Anton Du Beke is trying to teach me how to play golf, the game he loves almost as much as dancing. 'Bend at the hips there,' he says, and I swing but completely miss the ball. 'Oh, that was very good.' But I didn't hit it! 'No, but your action was lovely.' Thankfully this is only happening in the privacy of an underground golf club in Soho, where the course is a simulation seen on a screen, although the clubs and ball are real. 'That's great, we're getting closer.' Anton is here with the team from his new podcast Putt & Strut, in which he and Sky Sports presenter Sarah Stirk chat with the likes of Judy Murray, Jodie Kidd and James Nesbitt about their love of the game that is currently frustrating the hell out of me. Finally, I hit one. 'Marvellous, my love!' says Anton enthusiastically. I tell him he's a good teacher, but then this is a man who managed to get even Ann Widdecombe moving across a dance floor. 'Thank you very much,' he says. 'We seemed to get some success at the end.' This is the cheerful, constructive style that makes Anton a lot of people's favourite judge on Strictly. 'Positive reinforcement, that's my thing.' But it also brings us straight to the heart of the matter when it comes to the BBC's flagship show, because of claims that some professional dancers – including his own close friend Giovanni Pernice – have taken the opposite approach and been horrible to their celebrity pupils. The Sherlock actor Amanda Abbington said she found Giovanni's behaviour 'unnecessary, abusive, cruel and mean' during their time together on the show. Only six of her 17 complaints were upheld after a nine-month BBC inquiry, which found Giovanni had engaged in verbal bullying and harassment including inappropriate language, but had not been physically aggressive. I have to ask Anton about this, since he and Gio, as he calls him, are going on tour together this summer. This is obviously tricky for him, but in his own way Anton has clearly stood by his mate. They even went on tour together last summer while the accusations were flying. Anton's gentlemanly image has been carefully built up over the years so did he not think of walking away, calling the whole thing off and getting some distance from his friend? 'No. Those decisions aren't to be made, really, are they? You don't make decisions like that at moments like that.' So how did the audiences greet them, given the inquiry was still going on? 'The audiences were going wild. We were full up in every venue. I'd like to think they were there to see me – but I'm pretty sure they were thrilled to see Giovanni. It did appear that the highlight of the show was when we were sitting on stage reading a newspaper in our underwear. Whereas I was sitting there concerned about getting a chill, Giovanni was radiating in the applause and cheers from the audience. There was a lot of love for us around that tour and we're both looking forward to being together again in June.' Being on tour, working with a company of dancers and getting that kind of reception was good for the Sicilian, he says. 'I was delighted, to be honest. I was pleased that we were together on tour because if he was locked in a hotel room or his flat on his own, with nothing to do, having to cope with all that on his own, it could have been a different outcome.' He looks directly at me as if to say this is something really important and it's clear Anton was concerned for his friend's mental health and what he might have done under stress if he had felt isolated. 'So the irony is that the best place for him to have been was with us on tour.' Was it a welcome distraction for Gio to be performing? 'Well, to a degree. It's never far away from the surface, you know? What I do know is it was a very difficult time for him and I'm glad he spent it with me and the company, rather than on his own. 'That was all I could do – to be a friend – I would have taken him off to the golf apart from the fact he was awful at it – it might have made him feel worse!' he jokes. 'So instead we just did a show.' They are more than two decades apart in age – now 34 and 58 – but the pair clicked and became friends when Giovanni joined Strictly in 2015. He thanked the older man for looking after him when he first came to Britain, saying, 'He's one of my best, if not my best friend.' Giovanni even took Anton to meet his father in his home town of Palermo for a travel series they made together in Sicily. There were tears when Anton's wife Hannah and twins George and Henrietta made a surprise appearance on the island and the two families combined. Anton and Giovanni then filmed another travel series in Spain, showing an easy friendship. So, after all this closeness, when the allegations were made did Anton think, I trust Gio, everything will be OK? There's a surprisingly long pause while he ponders what to say. 'The thing is, I wasn't in the room. I can only comment on what I saw, which is what everyone at home saw, which was the performance on Saturday night – and they seemed to be putting some excellent numbers together. I believe it's really important not to comment on something when you've not been in the room.' OK, but did Gio confide in him at the time? 'Yeah. But it wasn't a graphic, moment-by-moment, 'I said this, she said that' sort of thing. Or, 'The BBC have said this and they haven't said that.' It wasn't any of that really. It was more that everyday support of a friend when something is coming out in the press and you're with them as they're having to cope with that and then go and do a show.' Anton has already said he'd like to see Giovanni, who wasn't in the 2024 Strictly line-up, return to the show, so does he think it could ever happen? 