Strictly Come Dancing star Dan Walker to make up for lack of dancing at his own wedding

The BBC Breakfast host has plans to dance with his wife at their 25th wedding anniversary to “make up” for his lack of wedding-day dancing.

Walker, who lives in Sheffield, has reached the quarter-finals of the BBC dancing show with his partner Nadiya Bychkova, recently commenting that he does not know “who is voting for us”.

He said: “I didn’t even dance at my own wedding. I do distraction tactics, I do messing around on the sides.

“We’ve been married 20-odd years now and it has always been our plan to have a party for our 25th anniversary. I would love to do a dance and for her to learn a dance, and for us to do it together and make up for my lack of wedding-day dancing.

“I love music, I love singing and I love the idea of dancing, but it just always felt beyond me. I’m six foot six. I was always tall and awkward. It was just easier to avoid it and be the joker on the sideline instead.

“I would watch Strictly and think that looks absolutely amazing, I wish I could do that, I wish I could move like that. There’s always been that sort of desire to do it but I just felt I had no ability to do it.

“The fact that we keep getting voted through every week - you’ve probably seen mine and Nadiya’s faces of surprise every week - that’s half the fun.”

The TV star, 44, performed the tango with his partner in the quarter-final, tweeting before the show that he was “really surprised to still be here”.

Walker added that during his first dance on the show his daughter cried before asking him not to be voted out first.

“My wife asked me, I think a week before the competition started, ‘can you actually dance?’ All they said was don’t go home the first week and I didn’t, and now they’re really enjoying it," he added.

"They talk to their friends about it at school and it is just a really nice family experience. I’ve always enjoyed watching the programme because you get to see brilliant dancers with natural quality.

“But I also liked watching numptys like me, who have no idea whether they could do anything or learn an entirely new skill. When I watched people dance, I would look at somebody and think that’s amazing. I wish I could do that.

“It just felt very closed off to me, but I’ve always loved performing. If you asked me to dance 12 weeks ago I would have sat down and run away, but it’s very different now.”