes his childhood dance teacher as ‘a tiny, petite woman with a huge passion for The Dance’
He adds: ‘It was a marvellous and quite surreal experience to whirl around a dance hall with this ball of terpsichorean energy.
‘Bless her and all those she must have enlightened to her world.’
Glammed up: Bill after his debut on the Strictly dance floor on Saturday with his professional dance partner Oti
Inspired: Bill describes his childhood dance teacher as ‘a tiny, petite woman with a huge passion for The Dance’
Despite his enthusiasm for his teacher, Bill is modest about his ability at the activity.
He said: ‘I can see the appeal of the foxtrot, the tango, the rhumba, the formal nature of it all, the practised moved, the precision, but it’s not really me.’
A source has since defended Bill’s inclusion in the dance show to the Mirror, saying that he had only two lessons 40 years ago.
The insider told the newspaper: ‘If he was joining Strictly straight after having had ballroom lessons as a teenager, or he had a professional ballroom background, it would have been very different.
‘There is no hard and fast rule – it’s all on a case by case basis.’
Team 2020: Strictly Launched on Saturday with its highest ratings in three years after 9 million viewers tuned in