| Anton du Beke | |
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Du Beke and Erin Boag at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham, January 2008 |
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| Born | Anthony Paul Beke[1] 20 July 1966 Sevenoaks, Kent, UK |
| Nationality | British |
| Ethnicity | Hungarian-Spanish |
| Occupation | Professional ballroom dancer television presenter |
| Television | Strictly Come Dancing Hole in the Wall |
Anton du Beke (born 20 July 1966) is a British ballroom dancer and television presenter. His professional dance partner since 1997 has been Erin Boag. With Boag, he won the IDTA Classic in England in November 2003.
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Du Beke was born Anthony Paul Beke in Sevenoaks, Kent to a Hungarian father, Antal Xavier Beke (1939-2001), and a Spanish mother, Ascensión [2] (née Lema)[3]. He also has two younger siblings.[1] He attended Wildernesse School in Sevenoaks.
Du Beke began dancing at 14, when he discovered his local dance hall, Margret Durrant School of Dance, now known as the Lucy Lovick School. He left school at 16 to follow an amateur dancing career. At 17 he decided to specialise in ballroom. Whilst he danced during the evenings and at weekends he had a day job as a salesman in "The Bed Post" in Petts Wood, South London.
He has appeared in all eight series of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. In the first series, he danced with singer Lesley Garrett and finished in third place. For the second series, he partnered presenter Esther Rantzen; they were eliminated in the third week. He danced with actress Patsy Palmer for the third series and finished in fifth place. In the fourth series, he danced with actress and impressionist Jan Ravens but was eliminated in week 5 of the competition. His partner for the fifth series was TV presenter Kate Garraway; the couple was voted out in week 7. His partner for the sixth series was actress Gillian Taylforth; the couple was voted out in week 2 (the first week of dancing for the female celebrities). In series seven, he was partnered with Laila Rouass. Together, they made it to week 12 before being voted out in favour of Ricky Whittle and Natalie Lowe. In series 8, 2010, he was partnered with Ann Widdecombe and they were eliminated in week 10. In series 9, 2011, Nancy Dell'Olio was Anton's partner, the couple were eliminated in week 5, the Halloween Special.
On 14 November 2008 for Children in Need 2008, he took part in a Strictly Come Dancing special. His dance partner was Tess Daly. They won the Golden Pudsey award, beating Terry Wogan and his dance partner Flavia Cacace. Anton, overcome with excitement at winning, yelled, "SIX YEARS!" (the amount of time he had been on Strictly without winning the show at that stage) on learning he and Tess had won.
For the seventh series, he was partnered with actress Laila Rouass. In September 2009, an article in the News of the World claimed that after Rouass applied fake tan for the show, du Beke told her, "Oh my God, you look like a Paki."[4] Du Beke offered an unreserved apology, which Rouass accepted.[4] On BBC 2's It Takes Two, he and Rouass appeared together and spoke about the incident and their reconciliation.[5] The BBC issued a statement: 'Racially offensive language in the workplace is entirely unacceptable. Anton was right to apologise quickly and without reservation and Laila has wholly accepted his apology. Everyone is very clear that there can be no repetition of this behaviour.'[6]
In March 2007 du Beke was a contestant on the BBC Two series The Underdog Show and was paired with homeless dog Ginger, they were eliminated in week three of the competition.
Du Beke presents the BBC cookery show Step Up to the Plate. He served as a captain and from series 2 the host on the UK version of Hole in the Wall, which premiered on 20 September 2008 on BBC One. On 24 December 2009, he appeared in Victoria Wood's Midlife Christmas, in a sketch called "Beyond The Marigolds", where he spoofed his Strictly Come Dancing role by being paired with fictional soap star "Bo Beaumont" (played by Julie Walters). Beaumont quit the show when unable to master Du Beke's warm up steps.
In 2011 Du Beke won Rear of the Year award.
Du Beke has released a book called Anton's Dance Class (published by Kyle Cathie, London, 2007), which has been serialised in the Mail on Sunday.[7]
| Celebrity partner | Week | Dance | Judges' scores | |||||
| Craig Revel Horwood | Len Goodman | Alesha Dixon | Bruno Tonioli | Darcy Bussell | Total | |||
| 2009 | ||||||||
| Laila Rouass | 2 | Tango | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 30 | |
| Laila Rouass | 2 | Cha Cha Cha | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 25 | |
| Laila Rouass | 3 | Quickstep | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 30 | |
| Laila Rouass | 4 | Foxtrot | 8 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 34 | |
| Laila Rouass | 5 | Jive | 5 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 22 | |
| Laila Rouass | 6 | Samba | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 28 | |
| Laila Rouass | 7 | Viennese Waltz | 8 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 33 | |
| Laila Rouass | 8 | Paso Doble | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 30 | |
| Laila Rouass | 9 | Rumba | 3* | 7* | 6* | 6* | 22* | |
| Laila Rouass | 10 | Waltz | 6 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 29 | |
| Laila Rouass | 11 | Charleston | 6 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 31 | |
| Laila Rouass | 12A | American Smooth | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 33 |
| Laila Rouass | 12B | Salsa (dance) | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 26 |
* Laila only performed half her routine due to injury. The judges scored her on how she was doing until that point.
| Celebrity partner | Week | Dance | Judges' scores | ||||
| Craig Revel Horwood | Len Goodman | Alesha Dixon | Bruno Tonioli | Total | |||
| 2010 | |||||||
| Ann Widdecombe | 1 | Waltz | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 17 |
| Ann Widdecombe | 2 | Salsa | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 12 |
| Ann Widdecombe | 3 | Quickstep | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 18 |
| Ann Widdecombe | 4 | Tango | 3 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 21 |
| Ann Widdecombe | 5 | Paso Doble | 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 16 |
| Ann Widdecombe | 6 | Charleston | 2 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 17 |
| Ann Widdecombe | 7 | Foxtrot | 3 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 20 |
| Ann Widdecombe | 8 | Samba | 1 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 13 |
| Ann Widdecombe | 9 | Rumba | 1 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 14 |
| Ann Widdecombe | 10 | American Smooth | 2 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 14 |
| 2011 | |||||||
| Nancy Dell'Olio | 1 | Waltz | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 12 |
| Nancy Dell'Olio | 2 | Salsa | 3 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 14 |
| Nancy Dell'Olio | 3 | Tango | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 20 |
| Nancy Dell'Olio | 4 | Paso Doble | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 18 |
| Nancy Dell'Olio | 5 | Rumba | 2 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 14 |
The series in which du Beke partnered Laila Rouass (Series 7) marks his longest time in the series. The highest place in the show he has achieved is 3rd with Lesley Garrett.
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