Hammersmith Resident Bill Bailey Wins Strictly
13 million people watch local comedian dance in final
Bill Bailey winning Strictly Come Dancing
Bill Bailey, the comedian who has lived in Hammersmith for over 35 years, has won this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.
Over 13 million people watched him in the final along with his dance partner Oti Mabuse becoming the oldest celebrity to win the competition at 55 years of age.
The couple performed their showdance to Queen’s ‘The Show Must Go On’. Bill was seen by many as this year’s novelty entrant but his technique and fitness improved as the BBC Television contest progressed.
The routine that he and Oti, 30, devised for the Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ won him an new army of fans.
Bill Bailey and Strictly professional dancer Oti Mabuse perform to Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’
After Tess Daley announced the pair had won the 2020 glitterball Bill said, “It feels surreal, it feels extraordinary, it feels wonderful, I never thought we’d get this far, I never thought we’d get to the final.”
He had to spend two months apart from his wife after forming a social bubble with Oti for the duration of the show.
Bill first moved to west London when he lived on a houseboat moored by Hammersmith Bridge. He now lives with Kris (the pair met at one of his stand-up gigs in 1987), their son Dax and their chihuahua Pablo in a Victorian house in central Hammersmith.
He is an enthusiastic supporter of the arts in Hammersmith & Fulham, acting as official ambassador for last year’s Shepherd’s Bush Comedy Festival.
He is also a patron (alongside singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor) of Music House for Children in Uxbridge Road, the charity which encourages youngsters to learn to love music.
Cllr Andrew Jones, H&F Cabinet Member for the Economy said, “We were willing him on in the final, and it’s a great feather in Hammersmith’s cap that Bill – who does so much for the arts locally – has been crowned this year’s Strictly champion.”
December 30, 2020