Bruno reveals the devastating toll flying for Strictly took on him

This is unthinkable, darling! Bruno Tonioli has left Strictly Come Dancing, but has he quit or was he voted off by the producers like a celebrity with a dodgy cha-cha-cha? 

‘There is no animosity, it was a mutual decision with both of us saying, “Listen, this is not going to work like it used to,” insists the flamboyant Italian choreographer turned television judge, talking freely for the first time since his departure was announced in May. There is far more to it than that though, as we will find out. 

‘I just couldn’t do the flying any more,’ says the 66-year-old who criss-crossed time zones every week during the filming season for 14 years so that he could appear as a judge on both Strictly here and Dancing With The Stars in America.

‘I don’t know how I survived that schedule. To be honest, it’s a miracle.’ 

Strictly would go on late into the night on a Saturday, and Bruno says he would make it home to his flat in Maida Vale around midnight then rise early the next morning to fly to Los Angeles, with meetings as soon as he landed. He’d work on Dancing With The Stars for a few days then take another flight back to London to prepare for that weekend’s Strictly. 

‘Then I was back on the plane to America again on Sunday morning. For 11 weeks in a row!’ 

Bruno leans back in his chair, sweeps the air with his hands and says, ‘I have no idea what it did to my health, don’t go there!’ 

There is a cigarette in his hand, but Bruno insists he works out and is pretty fit – and he does look trim in the tight blue jeans and stripey navy-and-white shirt he turns up in today. ‘If someone turned up like this on Strictly I’d say, ‘Looking like a deckchair today? Can I sit on you?’ 

He laughs and undoes another button, so that the shirt is open almost to the navel. Bruno is showing off a hairless chest and a chestnut tan from a recent holiday in Sardinia, set off by a gold necklace and his closely cropped hair, which has been allowed to grow out as silvery white. 

‘The schedule was insane,’ he says, giving an alarming example of the damage the jet lag and exhaustion could do. 

‘There was a moment in the middle of a run when I blanked. I did not know where I was or what I was doing.’ 

This happened during a live Strictly show and could have been a disaster. ‘It only lasted a second, then I saw the audience looking at me and it all came back to me.’ 

So how did he cope for so long? ‘The jet-lag is pretty tough, but the shows give you such a charge of adrenaline. 

‘You just have to train yourself. You don’t go out, you don’t see anyone. You live like a monk.’ He grimaces at the memory. ‘Basically, you don’t have a life.’ 

Bruno with US judges Len Goodman and Carrie Ann Inaba on Dancing with the Stars in the US. He struggled with jetting between the UK and US 

Then he had to perform at both ends of the journey. ‘I’m playing a character. My accent becomes stronger, the facial expressions and body movements become bigger.’ 

THEDAY I MADE MICHAEL BOLTON CRY 

Michael Bolton with dance partner Chelsie Hightower

Working in America means having to watch what you say, which can be tricky when you’re criticising celebrity dancers. ‘I did make Michael Bolton cry,’ Bruno recalls. 

‘He still doesn’t speak to me.’ The singer demanded an apology after Bruno called his dance to Hound Dog the worst jive he’d seen in 11 seasons. 

‘He’s upset, but it’s just a joke. It’s just showbiz.’ 

He also upset country singer Billy Ray Cyrus back in 2007 when he called his foxtrot ‘c***’ and said he looked like ‘a bear lost in a swamp’ and ‘deliciously awful’. Bruno laughs. ‘I bet he’s had worse,’ he says. 

‘It was the daughter who was more upset. I said, ‘Listen darling, I’m doing my job. We have a laugh here.’ The daughter, of course, is superstar Miley Cyrus. 

‘You have to be careful though,’ says Bruno. ‘I mean, the world does change, but you still have to give artists the ability to express themselves. 

‘You need creativity. And sometimes creativity may upset people. We’re getting a little bit too uptight.’ 

Are there things he’s said on Strictly in the past that he wouldn’t say now? ‘I remember I got into trouble at the BBC because someone was dancing to a song from The Sound Of Music and I said, 

”The hills are alive with the sound of bull****.’ It was funny, but darling, they were nearly fainting in the control box!’ 

He compares it to Steve Coogan playing Alan Partridge, an exaggeration of part of himself. ‘You have to pump yourself up and keep it up for two hours. That’s so hard when you have all the added stress of the travel.’ 

Bruno was a success right from the start of Strictly in 2004. The unpredictable Italian with a glint in his eye would spring up out of his seat with charming enthusiasm and tell the formidable Ann Widdecombe that she danced like ‘a Dalek in drag’. 

Or swoon at pop star Jay McGuiness’s paso doble, declaring it the ‘bull’s b*******’. The producers told him off, but the audience laughed. 

He was just being Bruno. We loved him. So did viewers in the States when he started on Dancing With The Stars, as along with the laughs, he knows his stuff. 

Bruno was born in northern Italy to parents who had no idea how to cope with his homosexuality or his dreams of being a dancer, but he was plucked from obscurity one night in Milan in the 70s. The star of a French dance company stormed out, and the director spotted Bruno who resembled the lead so much he could have been his double. 

