Bill Bailey revealed the “utter joy” of his Strictly triumph was tinged with sadness – because it would have been his late mum’s “proudest moment”.
His mother Madryn, who died from bowel cancer in 2005, was ballroom dancing mad and took the TV comic to classes as a teen in the hope he would take it up.
Bill, 55, lifted the hit show’s coveted glitterball with pro partner Oti Mabuse on Saturday.
He told ITV’s Lorraine: “When Tess called out our names as winners, I felt a mix of emotions. Elation, utter joy, excitement…
“And delight for Oti in making a bit of Strictly history. But also sadness as I thought of my mum and how she’s not around to share this moment.
“She loved ballroom dancing. She wanted me to take it up when I was a kid.
“She got me to take a couple of lessons when I was a teenager but of course, I was a teenager and I thought, ‘I don’t want to.’
“But I know this would have been her proudest moment.’’’
Bill said that also made him think about his dad who has been isolating on his own isolating since March.
“We were looking forward to seeing him at Christmas and then we thought, `Oh no, we can’t do that now and he’s going to be on his own’,’’ he told fifth place star Ranvir Singh.
“So there was a lot of that going on as well. It almost made me want to give more in the performance in a way.’’
Bill, who had to isolate away from wife Kristin and their teen son Dax (corr) while competing, added: “I‘m still in a bit of a daze really. I got in and we had a glass of wine.
“Then I’ve just been pottering around. I didn’t really know what to do. I’ve been going through messages and texts, lots of lovely messages from people. But no it hasn’t really sunk in yet.’’
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