When it comes to the BBC’s successful Saturday night show Strictly Come Dancing, the attention is all geared towards the celebrity dancers.
The professional dancers they are paired up with smile sweetly in the background but one has managed to steal a bit of the limelight for himself and has become a star in his own right.
Tall dark and handsome, Brendan Cole not only ticks all the boxes when it comes to looks but the former builder has won himself the nickname of the bad boy of Strictly.
He breaks rules to wow the audiences with some pretty impressive lifts and until he married model Zoe Hobbs in 2010 he provided plenty of entertainment for the gossip columns, which linked him to a string of beauties including Martine McCutcheon and Abi Titmuss.
So what’s on the cards for him now that he has been a married man for more than a year we wonder. A baby?
“Children are in the plan. That's definitely what the future holds,” he revealed.
“We've decided when we're going to have them. It’s exciting. It’s all a part of life and something that is very important to both of us.”
The question really is when will there be a mini Brendan running around. This year?
He laughed and carefully said: “Quite possibly. This year could be huge.”
After first appearing on television screens in Strictly back in 2004 it was always only going to be a matter of time before the outspoken New Zealand-born dancer produced his own stage show.
In Live and Unjudged he brings the audience into his way of thinking.
He said: “It’s my show, there’s my name on the door, I write it, produce it, direct it, cast it and decide on costumes. I don’t leave anything to anyone else.
“It’s important to me to be able to bring out my creative side and what’s good about the show is it’s very intimate and includes everything I love about dance. Plus it’s not just one dance after another dance, it’s very audience interactive. There’s a moment where we get the audience up off their seats to do a salsa.
“I wanted to do something like that because people sit and watch Strictly but there’s a massive want out there for the public to be part of the dancing and I wanted to give them that opportunity when they come to see Live and Unjudged.”
The 35-year-old has come a long way from being a six-year-old boy whose mother used to drag him ‘kicking and screaming’ to dance classes with his brother Scott.
“I hated it,” Brendan laughed.
“We used to jump out of the window and run down the street. It wasn’t until we started competing when we got hooked.”
This little memory has become one of those wonderful things that he and his mother look back on and laugh at.
He said: “Mum has been over several times to see my show and my sister came over last year.
“The fact that my family love it makes it private to me in a way. My sister is very proud of me and because she’s a dancer herself it makes me feel lucky to have been able to do it.”
Wife Zoe is often in the audience while big brother Scott also stars in the show dancing on stage and sharing anecdotes with the audience.
Brendan said: “Having Scott in the show adds a whole different dimension. It’s more personable because he can take the mick out of me.
“Scott’s the happiest he’s ever been.
“Getting people up on their feet at the end of performance is a special feeling and the fact that my brother is a part of that and experiences it with me means we can go home, have a beer and reflect on it together.”
Kicking off in 2010, the touring show has been praised for its elegance, charm and fun. So where does our dancer go from here?
“I want to do another one but I have to see how things go because I can’t just do a show for the sake of it. I need to be inspired to create and it takes months to produce something like Live and Unjudged.”
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