SH0CK: Strictly Come Dancing star reveals Oti Mabuse’s brutal two-word response to ‘complaint’
Oti had little patience for her partner’s complaints (Image: BBC)
Celebrities who sign up for Strictly Come Dancing quickly find out that there’s a lot more to a dancer’s life than a layer of fake tan and a few sequins. Professional dancers endure a lot of pain and hardship on their way to the top, and sore feet after a day of rehearsals are just one of a myriad of sacrifices pro dancers make.
At the age of 55, Bill Bailey was Strictly’s oldest winner when he lifted the coveted Glitterball trophy with his professional partner Oti Mabuse in 2020. Bill and Oti made a great team on the dance floor, but the South African-born dance pro, who won her country’s Latin American Championship eight times before embarking on an international career, had little patience for any of the comedian’s complaints.
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Bill struggled with the suede-soled shoes he was issued for the early rehearsals, he told fellow Strictly star Matt Baker on his Petcast: “I’d never worn these tight dance shoes before. And in them, ballroom shoes, there’s no sole to them,” he said. “There’s nothing between your foot and the floor, you know, it’s like you’re wearing a glove.”
Bill is Strictly’s oldest-ever winner (Image: BBC)
“My feet were really in a bad way”, he said, explaining that he was really suffering with blisters. But of course he got little sympathy from Oti, who had seen it all before: “I’d say to Oti, ‘Oh look,’ and she goes, ‘Come on.’
“And I go, ‘Yeah, but I got a blister,’” Bill added, “And she’d just deadpan me, like, ‘So what?’ And I’d go, ‘Yeah, fair enough … I won’t complain ever again’.”
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Despite’s Bill’s discomfort, he and Oti delivered a barnstorming performance in the final of Strictly’s Covid-hit 18th series, with a Quickstep based on Doctor Dolittle and a rousing Streetdance performance inspired by 1979 hip hop classic, Rapper’s Delight.
Bill and Oti dropped just two points across their three routines, scoring 88 points out of a possible 90. That left them tied at the top of the scoreboard with fellow contestants HRVY and Maisie Smith. But the beloved musical comedian was propelled into the top spot by the public vote.
The win marked a double success for Oti (Image: Getty)
But it wasn’t all fun and games. Bill put long hours into training with Oti, losing a stone and a half over the course of the series.
It was a triumph for Oti, as well as Bill. With her 2020 win, she became the first ever Strictly professional to retain the glitterball trophy, following the previous year’s triumph with Kelvin Fletcher
The final was also distinguished by a royal seal of approval. Queen Camilla appeared on a video message praising Strictly for helping to “cheer the nation.” There were also celebrity messages from Paul McCartney, Idris Elba, Elizabeth Hurley, Joanna Page and the two remaining members of Queen.
In the face of a pandemic that paralysed our social lives, it was a classic season of Strictly, and while Bill undeniably suffered for his art, for the rest of us, every blister was worth it.
