Newsman Krishnan Guru-Murthy leaves Strictly with new outlook on life

When Krishnan Guru-Murthy lastly agreed to don his dancing footwear and be part of this yr’s Strictly solid, he had very agency concepts about how far he would go on the sequins-and-glitter entrance.

‘I informed the wardrobe group I needed to be solely a barely glamorous Saturday night time model of what I appear to be on the News,’ he remembers.

Which hasn’t gone precisely to plan: finally verify, there aren’t that many broadcast information journalists carrying Hawaiian shirts, ruffles, and eyeliner on dwell TV, as Krishnan has been doing for the previous few Saturday evenings, nor the eye-poppingly garish blue sequinned shirt and vivid yellow trouser ensemble that he wore for his Samba per week in the past.

‘I really requested sequins,’ he says. ‘I realised I hadn’t had any up to now and I used to be feeling a bit ignored. Thank goodness I did.’

Because, as Strictly followers will know, Krishnan’s time on the present ended that weekend when he was voted out by the judges after a dance-off towards one other information veteran, 79-year-old Angela Rippon.

It meant he did not make it to the famed Blackpool Tower Ballroom on Saturday.

But his gradual embrace of Strictly flamboyance is fairly a metaphor for the 53-year-old’s expertise over the previous two months, reworking him from sober newscaster into what he calls ‘a type of gibbering outdated males wrecks who all of a sudden get in contact with their feelings and cry on a regular basis’.

He’s solely half joking: he spent most of final Monday in tears, following his exit, and is being supported by his former solid members. ‘We’re all in contact, and everybody who’s gone out earlier than has mentioned it takes some time to course of how you are feeling about it,’ he says.

Hang on. This is a dance contest keep in mind… however then as we all know from earlier contestants, it tends to finish up being fairly greater than that.

‘I’ve principally performed the identical job for 35 years actually, only for totally different organisations,’ he says. 

‘You can get caught in a routine. Doing one thing that was simply so totally different — it is an enormous kick while you make it work. That risk-taking may be very rewarding; it actually adjustments your outlook on life.’

Alongside him, his photographer spouse Lisa — who joins us for this interview together with their youngsters, Jasmine, 18, and 16-year-old Jay — enthusiastically affirms the view of her husband of 18 years.

‘He had fairly a severe job, and having the ability to do Strictly and immerse himself utterly in that world, in addition to discovering that truly he loves to bop and that he is fairly good at it, has been nice,’ she says. ‘He acquired hooked.’

And not solely on the dancing entrance: whereas at the moment Krishnan is clad in a sober black sweatshirt, Jay reveals his father has latterly been sporting a hitherto unseen leather-based jacket. 

‘I’ve by no means seen him in stuff like that,’ he says, whereas Jasmine studies that he got here to fulfill her for lunch just lately carrying ‘these actually fancy mild blue trousers’.

Then there’s the burden loss. Tipping the scales at 15st earlier this yr, he has misplaced two-and-a-half stones, solely half joking initially of Strictly when he mentioned he was motivated to trim down as a result of he had a ‘a lot hotter’ spouse.

This type of chat is in itself new territory for Krishnan, who’s at all times been a severe type of chap. An Oxford PPE graduate, he joined Channel 4 in 1998. 

He’s now their lead presenter, quizzing world leaders and politicians, and in addition presents Unreported World, a overseas affairs documentary collection which has taken him to India, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Iraq, South Africa and Yemen.

This is all a great distance from the Strictly glitterball, and he admits that, for a very long time, it was straightforward to bat off the persistent approaches of the present’s producers. 

‘At first, I believe I used to be very hung up on being a severe journalist and considering you do not try this type of factor,’ he says. ‘But this yr it simply felt totally different. I felt like having some enjoyable, doing one thing totally different.’

The notion was embraced enthusiastically by Lisa, who was pleasantly stunned to search out that her husband had ‘acquired some strikes on him’. 

Student Jasmine was additionally a vocal cheerleader, confiding she ‘screamed with pleasure’ when she first noticed footage of him dancing, leaving the ‘appalled and embarrassed’ Jay the only refusenik begging his father to not do it.

‘I believed it wasn’t the most effective thought,’ he admits now, sheepishly. ‘To be trustworthy, I did not have that massive a religion in him that he may dance, as a result of, aside from biking, I did not actually see him train.’

His one comfort was a elementary suspicion that his dad would not final lengthy on the present — a way shared by all of the household.

‘I believe all of us thought I’d be performed after a few weeks,’ Krishnan says. ‘I used to be actually the bookies’ favorite to exit first.’

