When Strictly Come Dancing producers invited Krishnan Guru-Murthy to take part in the show this year, he had absolutely no intention of accepting. “They’ve been asking for quite a few years,” he says, sitting on a sofa in the airy atrium of ITN’s central London HQ, where Channel 4 News is based. “I didn’t pay much attention or give it much thought. We met for a coffee in June, and I – as I had before – said that I wasn’t interested.” But as he began to reel off his usual excuses – family holidays in August, immovable weekend work commitments, his physical health – he realised things had changed.
Both of his teenage children sat exams this year, so the family holiday had been booked for July, leaving August, when Strictly prep begins, open. And though for 24 years he’d worked during the weekend, which clashes with the Strictly schedule, his presenting timetable had recently changed. Last year he landed the role as lead anchor on Channel 4 News, succeeding Jon Snow – and his weekends cleared. And maybe he just felt better. “In the past, I’ve either been feeling really obese, not very well, or worried about my health,” Guru-Murthy goes on. “But this year I was caught at a good moment: I’m feeling a little healthier, and have lost a bit of weight, entirely coincidently.”
