Strictly Come Dancing’s Craig Revel Horwood: ‘Sometimes you don’t come into your own until after 60’

But more recently, the 59-year-old has embarked on a project that’s really forced him out of his comfort zone and has made him learn about a new version of himself.

That project is a debut solo album titled Revelations: Songs Boys Don’t Sing, released last Friday, which is being followed by a 53-date UK tour, Yorkshire dates included, beginning in April next year.

“I’m sort of excited,” he says, talking via FaceTime. “It’s my first one ever, and I never thought I’d ever record an album, but it’s been a great joy to actually do, and it’ll be interesting, I think, for people to hear me sing, because people really don’t know that I do.

“I have (sung) for many, many years, obviously, being in musicals, etcetera, but this is the first time I’ll be completely vulnerable and exposed to the world”.

The tracks on the album are ones normally associated with female vocals, and the listing includes songs like ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’ from Funny Girl, ‘On My Own’ from Les Miserables and ‘Little Girls’ from Annie, a song that he has sung before while playing Miss Hannigan.

With his longer hairdo tucked behind one ear, his beard (a newish addition) and a smile that is as much Hollywood dazzler as it is genuinely warm, as he talks about his album, there is a side to the Strictly judge that many may have forgotten, or just don’t know exists.

His life prior to Strictly, which he joined in 2004, now making him the BBC programme’s longest-serving judge, is filled with impressive credits.

Born in Australia, he moved to London in the late eighties, later becoming a UK citizen. In the earlier days of his career, musicals were a staple for him, and not small productions either – he was a part of theatre favourites like Miss Saigon, Cats, West Side Story and more.

When he hit 30, he decided to “move to the other side” as he puts it, going into directing and choreography. His work on the late-nineties musical, Spend Spend Spend, earned him a nomination for a Laurence Olivier Award in the choreography category, and was just one of many through the years.

A few years establishing himself in the world of directing then led to the call for Strictly. Alongside Strictly he’s done panto (he’ll be playing Captain Hook in Peter Pan this year), and has written books (his debut novel Dances and Dreams on Diamond Street was published in 2020), so it’s no surprise that requests for an album followed from fans.

“There’s been nothing ever recorded of my voice, except for a Kentucky Fried Chicken advert back in the Eighties,” he says chuckling, adding: “And a Macleans ad for teeth, you know, for toothpaste, where I sang, ‘Are your Macleans showing?”.

There were some challenges, like singing songs that have traditionally been sung by women “because the range is huge” he says matter-of-factly, but also hopes “people will enjoy the album and enjoy the songs, the songs that they know and songs that they love. Hopefully I haven’t murdered them.”

He found recording in the studio “exposing” but also admits he’s a perfectionist “(so) that makes it even worse!”. The other thing he had to figure out was who Craig Revel Horwood, the recording artist and singer, was.

“Each song I either approach generally from the point of view of the character, and I’m so used to singing character-driven songs in musical theatre and having the opportunity to play those parts…” he explains. “So for me, when I was singing, normally I would have a character, and then I would sing as that character, like Ursula (from The Little Mermaid), for me, was easy because it’s character-driven.

“Annie, easy, because it’s character-driven. But I Don’t Know How To Love Him was me, it wasn’t character-driven. So I couldn’t become someone. I had to learn to be myself. And then I was literally saying, ‘I actually don’t know who Craig Revel Horwood is or what he sounds like’.”

Come next year, the dancer and TV star has another milestone that’s looming: turning 60 in January. And there is nothing like a pension reminder to drive the point home – as he discovered first-hand.

“The reality actually set in when I received a letter two days ago saying that my pension had come to fruition and I can take the money on the fourth of January – I can actually take the money,” he says.

“I thought I’d have to wait until I was like 67, but apparently, it’s up, it’s mine. I could have it”.

So is retirement and drawing a pension on the horizon for him?

“I’m not retiring now, I’ll never retire,” he insists adamantly. “I mean, yes, I’ll hang up my dance shoes (in the future), for sure, because I can’t keep dancing all my life. But certainly with the singing, I can continue doing that until the voice completely goes to pot, and then once that’s burnt out, darling, I’ll do something else”.

There is directing and choreography, he says, also pointing out that in film and TV there are always older characters.

“Look at Dame Maggie Smith, for goodness sakes. She worked up until, you know, her last breath really, playing incredible roles”, he says of the Harry Potter star who died aged 89 in September.

“And sometimes you don’t come into your own until after 60. So there’s a lot to look forward to in that way, there really is.”

Revelations: Songs Boys Don’t Sing, released by by Westway Music, is out now. Revel Horwood performs at St George’s Hall in Bradford on April 10, 2025; Hull City Hall on May 3; and Scarborough Spa on June 20.