'Who knows? I'd like to see Gio back, of course. Aljaz came back.' This is a reference to the Slovenian pro Aljaz Skorjanec who left Strictly in 2022 after what was reported to have been 'a shocking altercation' with another dancer on a night out, although he said he had taken time out to become a father. 'It wouldn't be the first time someone has come back,' says Anton. 'Aliona has come back, Nicole Cutler came back. All different circumstances but people do return.' Given that they're still touring together it's pretty obvious Anton would love to have his friend Gio back under the glitterball. However, the producers do not consult the judges on such matters. 'They've never once asked me what I think about those questions: 'Who do we have on? Who do we not have on?' Throughout all this, Anton keeps glancing across to the peaceful golfing landscape on the simulator screen and it's clear he'd rather be talking about the game. He started playing as a 14-year-old when a man at his dance class took him along for a game. 'He gave me all these clubs and taught me how to play and I've had a love affair with golf ever since.' Anton's father was a Hungarian called Antal who had a problem with alcohol and once stabbed the young Anton in the leg and stomach after an argument on Boxing Day. His mother Conchita was from Spain. They lived in a council house in Sevenoaks in Kent. 'We didn't have any money so I couldn't afford to be a member of a golf club. The clubs I had were bits and pieces people had given me, this odd array of half-bent clubs, with balls I found. 'My pal and I used to steal on to the course near where we lived at the second hole and come off after the 17th green, keeping an eye out for the green keeper.' That meant they didn't pay. 'It was the only way we could play.' The young Anton watched a tournament from Wentworth on TV and this became his dream. 'I thought it was glamorous, idyllic. I fell in love with Wentworth, which I thought was the most heavenly place.' He left his troubled childhood behind, won top-level ballroom championships with his partner Erin Boag, modelled himself on Fred Astaire and then charmed a nation on Strictly, made an album, wrote a series of romantic novels and got to play at Wentworth with another of his heroes Bruce Forsyth and former Strictly judge Len Goodman. Anton finally became a member there ten years ago. 'That was one of my ambitions in life. It's still my favourite place in the whole world.' It's also where he met his wife Hannah in 2012. 'It was a big British charity golf day, with a black-tie do in the evening. I saw her across the table and thought, 'Oh, heavens.' His face lights up as he remembers chatting to her companion and finding out she was neither his wife nor girlfriend. 'I thought, 'Let the games commence!' He cackles and grins. 'Now, that was the beginning of the rest of my life, right there.' George and Henrietta were born after three months of IVF treatment in March 2017. 'They will be eight next month. I don't know if it's because they're a boy and a girl but actually we never think about them as twins. They're different.' As a parent of multiples myself I know that the sympathy you get for all the hard work will have worn off by now. Anton is breezy about it though. 'People have always said, 'It must be so difficult with twins.' I'd find it more difficult with somebody who's two years older, if for example you had an eight-year-old and a ten-year-old, because they want for such different things. That is a different ball game.' Speaking of which, he has of course introduced both Hannah and the kids to his favourite sport. 'We were on holiday in Tenerife last year during the Easter holidays and we all went and had a round of golf together. That really is the dream.' What if they grow up to decide they don't like the things he loves including – heaven forbid – dancing? 'Boarding school,' he says quickly. 'There'll be nothing there for me.' Then he chuckles deeply and says, 'I'm joking. Fortunately they love performing. I was at His Majesty's Theatre doing my show at Christmas and they came on and sang a song with me and the band.' He doesn't want to be a pushy dad, but admits the kids take lots of classes. 'Weekends are a write-off. Rugby, gymnastics, they're at a piano… And that is exactly as it should be, because my truth is: 'Try everything and then you'll fall into things that you love.' Does he do the school run? 'Yes, I did this morning.' Do the mums and others go all swoony over him at the school gates? 'Oh no. Not any more. Once or twice there were a couple of looks, early doors, but that faded.' These days he'd probably invite them to join Hannah on the golf course, since his podcast is partly aimed at encouraging more women to play. 'I feel like women are put off the game before they've even tried it, and I think that's sad. I think it's a shame. I want my wife to be able to go to a golf club and feel comfortable, and my daughter the same when she gets a bit older. That's really important to me.' He flashes the Anton Du Beke smile again and it's easy to imagine him holding court in the clubhouse, talking about friendship and life as much as sport. 'Every now and then you might hit a sweet one out of the middle of the club face, but most often you don't. That's OK. The important thing is to stay positive!' Putt & Strut with Anton Du Beke and Sarah Stirk is available now on Global Player and all major podcast platforms.