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Anton Du Beke speaks about Strictly's head judge position: 'No one can replace Len Goodman'

Sharnaz Shahid
Deputy Online Editor
January 31, 2017
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Strictly Come Dancing bosses are yet to announce who will take on the role of head judge following Len Goodman's departure. And during Tuesday's Lorraine, favourite Anton Du Beke revealed that no one can ever really replace the king of ballroom dancing.

"No one can replace Len. Len took a long time to be Len and he's unique so no, no-one can be the new Len… I don't know who’s going to take the available chair," the professional dancer confessed. When Lorraine quizzed him about the possibility of taking over, the 50-year-old diplomatically replied: "From my own personal opinion, I think it's important that they have a ballroom person on the panel. Just for balance.

anton© Photo: Getty Images

Anton Du Beke has said no one can replace Len Goodman on Strictly

"You've got Bruno [Tonioli] and Craig [Revel Horwood] from musical theatre or commercial world and you've got Darcey [Bussell] from classical ballet world so I think they would require a ballroom person for balance. And also the technicalities of what we're trying to do, you spend a week trying to teach your partner how to do the technicalities of ballroom dancing and if nobody points it out, it's important really."

Meanwhile, the Strictly star and his girlfriend Hannah Summers recently announced they are expecting their first children - a little boy and girl. Speaking about the prospect of becoming a father for the time, Anton gushed: "We're expecting them on 4 April and we do our final show of the tour on 2 April so all being well, it should marvellous. I'll slip out of that and I'll go into the other thing and off we pop. Marvellous."

anton 2a© Photo: Getty Images

Anton and his girlfriend Hannah Summers recently announced they are expecting twins

Anton also took the opportunity to publicly praise his girlfriend, who he has reportedly been dating since 2007. He remarked: "Hannah is doing incredible well, she's at that uncomfortable stage. She's doing brilliantly. I'm in awe of her, remarkable." The popular TV personality announced the pregnancy news in November, sharing an Instagram photo of two pairs of baby dance shoes with a top hat and a cane which read: "We hear the 'tippety tap' of tiny feet!" He then captioned the announcement: "Hannah and I are delighted to announce that we are expecting twins in the spring. We are over the moon!"

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