We’ve got Brendan Cole’s mum to thank for him waltzing on to our TV screens.

Aged six, he was “dragged kicking and screaming” to dance lessons by his mum.

Well maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, he says, but adds: “I didn’t really enjoy it that much, it was the competitive thing that got me hooked.”

Cole comes from a musical family - his brother, Scott, is also a professional dancer and his sister runs her own dance school - but he admits he has no idea why his mum chose to enrol them for ballroom classes. “She wanted us to do everything. We’re like the Von Trapp family of dancing.”

But having ballroom lessons did attract some stick as Cole was growing up in Christchurch. Fortunately, he says he was into all sports, not just dance.

At 17 he left school and less than two years later came to London to pursue his dance career.

But it was a hard slog, juggling a day job with training.

“In the early days it was hard. I was working for £6.95 an hour then going and training in the evening.

“A day’s wages just to pay for a lesson, it was very hard. You think what am I doing this for?”

“But then I got offered a job in Hong Kong to teach. It was a case of going professional and making a living out of it.”

In 2004 came the call that would change everything. The BBC was planning to launch a celebrity ballroom dance contest and was looking for dancers.

Cole admits he thought about saying no “a hundred times over” to Strictly.

“Dancing in the media has always been portrayed as a bit sissy. It was a nice chance to do something to show just how hard we work.

“I wanted to show the dancing – that was the reason to do it.

“Who would have thought it would have turned out to be so successful.”

Backstage the camaraderie, as you see it on TV exists, but make no mistake everyone who appears on the show wants to win it.

Cole won the glitter ball trophy in the first series with newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky and has partnered Kelly Brooks, model Lisa Snowden and Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams.

But his favourite of all the celebs he has been paired with might come as a surprise.

“I loved working with Jo Wood. Terrible dancer but the most genuine person you could meet. You have got to get on with each other and enjoy each other’s company because you spend so much time together.”

And if there’s one thing that has come out of the series is the tag that he is the ‘bad boy’ of ballroom after his fiery outbursts with the show’s judges.

“If you are going to have a tag let it be that one,” he says. “I’m outspoken, I call things like I call them. I don’t like to be criticised.

“The judges are there to entertain and to judge. I love the dynamic.”

There are no judges on Cole’s Live and Unjudged show, except, he says, the audience.

“People are paying their hard-earned money to come and see you. So it has to be 100 per cent flawless and completely entertaining.

“There’s something in there for everyone from hot, saucy Latin numbers to the most beautiful waltzes.”

The show also features a 14-piece band, four former Strictly dancers and Brendan’s brother Scott.

“We take the mickey out of each other. I enjoy the bond. The audience enjoy it to, they get to see a very different me.”

The audience also get to pose their own questions in a Q&A. “I got asked when my first kiss was,” says Cole of some of the funniest questions so far. “Between that ‘will you marry me?’ and ‘can I feel your bottom?’.. we should be alright in Croydon,” he says.

Brendan Cole, Live and Unjudged, Fairfield Halls, Park Lane, January 30, 8pm, £29.50. Call 020 8688 9291 or visit