Strictly: Krishnan Guru-Murthy got his big break in Glasgow

“Naively, I thought after 35 years on telly I was quite famous. It turns out I wasn’t, not really.”

Krishnan Guru-Murthy, who says appearing on Strictly has had a profound effect on him (Image: BBC)

With signing up to the sparkly juggernaut that is the BBC’s biggest entertainment show comes “next-level” scrutiny, he agrees.

“It was a bit surprising,” he nods. “Because Strictly is so big, and people love it so much and have such strong opinions about it, they are certainly much happier to approach you, and to talk to you about it.”

During a brief break in training for this week’s samba (think rolling hips, pelvic tilt and plenty of sass – things which would have been extremely unlikely associations with the Channel 4 News anchor seven weeks ago) Krishnan and professional dancer Lauren Oakley are discussing the partnership which has evolved between them over the last seven weeks.

“He is a very good student,” says Lauren, enthusiastically. “As the competition gets harder, the teaching gets easier. He’s understanding more about the best way to train, what works for him.”

Krishnan with his professional partner, Lauren Oakley (Image: BBC)

Krishnan agrees. “As the series goes on, you do pick up on some of the steps, it makes more sense,” he says. “People are always asking me what my dance wish-list is, but to be honest, I know so little about them all, I don’t really have one.

He adds, grinning: “Each week, Lauren tells me what we are doing, and I say, oh, that’s great – and what’s that? I just think they are all great fun.

“The thing about Strictly is that you have be all in, you have to give 100 percent.”

He pauses. “That’s what I said I’d do from the start, when I didn’t really understand the implications of that…”

Being in such an intense spotlight is a new experience for Lauren too, who joined Strictly last year. The Birmingham-born former Under-21 British National Champion has performed on stage around the country, recently with fellow Strictly pro Giovanni Pernice and judge Anton Du Beke on their UK-wide tours. Krishnan is her first celebrity partner on the show.

“You don’t really think about [the increased scrutiny] when you are training, you are focussed on supporting your celebrity, on being there for them day by day,” she says, simply.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy (Image: Getty)

“It’s a big ask for the celebrities. You have four days, if you’re lucky, to get ready, so you just want to do the best job for them, so that they feel comfortable and confident enough to dance in front of millions of people.”

With decent scores and encouraging comments from the judges, Krishnan and Lauren are quietly ticking off the weeks (their highest scoring dances have included the Charleston and the quickstep, for which they received 30 points) edging ever closer to the final.

“You really, really try not to think about the final,” says Krishnan, firmly. “This week, the pressure is on to get through to Blackpool which is a big goal on Strictly. It’s a bit school trip-y, I think – everyone just jumps on the bus and has a laugh.

“Mostly, I’m really just thinking of trying to make it through to the next week.”

The show seems to have ignited something in him, he agrees. After his first performance, cha-chaing across the dancefloor, resplendent in bright orange and beaming from ear to ear, he described it as like a “massive serotonin injection”.

The 53-year-old told Claudia Winkleman, who co-hosts the series with Tess Daly, that his wife Lisa thought he ‘might not have been happy for 35 years’ when she saw him dance for the first time.

In an episode of Strictly sister show It Takes Two, he told host Janette Manrara that taking part had been a “genuinely profound” experience and added: “You hit middle age and quite a lot of your life is about other people, it’s about work, it’s about your kids, and you don’t necessarily do stuff that you love.”

Krishnan and Lauren, who are dancing a samba this week (Image: BBC)

Reflecting on the last seven weeks, Krishnan admits neither he nor Lisa, nor their children Jasmine and Jay really understood what taking part in Strictly would be like.

“I thought it would be a couple of weeks of fun, Jay thought it would be a couple of weeks of embarrassment,” he says, with a smile. “All of us have been confounded by the reality.

“But the whole family are really enjoying it, and want to be there each week, and offer me notes and critiques on things I could have done better..

He adds, laughing: “From knowing nothing about it, we’re all armchair experts now.”

Krishnan, who grew up near Burnley and went to school in Blackburn in Lancashire, planned to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor, when a spell of work experience with BBC Scotland (on the Glasgow Garden Festival’s lunchtime magazine show Garden Party in 1988) laid the foundations for a significant career change.

“Glasgow was a really fun place in 1988,” he says. “It was preparing for its year as City of Culture, and there was a lot going on. I stayed in a rented flat on Belhaven Terrace in the West End, hung about on Byres Road – it was great. I was just amazed by Glasgow restaurants, like the Rogano, the Ubiquitous Chip. And there were some really cool shops, like Cruise - which is still there.”

At the end of the two-week stint on Garden Party, then head of features for BBC Scotland David Martin asked Krishnan if he would like to present Open to Question, a youth debate show where groups of teenagers were invited to put questions to politicians and celebrities.

Krishnan had been in the audience for the BBC Two programme several times, and had written to David to ask for a job as a researcher. He said no, but had suggested the work experience placement on Garden Party, which led to the offer of a presenter role.

It was a big deal for an 18-year-old, admits Krishnan. He was even interviewed by The Herald’s sister title The Glasgow Times.

