Strictly: Hamza Yassin on being 'up close' for Argentine Tango

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Strictly Come Dancing star Hamza Yassin, whose parents brought him to the UK as a child so the family could escape the civil war in Sudan, initially lived in a bustling city. However, a move to the UK’s most westerly village at age 21 left him joking that he was the only black man for miles around.

In spite of his self-enforced isolation in the tiny village of Kilchoan, Hamza quickly made friends with the population, with his next door neighbour, Gail, becoming his “Scottish sister”.

He also made himself indispensable by offering to chop wood and do tasks for locals in return for money, which soon ended a months-long spell of sleeping in his car.

“I’m the only black person in probably 150 miles but it didn’t feel like that,” he explained.

His upbringing in Sudan meant that there were also some cultural differences between himself and others from as early as childhood – but he never felt a negative sense of otherness.

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“I knew I was different because I did things differently,” he mused.

“[For example], I would stand up as a teacher walked into the classroom, and everyone would be looking at me – but that’s what we did in Sudan.

“As soon as the teacher [came] in, or someone of authority, we’d stand up,” he told the Guardian.

Hamza also recalled being as curious about the new people that surrounded him as they were about him, and was “perplexed” to see a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes for the first time.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” he exclaimed, before going on to become good friends with him.

After he grew up, he embarked on a journey that was to take him away from mainland Britain altogether to pursue his wildlife photography dreams.

Hamza, who was a keen birdwatcher from his childhood years onwards, wanted to experience nature in the raw and see surroundings he’d never seen before.

After taking a holiday to the remote Ardnamurchan peninsula as a college student, he was hooked on the breathtakingly unspoilt location, and resolved to do whatever it took to be able to call it home.

The next step was to convince his concerned parents that he wanted to leave and start a new life on an island that, at the time, didn’t have so much as a phone signal.

Hamza had to firmly tell his mum not to call as she wouldn’t be able to get through.

Aged 21, he voluntarily made himself homeless so he could remain in Kilchoan, sleeping in his car and washing his clothes at a local community centre.

He was even forced to use public toilets at a jetty as he didn’t have one of his own – but the Zoology student was determined to make his new life work.

Doing odd jobs for locals helped him to top up his petrol tank, and before long, TV work beckoned.

He has now worked on numerous TV shows including CBeebies, Countryfile, Scotland: Escape To The Wilderness and Animal Park – and to this day, Kilchoan is still his home.

It’s a million miles away from the glamorous lifestyle he enjoys on Strictly Come Dancing, a show which he is now declared by bookies as the strongest contender to win.

However, it has emerged that after Strictly ends, the reclusive star will be provided with his own BBC nature show – and his many followers are sure to tune in.

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