I spent a year on Cloud Nine: Ore Oduba talks about winning Strictly Come Dancing ahead of hosting the live tour heading to Birmingham

So when I start with an apology that I’ll probably be asking similar questions to the other journalists lined up to listen to him during a day of SCD Live interviews, he laughs it off. “I will answer them as if they’ve never been asked before with spontaneity and energy,” he says. And he’s as good as his word. Though, thankfully, our conversation meanders in different directions and he doesn’t need to fake it.

Ore will be back on the road with Strictly from January 18 to February 10 with the Strictly Come Dancing UK Arena Tour. The show is waltzing back on the road from for 29 supersized sequin-filled shows across the country, starting at Birmingham Arena from January 18-21.

Strictly favourite and 2017 TV show winner Ore will be hosting the tour for a second time and the 2019 tour will be directed once again by the FAB-U-LOUS Strictly TV Judge Craig Revel Horwood. It will feature many of the celebrities and professional dancers from the highly-anticipated 16th series of the award-winning BBC One show.

Arena audiences are in for a real treat as they enjoy a fantastic evening of entertainment, showcasing all the amazing choreography and incredible live music that Strictly is famous for. They will experience a host of breathtaking dance routines guaranteed to leave them spellbound, together with all the glitz, glamour and magic of the TV show live on stage.

Ore says: “Goes without saying, I’m so excited to be back hosting the tour again. As many people know, Strictly means a lot to me so to be back with the gang . . . well, let’s just say it didn’t take long for me to say ‘yes’. I had the best time hosting the 2018 tour, the Strictly fans were as loud and excitable as ever. And I’m sure 2019 will be no different, we’ve got a sensational show planned. And yes – when we hit the road in January – I will be packing my dancing shoes.”

As well as enjoying the glittering routines, arena audiences have the power to decide who wins the coveted Glitterball Trophy at the end of each show. After each celebrity couple has performed, the tour judges will provide their invaluable critique and scores – but the audience can also vote via text for the favourite couple and ultimately they will decide who wins.

Ore understands the excitement and the pressure better than anyone else. After all, not only did he host last year’s live tour, he also famously won the TV series – despite being put into the dance-off just two weeks earlier. Ore and his professional dance partner Joanne Clifton pipped Louise Redknapp and Kevin Clifton, and Danny Mac and Oti Mabuse to lift the crown. He remembers the moments leading up to his victory as though they’d happened yesterday. The look of surprise etched across his face on YouTube clips is articulated freely.

“I remember the moment of the three pairs standing there in the final awaiting the verdict as though it had just happened. To be honest, there were no nerves then and I have never felt more at ease. The crazy thing about the position Joanne and I were in is that two weeks before we were in the dance-off. So when we survived and got through to the semis we had nothing to lose. We were lucky to get through to the final. My parents were there and Joanne’s were and for me we’d won just by being there.

“The night was very memorable because it was the final and the cast returned for one last hurrah; they are close mates. Gene Kelly’s widow was there and it was a special evening before we went live.

“The most important thing from my perspective was to get the first steps right. I thought if I get it wrong, it’s a slippery slope. But those steps were good and everything went to plan. We were able to just enjoy it. It was like floating. I have never had a feeling like that. To put a sporting spin on it, I felt like Lionel Messi on the dance floor.

“I don’t know where these abilities had come from – I do actually, then were taught by Joanne – but I felt we were there to enjoy it. We couldn’t put a foot wrong. By the time it came to the decision, I already knew it couldn’t have gone any better. I couldn’t wait for the afterparty, which was going to be really great.”

Ore had long wanted to feature on the show. He’d watched previous episodes of Strictly imagining he’d have the most fun ever. Even though he didn’t have a dance background – Ore had planned a career in sport, initially, before switching to TV – he thought he’d have great fun.

“There were 13 million people watching and it’s quite bizarre really because when we started I was just happy to be there. It may sound cliché, but it really was a dream come true just to be there. I’d watched Strictly year in and year out and I always viewed it as a sort of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory show – I was always hopeful that I’d get the golden ticket to go to Willy Wonka’s factory.

“When the call came, I was determined to just enjoy it. In the opening weeks, we didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We just wanted to continue.”

Ore started in reasonable form, being in mid-table after the first week and trailing the likes of Danny and Oti plus Louise and Kevin for most of the show. He hit his stride in Week Four, jiving to Runaway Baby, by Bruno Mars, and earning a leaderboard winning score of 39 – with only Craig failing to give him a full house. It was a similar story the following week when he performed a memorable waltz to I Will Always Love You, topping the leaderboard with straight nines.