Krishnan, aged 18, when he was announced as the new host of Open to Question in 1988 (Image: BBC)

“That was the first time I had ever been interviewed by a newspaper,” he says, with a smile.

His first Open to Question interview, in October 1988, was with Jimmy Savile, whom he recalls as “cold, aggressive, slightly menacing.”

Writing for the Channel 4 News website in 2012, Krishnan also said: “I’ve never forgotten the creepy feeling he left me with.”

Clips from the programme show a confident Krishnan, calmly controlling proceedings as an increasingly unsettled Savile responds to questions about his fundraising activities and the contradiction between his claims to be a devout Roman Catholic and his sexual lifestyle.

Open to Question was supposed to be a gap year diversion, says Krishnan.

“I was going to university to do medicine,” he says. “I thought doing some TV would be a bit of fun during my gap year, but I loved it, and I decided that was what I wanted to do. So I changed my degree to politics, philosophy and economics.”

His parents “were fine about it”, he adds, smiling. “I think they would have been more concerned if I’d scrapped going to university completely. Although, it was only really when I started at Channel 4, when I was 28, that they stopped asking me when I was going back to medicine.”

Krishnan joined Channel 4 News already a seasoned broadcaster, having been a host and reporter on children’s current affairs programme Newsround; a producer and reporter on Newsnight; and part of the inaugural presenting team for BBC News 24.

At Channel 4, he has covered global events, such as the Omagh bombing and 9/11, and presented special war reports from Syria, Yemen, Gaza and Ukraine; and as one of the main reporters for Unreported World, he has been on the ground with an Iraqi bomb squad, travelled to South Africa to examine lingering social problems post-apartheid and explored the lives of women who were being hunted by abusive partners in Afghanistan.

Krishnan is known as a tough and uncompromising interviewer, unafraid to ruffle feathers. In 2015, Robert Downey Jr walked out of an interview after being asked about his past substance abuse, and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino refused to address questions about the link between on-screen and real-life violence in a 2013 interview, before declaring: “I’m going to shut your butt down.”

In a 2015 interview with Vice magazine, Krishnan said: “I am basically the person I’ve always been. I don’t play a character on television; I am my myself. My desire to get straight to it, and ask straight questions, and confront and challenge people when I think they need it, I’m sure you could trace that personality trait right back to when I was at school in Blackburn.”

In October 2022, he was taken off air by Channel 4 for a week after being caught swearing about the Northern Ireland Tory MP Steve Baker. Immediately after a fractious interview with Baker, the presenter was caught on microphone saying: “What a c***.” He issued an apology soon afterwards.

Since last year and the departure of Jon Snow, Krishnan has been lead anchor of Channel 4 News.

His job, and the industry, have changed immeasurably over the last 25 years, he acknowledges.

“Looking back, it seems kind of crazy that I was only 28 and anchoring Channel 4 News,” he says, slowly. “It’s that confidence of youth, isn’t it? I mean, I’d worked in TV for 10 years by then, including on national news programmes, so it did feel like a natural thing for me to do.

“But when I think back, and when I look around the newsroom at my younger colleagues, it does feel a bit unreal. But if you own it, if you have that confidence, if you know all your questions are set up and ready and you know what your job is, you can go with it. And I never had the sense that I was too young to be doing it.”

Krishnan and Lauren dancing a cha-cha on Strictly (Image: BBC)

The internet has been the biggest driver of change in journalism, he says.

“When I was starting out, if you wanted to research something, you looked through newspaper clippings, knocked on doors – journalism in person,” he explains.

“We still do that, but not to the same degree.”

He adds, with a laugh: “Nobody had mobile phones back then. If you wanted to send someone a message, you might even consider a telegram…and in my first job, we were still using typewriters.

“There’s been a massive change, too, in how you connect with people, and that’s down to the rise of social media. It’s the same with Strictly – Lauren has a huge following, for example, especially in the dance community.”

He pauses. “Which has probably helped us enormously…”

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Even if it does all end this weekend, it is obvious his Strictly experience will leave an indelible mark on Krishnan, however unlikely that may have seemed to him seven weeks ago.

“The phrase everyone is saying just now is – live in the moment,” he explains. “Don’t think ahead. That’s a bit of a hazard for me, as my whole life is about planning and looking ahead.

“But there is so much to do on Strictly, you don’t really have time to think about anything else.”

He adds, with a laugh: “And I have a job, you know? I’m still doing the news. So I switch from Strictly mode, to news mode, and dad mode…and I’m on the board of Kew Gardens, so I might have some duties to do there, and I’m chairman of a charity…”

When he steps on to the Strictly dance floor, does he channel that confident, courageous 18-year-old who thought nothing of batting questions back and forth with the leading lights of the day?

“Oh no, definitely not, I wish I did,” he says. “I see it, you know, in Bobby and Ellie [Brazier and Leach, fellow Strictly contestants] and I wish I had that fearlessness.

“Getting older, you realise how little you know. And of course, physically, you’re starting to creak a bit, you’re less fit….”

He adds, with a wistful laugh: “I wish I still had some of the confidence I had at 18.”

Strictly Come Dancing continues on BBC ONE on Saturday, November 11 and Sunday, November 12.