TV dog trainer Graeme Hall has revealed he suffered a stroke seven years ago, which forced him to stop dancing, but he is now set to perform on the first live show of Strictly Come Dancing.
Graeme, who hosts Channel Five's Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly, said he felt a “weird buzzing” in his head while watching TV on a Sunday evening in February 2019. When he tried to stand up, he couldn't. “I fell down and I kind of knew instantly what it was because one side of my face felt funny,” he recalls. “I went to hospital, and an MRI scan later they confirmed it was a stroke.”
Until that point, he had no sign anything was wrong. After taking part in a charity event in 2012 and discovering he loved dancing, he had been taking classes at a local dance school. The stroke meant he had to stop. “That's what put paid to the dancing,” he says now.
Hole in the heart discovered
In hospital, an investigation found he had a hole in the heart, which he had since birth. “I’d had it since birth - lots of people do - but mine was big enough to allow clots to pass through from one side to the other and get to the brain and that's what caused the stroke. Thankfully it was nowhere near as bad as some people have it,” he says. “I've been very fortunate.”
He had an operation to close the hole, and his recovery took about seven months. He reluctantly told his dance partner to find someone else to dance with. Despite the shock, Graeme, who has since made a full recovery, says he is grateful for how it played out. “You can either say, ‘how unlucky am I? I’ve just had a stroke', or you say ‘how lucky am I that I had a stroke that wasn't too serious and they can fix the thing that caused it?’ On balance you’ve got to say ‘I’m a lucky man’, haven’t you? I’ve always been a glass-half-full kind of person.”
Strictly Come Dancing debut
The Yorkshireman, who now lives in Northamptonshire with partner Nikki, had even participated in a few novice competitions. “You don't have to be particularly good at it to get a buzz out of it. When it goes right, it’s fantastic,” he says. “I lost a bit of weight and I thought, you know what, as exercise goes, it's not a bad thing.”
A lifelong Strictly fan whose dance hero is pro Kai Widdrington, Graeme says he jumped at the chance to take part and passed the medical checks with flying colours. In the first live show, he and pro partner Lauren Oakley will perform a Cha Cha to Hound Dog. “I have danced it before, but I've had a real mental block over one particular step and my leg just keeps doing something in the opposite direction to the way it's meant to go,” he reports. “I'm convinced it's a bit of muscle memory from 10 years ago. So it’s as much a hindrance as a help.”
He thinks his TV job might earn him a few votes, revealing that he and Lauren have named themselves Team Underdog. “I'm very aware I'm the oldest male celeb. But I'm hoping to show that, you know what, you can teach an old dog new tricks. I quite like being the underdog. I wouldn't want to be the favourite, that’s way too much pressure.”
Training and fitness regime
Anticipating his 60th birthday in November, he started a gym regime at the start of the year and has lost 10 kilos. The motivation was thanks to his mates, who chipped in to get him a flight in a Spitfire as a present. “One of those once in a lifetime kind of things,” he marvels. “The only catch was that I was 10 kilos heavier than the maximum weight they'd take. So I started going to the gym two or three times a week in February, when I didn't know I was going to get Strictly.”
He has shifted an extra three and a half kilos in one week since training with Lauren began, and is delighted to realise he can now eat whatever he likes. “I can't believe I'm saying this, but I probably need to eat a bit more because I can't keep losing three and a half kilos. It's interesting, because I catch myself in the mirror now and again, and I’m like ‘oh, hello, I look like a dancer’.”
He can’t help but let this new Strictly experience seep into every area of his life. “I had a moment in Tesco's last week where a catchy tune came on and I was thinking about what to buy, and my brain just went 'six, seven, eight...' and I clapped, and everybody looked at me. It felt a bit like the Full Monty when they're in the queue at the post office.”
Career and injuries
Having worked for Weetabix for the first 21 years of his career, Graeme took redundancy and, in 2008, decided to become a dog trainer after taking on two Rottweilers. The TV series followed in 2017, but it’s not always been plain sailing. “The worst injury was before the television show actually,” he remembers. “I went to see a couple who'd just re-homed a German Shepherd with a very troubled past. I said to the chap, right, have him on lead and let's see what he does - if he does go for me, we'll cope with it. But he bit into my hand at the moment the guy pulled back with the lead.”
“Without being too gory, I could see things that you shouldn’t be able to see,” he says, recalling being taken to the operating theatre to be “stitched back together”. “Things like that do set you back psychologically,” he admits, saying he now uses muzzles. “I’m not a thrill seeker. What drives me with the job is helping people, and dogs. Nothing makes me smile more than when I’m driving away thinking ‘their life is going to be great together - we’ve cracked it’.”
Those who’ve seen his cheery presenting style will also know that Graeme likes to wear a cravat, but he’s already discovered that dancing with one poses its own problems. “I had to be sewn into my cravat, they just fly everywhere so they sewed it to my shirt.” On the fake tan front he’s choosing “medium” and he says he’ll wear whatever they want to put him in.
Describing his sessions with Lauren in the training room as “another day in paradise” because he’s enjoying it so much, he hopes the judges - Anton du Beke, Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse - will see some potential in him. “If Anton said ‘oh, I think we’ve found a ballroom boy', I would be over the moon,” he declares. “And if Craig ever said 'fab-u-lous' I'd be very excited. It’s almost too much to dream, that.”
When it’s all over, he’s hoping to go home and teach Nikki a few steps but concedes: “I don’t think I’d be eligible for beginner competitions after this!”
Strictly Come Dancing - the first live show - airs on BBC1, Saturday, at 6.15pm.