Could he dance? Of course, said the young self-trained performer, who learned the moves in a week and later recalled, ‘It was like a Cinderella story.’ 

Bruno danced his way to Paris then London, where he appeared in a music video for Elton John and films including Absolute Beginners. He became a choreographer and worked with David Bowie and Tina Turner before the Strictly producers came calling. 

‘Strictly changed my life, it was like being born again,’ he says. ‘I was a successful choreographer but this was like going back to the beginning as a performer. I loved it.’

Working both sides of the Atlantic was possible until Covid, when Bruno stayed in his £2.5 million pad in Los Angeles – a luxurious lockdown. ‘People exaggerate,’ he laughs. ‘It’s a nice house, but it’s not like my friend Simon Cowell’s place, with Rolls-Royces in the drive.’ 

The BBC asked him to appear on Strictly by video link that first Covid season but it didn’t really work. Covid restrictions meant Bruno was replaced temporarily for the 2021 season by the pro dancer and show favourite Anton Du Beke, who turned out to be a brilliant judge – not nearly as prone to falling off his chair as Bruno, but full of dry humour and empathy for the dancers. 

‘He did a very good job because he made it his own. They had the biggest viewing figures. Huge. And I adored Rose.’ 

The competition was won by deaf actor Rose Ayling-Ellis after she and partner Giovanni Pernice turned off the music to show what it was like for her. Anton was doing so well, so did Bruno feel any kind of jealousy or realise he would never get the seat back?

‘You don’t think like that,’ he says. ‘It’s like James Bond, right? You have Sean Connery and Daniel Craig but they are both still Bond.’ 

OK, but I’d still like to know whether the BBC looked at Anton’s success and said, ‘Sorry Bruno, we don’t need you any more.’ He frowns. ‘No, we spoke. It was a very civilised conversation. 

Strictly Come Dancing would go on late into the night on a Saturday, and Bruno (pictured) says he would make it home to his flat in Maida Vale around midnight then rise early the next morning to fly to Los Angeles

‘We looked into whether there was a way of making both shows work for me like before and it was a mutual decision. They said, ‘It really is not feasible.’ And I said, ‘It really is not.’

Travel chaos reigns these days. There are far fewer flights than there used to be, more delays and cancellations, not to mention strikes, baggage problems and queues at border control. 

‘It was hard work before, but now you could go hysterical. I wouldn’t want to let someone down. 

‘Can you imagine? I’m stuck at Heathrow, they’re waiting for me in America,’ he says. ‘Let’s say I arrive a day late, the way things are these days you never know. 

‘No production company could take that risk. That’s why they insure you to turn up.’ 

Insurers would not like him playing Russian roulette with chaotic international travel. And he has new bosses now Dancing With The Stars has moved to a new platform, where it will be streamed live. 

Bruno danced his way to Paris then London, where he appeared in a music video for Elton John (pictured) and films including Absolute Beginners

‘Disney+ is a huge deal. They’re both huge, Disney and the BBC. They’re both very expensive shows. 

‘You can’t risk one of your players being absent. Let’s say you’re shooting a film and Hugh Jackman cost millions to hire and you say, ‘Well, he may or may not turn up.’ They’d say, ‘What?’ 

I doubt he’s paid as much as Hugh, but presumably it’s more than the £250,000 a season Bruno was reportedly earning from the BBC? ‘I don’t know how much I earn,’ he says, surprisingly – a thing only the rich can say. 

‘I’m not complaining. I’m a performer, not a businessman.’ 

If it was a choice, why not choose this country? ‘I’m under contract in America until 2024. I’m not under long-term contract like that with the BBC.’

Ah, so he’s tied to Dancing With The Stars and needs to be sure of turning up, but Strictly only hires season by season and has happened upon a great replacement. ‘I felt, actually, that it would be a bit wrong if I went back. 

‘They have something going very well and they should stick to it. I can guarantee you, there is no animosity.’

For the moment though, he is kicking back. ‘When I’m not working, I don’t do showbiz much. I go to the gym, see a play, have dinner. I am pretty normal. 

Reading about history is one of his pleasures. ‘I’ve just been to Sardinia, first time I’ve been to Italy in years. 

‘Oh my God, the food, the weather, reading. Heaven.’ Did it feel like going home? 

‘No, funnily enough, because I left in 1974. I have just one friend left in Italy, who I talk to once a year. All my family passed away.’ 

I ask when Bruno became a British citizen, given that he’s a national treasure, and am surprised to find out he isn’t. 

‘I’m still Italian. I never had the time to change. You have to give your passport away and I’m always getting on a plane. I have my Italian passport.’ 

So where’s home? ‘Both here and America,’ he says. ‘Britain gave me my career. Everybody wants to be in Hollywood. I got there quite late and I tell you, it’s fantastic.’ 

Americans have taken him to their hearts, as we did first. Now Dancing With The Stars has got him completely, but does that mean we’ve lost our beloved Bruno to America forever? 

‘No! I still have a home and friends here and I’m working on projects you will see soon. You have not seen the last of me!’