"It was just one of those things," he explains.

"I played football and my sister went to dance classes. I went along to meet her one day and got involved in the class."

So was it the dancing that attracted him? "No, it was full of fabulous girls, so I was quite keen," he says.

The du Beke charm has made him one of of the most popular professionals on BBC1's hit Strictly Come Dancing. Since coming third with opera singer Lesley Garrett in the opening series, he's partnered Esther Rantzen, Patsy Palmer and Jan Ravens.

In the most recent series he was memorably teamed with GMTV presenter Kate Garraway who proved as nimble as a arthritic limbo dancer. Du Beke carried on smiling as he whirled her around the floor like a puppet with no stuffing.

There are times you thought viewers were voting to keep in the charming du Beke rather than the celebrity dancers.

As Lesley Garrett said: "Every woman in the world should have half an hour with Anton du Beke." To dance, presumably.

He and professional partner Erin Boag, who've been a couple of the dance floor for a decade, are rated in the world's top 24 ballroom couples. When we talk they're working on choreography for a new tour of stage show Simply Ballroom.

He's as surprised as anyone to end up a TV star. "I always thought I might get into theatre, although not sure in what capacity," he says.

"With TV, I wasn't sure how it would work and didn't give it a thought. The good thing now is that I get a lot of varied things to do."

He came to dancing relatively late at the age of 14. Most professionals tell of starting dance classes as young as three or four. When he finally took it up he felt "an overwhelming feeling of playing catch up".

Du Beke doesn't know if dancers are born but does remember loving it almost immediately and feeling it was something he'd like to do.

"Now everyone is doing it - and everyone should do it - but at the time it was not terribly fashionable. It was quite oldfashioned but I liked the music, which was considered to be old-fashioned.

Maybe I'm a bit old-fashioned. I loved the music and the fact that you're dancing with a partner.

"I'm naturally competitive as I'm very sporty, so the competitive side was a bonus really. The combination of me being competitive and loving the dancing was perfect. I'd found my vocation."

He and Boag danced competitively until three years ago when the Strictly Come Dancing schedule and the spin-off work began getting in the way. "We didn't have any time to practise, and everyone who dances at a high level, like all sports, they're all a bit mental and obsessive,"

says du Beke.

While many of the other Strictly Come Dancing professionals, celebrities and judges are on the road in a big arena tour, he's pursuing a number of other appearances.

They include a Strictly Dinner and Dance at Newcastle Civic Centre next month at which he and Boag will be giving a performance.

No one could have predicted that the TV show would have turned everyone involved into celebrities and opened up so many work opportunities. Du Beke was uncertain if the programme would work. "It was one of those things you're not quite sure about because we came off the back of the old Come Dancing and got a lot of stick about that.

"When asked to do this new show, most of us went, are you sure?'. We had a meeting with the BBC and afterwards I wanted to be in the show rather than not be in it."

With audiences of nine or ten million from the start, it soon became clear that the series was a hit with viewers. The only difficulty was that the professionals had to fit in the TV show with taking part in competitions. When the series clashed with big contests, something had to give, with him and Boag opting to "retire" from competing.

Du Beke has coped with the fame well.

He wasn't particularly prepared for the recognition, saying he's just pleased people like the show.

"People are always coming up and saying so. It's lovely, they're so nice. I have a lovely time. People are genuine fans of the show and who's dancing with whom.

They're proper fans," he says.

Du Beke never tires of dancing. "I get fed up when I don't dance, even after all this time. There's nothing like getting out there, taking hold of your partner and performing," he says.

He's been quoted as saying it gives him a sense of fullness and purpose, that there's nothing he can do that's better than dancing - "and I'm pretty good at most things".

Always the gentleman, he has nothing but praise for his celebrity partners on the TV show. "I've been lucky, I've had great girls," he says. "I had a lovely time with Kate, and Lesley Garrett was wonderful.

I stay in contact with all my girls, I'm getting a harem of dancing lovelies."

* Strictly Dinner and Dance is at the Banqueting Suite at Newcastle Civic Centre on March 11at 7pm. Tickets £55 per person, including reception drink, dinner and entertainment, from 0191-2116949.

10:40am Monday 11th February 2008

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