CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN
Claudia presents Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two, the BBC 2 weekday sister show to Strictly. After graduating from Cambridge University with an MA in History of Art, Claudia’s first major job in television was on regional programme Central Weekend. Her career moved onto national television in programmes such as Holiday and This Morning, before she moved onto presenting shows on digital television channels. Far from being a backwards move, these specialist channels and programmes gave her the freedom to develop and flourish with her own style of presenting, and led her to the daily entertainment news show Liquid News on BBC Three.
In 2003, she hosted the Fame Academy sister show on BBC Three which gave behind the scenes news and interviews with contestants and celebrities – sound familiar? It was a great success, and Claudia was the obvious choice to host the new sister show for the new Saturday night phenomenon that was Strictly Come Dancing.
Claudia’s role on It Takes Two is to be the voice of the audience, and ask all the questions that the viewers want answers to. Her informal style of presentation allows the interviewees to relax, as well as bringing a sense of fun to the programme. Freely admitting she has no technical knowledge or expertise as dancing, she is brave enough to take part in the hugely successful segment, “Len’s Masterclass”, dealing not only with attempting to dance in fabulous, but ridiculously inappropriate, shoes, but also with head judge Len Goodman’s unique style of teaching – trying to make her laugh with innuendo or chastising her with strange names (”Fungus features” being one of his favourites).
Not content with presenting television programmes, Claudia also has her own weekly column inThe Independent newspaper, hosts a BBC Radio Two arts programme and a comedy quiz Hot Gossip, helps raise the profile of various charities (including travelling to Uganda for Comic Relief and manning phones for the Disasters Emergency Committee in response to the problems in Darfur), and is a wife and mother of two children!
Claudia also co-hosts the BBC production of the Eurovision Dance Contest with Graham Norton.