WITH VIDEO: Anton heart! (From Bournemouth Echo)

WITH VIDEO: Anton heart!

8:05am Friday 21st November 2008

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STRICTLY Come Dancing star Anton Du Beke waltzed into Bournemouth on Thursday to leave his fans shaken and stirred.

The ballroom dancer, who was promoting his book Anton's Dance Class, handed out hugs, kisses and even a few impromptu dance tips to the scores of people who had queued to see him.

And in what has been a controversial week for the BBC dance competition, he didn’t dodge the question of whether former political correspondent John Sergeant was right to leave the series.

He said: “I would have liked to have seen him stay. He would probably have got knocked out this week but then again, who knows? Every week is different.”

After being knocked out early in the series with actress Gillian Taylforth, Anton is now backing Austin Healey, who is paired with Anton’s real-life dance partner Erin Boag, to win.

“They’re all good and they all struggle at different times. No-one’s cracked it all the way through,” he said.

“Austin’s probably averaged out the best. I would like to see him continue on.”

As an author Anton said it was “very, very hard” to try and teach people to dance through a book but he was pleased with the way it had turned out.

“I wanted to explain the movement of dancing, what it actually feels like when you do it,” he said.

“And I wanted to use language that is very simple.”

He joked: “You realise when you write a book how limited your vocabulary is and how poor your grammar is.

“You would think I was quite intelligent and vast in the vocabulary stakes, but actually I realised I only have about four lines. It was a very disappointing realisation.”

But his fans weren’t complaining. First in the queue to meet Anton were Bournemouth School for Girls’ pupils Kirsty Winters, Charlotte Marchant-Jones, Jessica Marchant-Jones and Philippa Hathaway, who set up ‘Camp Anton’ outside Waterstones, Castlepoint three hours before the dancer’s arrival.

Chalotte, 17, said: “What’s not to like about him? We love his smile, he’s got class, he’s adorable. He’s a real gentleman.”

And Kirsty added: “He always gets stuck with rubbish celebrities but he never complains, he always smiles. We absolutely love him.”

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