Revel Horwood: Conducting is 'really, really hard'

Revel Horwood: Conducting is 'really, really hard'
Revel Horwood: Conducting is 'really, really hard' (Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood has revealed that learning to become a classical conductor has taken a toll on his arms, despite his career as a dancer. The acid-tongued judge is competing against actress Josie Lawrence and DJ Trevor Nelson in the BBC Two show Maestro At The Opera. He told the Radio Times: "When I first came into this competition, I thought, 'I'm a dancer. I know about timing. I can just sway my arms about and that will be enough'. "But conducting is hard. It's really, really hard. I'm in massages every second day." The star is halfway through a 10-week crash course in conducting at the Royal Opera House and the winner will have the chance to conduct an act of an opera at Covent Garden. Craig said it was a 'horror' to have the tables turned and be judged. "I'm not used to being judged. I'm usually the one who dishes it out. People might think of me as this nasty sort of character, but hopefully they'll see a different side in this. "When I'm judging, I put my little judge's face on. But I don't play judge at home. I don't play judge at parties. I don't play judge in bed," he said.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.