Then, what are you aware, collectively along with his skilled accomplice Lauren Oakley, this unlikely trying groover cha-cha-chaed and waltzed all the way in which to week eight, even garnering some respectable scores on the way in which (their Charleston and Quickstep numbers acquired a 30), whereas battling among the worst nerves he is ever skilled.

‘Waiting to go on, it is the primary time I’d felt these type of butterflies and terror since I used to be a child,’ he reveals. 

‘Obviously, in News, you would possibly typically have a number of nerves when you’re doing one thing on a giant breaking story, however I’ve by no means had that intestine feeling of ‘I’m terrified’ till Strictly. That was new to me.’

In Bristol, English pupil Jasmine says she was praying her dad would not fall, as she watched together with her associates. ‘We would all watch it within the kitchen, everybody commenting on his dance strikes and getting excited when he did a raise proper. But he did so effectively.’

It helped that Krishnan bonded instantly with Lauren, a 32-year-old former broadcast journalism pupil. 

‘We acquired on very well from day one,’ Krishnan says. ‘Lauren is admittedly cheerful and simple to get together with.’ 

The similar could be mentioned of his emotions for the eclectic bunch that was his fellow contestants, with whom he insists there was by no means a cross phrase.

He shaped a very shut bond with former skilled tennis participant Annabel Croft, 56, who has spoken movingly about how collaborating within the present has helped her handle her grief on the sudden dying this yr of her husband, Mel Coleman, from most cancers.

Back at dwelling, Lisa says that her husband’s frantic schedule — he additionally continued to current the News — meant she barely noticed him, though he would ring her with updates. Jay, in the meantime, tended to come back throughout his exhausted dad falling asleep on the couch within the night, and inform him to go to mattress.

Jay lastly agreed to go to the dwell present on week three. When he did relent, it was to be greeted with an indication wielded by co-host Claudia Winkleman studying ‘Welcome Jay’, to his clear mortification. By week 4 he was, as Krishnan places it, ‘speaking with Claudia by means of the medium of T-shirts’.

‘Claudia had a ‘Hello Jay’ T-shirt and Jay had one saying ‘Hello Claudia’. It’s hanging upstairs now.’ By the time of his closing present, Claudia had nothing lower than a full cardboard cut-out of Jay on show.

I recommend that Jay himself would possibly need to join subsequent yr, though that appears to be a bridge too far for the time being. ‘I really do not assume I’m that good a dancer,’ he says. ‘Maybe Dad may educate me.’

He may do worse: one of many joys of the collection has been seeing a bespectacled middle-aged man ‘get into his bliss’ as Lisa wryly calls it. The basic public actually loved it: Krishnan says folks stopped him on the street to inform him they liked what he was doing, whereas it seems that even our most buttoned-up politicians are secret followers.

‘I interviewed Jacob Rees-Mogg final Monday, which was the large, dramatic day of Suella Braverman’s sacking and David Cameron’s return, and off-camera all we talked about was Strictly,’ he laughs. 

‘When I interviewed Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves the week earlier than the Conservative Party convention, all they needed to speak about was Strictly, too. Actually, I realised that it has helped soften my relationship with folks on that stage, which is simply a superb factor.’

Which makes it all of the extra bittersweet that Krishnan’s journey has now come to an finish — simply as he was getting a deal with on these nerves, too.

If solely the producers would tackle board the novel thought he and Annabel got here up with, then he would nonetheless be there.

‘We have been saying this entire factor of elimination is all very twentieth century: why cannot all of us simply keep in and dance each week, after which we may have a winner on the finish of the season?’ he says. ‘It’s an actual disgrace that individuals need to exit in any respect, to be trustworthy, as a result of they’re all very entertaining.’

That’s one thing for the Strictly massive weapons to ponder, however Krishnan insists he’ll hold dancing anyway. ‘Lauren and I’ve agreed that each different time we meet up, fairly than going out for dinner, we’ll go to a dance studio and that shall be our catch-up,’ he says.

If there’s one message he desires to place on the market, it is this: ‘You’ve acquired to attempt new issues, you have to push your self and you have to tackle challenges.

He’s gone up a number of notches in his youngsters’ estimation, too. ‘I believe he is fairly cool,’ admits Jay. ‘And seeing him smile lots, I believe that is fairly cool in itself, simply him trying the happiest whereas dancing.’

‘I’ve at all times thought he was cool, however that is simply on one other stage,’ provides Jasmine. ‘Now, he is acquired swagger.’

Can there be larger reward from a teen? ‘I’ll accept that,’ Krishnan says.