From there, he remained in the hunt until finding himself in the dance off during quarter-finals week, when he just pipped Olympic artistic gymnast Claudia Fragapane and her dance partner AJ Pritchard.

“I didn’t think about winning it. I suppose there was a moment halfway through the series when it felt like a lightbulb going off and I realised I loved being on the stage.

“I’d grown up doing a lot of theatre and even though I hadn’t danced, I’d done a lot of sport. When you’re competing at a high level in sport, you have to bring you’re a-game. And I had that feeling of being at home on Strictly because it was a similar sort of stage. That was the reason why I didn’t feel ‘oh gosh’ there’s 10 million people watching. I didn’t seize up. What I’d always wanted to do was express myself creatively. I’d always wanted to do it, so if I couldn’t enjoy it – something would have been wrong. I know that doesn’t happen to everyone but I thrived under that pressure, knowing the world was watching.”

In many ways, Ore’s sporting background was his secret weapon. After being educated at a co-educational independent schools in Dorset, he’d studied sports science and social science at Loughborough University, graduating in 2008. He’d hoped to work in sports broadcasting and subsequently achieved that goal. However, his first major role in TV was on Newsround, following the departure of Lizo Mzimba and Laura Jones. He was soon promoted and also given a role presenting the spin-off show Sportsround.

He’d nearly made the grade as an international sportsman before deciding to focus on his broadcasting career.

“I went to Loughborough because I played hockey to a high standard, to England development standard. My dream had always been that sport would get me to the Olympics as a player. But when I arrived at Loughborough, I realised everybody else also had that dream and quite a few were already representing their country, so I soon learned my plans were going to be more tricky than I had anticipated.”

Loughborough was a remarkable adventure where Ore met amazing coaches and talented people everywhere he looked. He took it upon himself to try and continue TV and sport before eventually throwing his all into TV. He’d spent a lot of time working at East Midlands Today, gaining TV air miles, so Loughborough actually provided the springboard to his broadcasting career, rather than one in sport. And that background helped when he signed up for Strictly. He was used to the discipline of high-level competition and was willing to discipline himself during the long, hard weeks of training.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m no Jonnie Peacock or Greg Rutherford but I definitely think that idea of discipline is important. Having watched people do what it takes to get to the top I had some experience of that, which helped.

“There was one week when we had to do a sequence for the tango and I needed to whip my leg around. The move was fierce and snappy, fitting in with the staccato nature of tango. I tried and tried but I couldn’t quite get it. So Joanne downed tools. She just wanted me to do this movement up and down the room until I’d learned it. For 30 minutes, I just practised that movement over and over again. And that made me think about sportsmen. I remembered the number of times I’d talked about a footballer staying on at training and whipping free kicks into the top corner, or Federer playing a slice serve in practice over and over again. That tango experience was my equivalent. I had Joanne telling me how to train to get better and it worked. It was quite an emotional moment because I’d always wanted the opportunity to be the best I could be and that became my mantra for the whole series. I was determined to put the hard yards in with no stone unturned. So by the end, I had great gratitude. You don’t get that opportunity to learn from the best too often in a career.”

Ore had, of course, also achieved his ambition of going to the Olympics. In the lead up to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, he had presented a programme called Ultimate Sports Day for CBBC. From 7 March 2016, Ore took part in a challenge for Sport Relief, called “Hell on High Seas”, in which he sailed 1,000 miles from Belfast to London with five other celebrities including Alex Jones and Suzi Perry. In 2016, he also presented Sport Relief: Clash of the Titans with Dan Walker before being asked to present coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics on BBC Four throughout August 2016.

“That was a dream come true. It doesn’t get any bigger or better than the Olympics, so 2016 was a remarkable year. My wife and I had got married in November 2015. Then there was a whole bunch of stuff after that. The Olympics followed and Strictly came immediately after. I was on Cloud Nine for the whole year.

“The Olympics is a little bit like Strictly, in some ways. As a broadcaster, or dancer, you know that you’re in the middle of something incredibly special. You’re part of a show where families are all sitting down together, irrespective of age. That’s great. Everybody is watching at the same time. If you have a Usain Bolt or a Super Saturday – or if you have somebody score straight tens – you know that everybody will be having the same conversations about it when they get to work. And that’s what I got into the business for, to do my bit.”

Ore will soon be packing his bags for his tour of the UK’s arenas. He can’t wait. “It was a pretty easy ‘yes’ when they asked me to do the live show. Our son had just been born when I was asked to do it last year so it just fell into place. And this year, he’s old enough to come and hang out at some of the shows, so it’ll be a family affair.”

l For tickets to the Strictly Come Dancing The Live Tour, visit www.strictlycomedancinglive.com