Strictly’s Anton Du Beke pays tribute to Sir Bruce Forsyth saying ‘he was my hero’

Strictly Come Dancing judge Anton Du Beke spoke about Sir Bruce Forysth on Thursday’s edition of Morning Live

Strictly Come Dancing judge Anton Du Beke has paid tribute to Sir Bruce Forsyth, saying, “He was my hero”.

The 59-year-old judge appeared on BBC’s Morning Live on Thursday (November 13), where he spoke to hosts Gethin Jones and Kym Marsh about the current series of Strictly.

Anton also reflected on his working relationship with former Strictly host Sir Bruce, who he described as his “hero”.

Bruce co-hosted the hit BBC dancing competition with Tess Daly from 2004 to 2013, before he was replaced by Claudia Winkleman. The renowned TV personality died at the age of 89 in August 2017.

“I had the best teacher of all, I had the great Sir Bruce Forsyth as the man to look up to,” Anton shared, reports Wales Online.

READ MORE: Strictly’s Vicky Pattison says ‘It’s a difficult pill to swallow’ in heartbreaking farewellREAD MORE: Strictly star issues health update as they detail ‘growing’ brain tumour

“He’s always been a hero of mine. One of the things about doing Strictly Come Dancing for me was being able to work with Brucie. That was the real thing for me.

“He’s been my hero for forever. I just love that style of entertainment, that old school variety, standing in front of an audience, having this with the audience.”

He added: “It’s the fun of it all really. It’s the joy of it all for me, and Brucie was the King of that. He used to be next to the audience – that’s why they had them so close, so he could be doing that, ‘Alright, my love’. [He was] the best.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Anton spoke about his current musicals tour and his upcoming Christmas shows.

“I’m on tour at the moment during the musicals show, but we’ve only got a couple more shows of that to do,” he explained.

“Next Thursday, we open with our Christmas show. And it’s Christmas, there’s trees!”

Anton went on: “We did it last year and it was so much fun, and so wonderfully received. Everybody loved it and my wife said it was the best thing I’ve ever done.

“So, we’re doing it again this year and we open next Thursday. We run all the way until the 23rd of December, so looking forward to it.”

During last weekend’s Strictly, Gladiators favourite Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and his partner Karen Hauer found themselves in the dance off against La Voix and Aljaž Škorjanec.

The judges unanimously voted to save La Voix and Aljaž, meaning that Harry and Karen became the sixth couple to be eliminated from the 2025 competition – just two weeks before Blackpool.

Strictly Come Dancing is available to stream on BBC iPlayer