Bill Bailey "lost the feeling" in his toes when he took part in 'Strictly Come Dancing'.
Bill Bailey says Strictly was hard work
The 58-year-old comedian lifted the Glitterball Trophy as winner of the 2020 edition of the BBC One Latin and Ballroom competition with his professional partner Oti Mabuse, 32, but admitted that the experience was "all-consuming" because he had to train for 12 hours a day.
The 58-year-old stand-up comic told the Metro newspaper's SixtySeconds column: “It was a lot of hard work. We’d train 12 hours a day. I lost feeling in two toes - the middle ones. Oti Mabuse, my dance partner, said, ‘You don’t need those two’.
“So my toes have been ‘passengers’ my whole life. ‘Strictly was all-consuming. But it was great fun. And who knew I could dance? Not me.”
Meanwhile, the former 'Never Mind the Buzzcocks' star admitted that he stills writes “every day” and is inspired by everything he sees.
He said: “Every day, I write. Something happens - a conversation, an overheard phrase, a headline, a chance meeting… I try to remember or record it.”
He also enthused about the importance of preserving the “cultural heritage” of crafting.
Bill said: “They are being lost. The students in the programme visit places where these crafts are still done but this is perhaps the last generation. If they’re not passed on, we might lose them. You could argue, ‘What’s the great loss?’ But it’s all part of our cultural heritage. These skills have been passed down for hundreds of years.
The former ‘QI’ star also revealed how his and his wife Kristen’s pet rescue mission was a product of a “snowball” effect and detailed a mean parrot who would cackle at “misfortune”.
Bill said: “It started a few years ago. We had a rabbit, then a guinea pig, then a few more rabbits and a few more guinea pigs. Then a couple of dogs. These things snowball.
“We had a parrot that would laugh in a very human way at misfortune. If you banged your toe, the parrot would cackle. For a long time, we were being mocked by another species - when you have been mocked by another species, it’s very humbling.”
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