Old Waconian

Katie Derham has quietly moved to a 6/1 third favourite to win Strictly - from a pre-programme showing with most bookmakers around 40/1.

Is she a raw talent, shaped entirely by Anton du Beke (Anthony Beke) ?

At Cheadle Hulme School in 1984, aged 14, she took up synchronised swimming, as it became an Olympic sport. 'For a few years synchronised swimming was my greatest passion', she says. She dedicated hours to choreographing routines. to tunes like Radio Ga Ga and I Wanna Dance With Somebody, and designing the sparkly outfits to go with them - and revisited the sport for a Radio 4 documentary in 2012.

Before that, she was awarded honours in the Grade IV exam of the Royal Academy of Dancing, which is aimed at primary school pupils, and at that level goes up to Grade VIII.

She studied economics at Magdalene, Cambridge, going up in the first full year of the college admitting women undergraduates. She found time to perform in The Gondoliers at the Cambridge Arts Theatre, and with the Cambridge University Light Entertainment Society.

In 2010 Katie took to the floor for Newsroom's Got Talent (sadly there was a mic failure). (Stay with it for Mary Nightingale in latex).




Sadly Katie's microphone worked in the same contest in 2009.