Popular Strictly contestant is from Harrogate

It may have come as a shock to some listeners of BBC Radio 4 when Mike Bushell mentioned Harrogate during an episode of Saturday Live in the festive period.

The BBC TV Breakfast presenter and Strictly favourite who won thousands of fans last year during the show's 17th series last year, revealed that he had been a pupil at Harrogate High School as a boy.

Bushell, 53, who was born in Hitchin in Hertfordshire, moved to Harrogate with his family in 1977 and went to secondary school at Granby High School, as it was then known.

Having survived several dance offs with his professional dance partner Katya Jones, the plucky, hard-working Bushell was eventually voted off Strictly the week before Blackpool.

Listeners to Saturday Live also learned Bushell's father had been a teacher at Ashville College in Harrogate.

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The BBC sports presenter and keen marathon runner first got the taste for the limelight at Harrogate High School when appeared in a production of Hobson's Choice.

After studying with the National Youth Theatre, he joined the Derby Evening Telegraph on a path that eventually led to BBC TV a a national level.

Not that he has forgotten his Harrogate roots.

The last decade has seen Bushell make personal visits to the Harrogate district.

In 2012 he returned to Harrogate High School to give a talk to students on his life in the media and sport.

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