My First Car: Dog expert and Strictly Come Dancing competitor Graeme Hall
Dog expert and Strictly Come Dancing competitor Graeme Hall loved his first car so much he still owns it.
It’s a 1967 MG Midget which he has had since 1984. It’s in bits at his mother’s home in Selby, and it is meant to be a project for whenever he might find the time.
Graeme, known as the Dog Father, is best known for fronting the Channel 5 series Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly since 2017.
He says he loved Monty the Midget, as he called it, and paid £480 for it when he was at Hull University before embarking on a career in the food industry.
He says one of his first memories of it was driving from Hull to Beverley to surprise his girlfriend, only for the car to break down. “I wanted to show off my new sports car, and the coil failed,” he said.
He said a friend at the time told him owning an older car would either make him learn car maintenance or cost him a fortune. He still drives MGs and enjoys hill-climbing, especially at Harewood near Leeds. He has an MGB GT, also a 1967 model in British racing green.
He says he lives in the South – “I tell people I’m doing missionary work” – and misses the North. He now drives a more dog-friendly Land Rover Discovery as his everyday vehicle.
Graeme says he enjoyed his role on Strictly. “It’s harder work than people imagine,” he said. “But it was also the greatest fun.”
Graeme has also hosted a podcast called Talking Dogs and was asked to front an Australian version of his hit show, Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly.
He has appeared on Celebrity Mastermind, The Chase and Christmas University Challenge.