His spectacular dancefloor skills on Strictly could take him to the glittering lights of the West End but friends of Hamza Yassin last night revealed his heart remains in Wester Ross.
The wildlife presenter waltzed off with the famous Glitterball last night after winning Strictly with his partner Jowita Przystal.
Mr Yassin, who was the breakout star of the 20th series of the BBC dance show, delivered three spectacular dances to impress the judges and won the viewers’ vote to secure glory in the final.
Sudan-born Mr Yassin, 32, will enjoy a hero’s homecoming on the Ardnamurchan peninsula and, ahead of the final told his Scots fans: “Scotland will always be my home and I will never leave it.
‘I’ll always come back to Scotland’
He told The Sunday Post: “I might travel the world and go to see and film some beautiful places, but I’ll always come back to my homeland of Scotland. I was born in Africa, raised there a little bit, but my newfound love is Scotland and I want to say thank you to all the Scottish people who have been voting and helping me through.”
And Ardnamurchan cannot wait to have him back.
Rosie Curtis, 53, who heads the local Highland games for the West Ardnamurchan Show and Sports Committee, has known Mr Yassin since he arrived to film its wildlife while living in the back of his van a little more than 12 years ago.
The mum-of-three, who is also a firefighter and member of the coastguard, has watched in awe as he swapped the talents he honed in caber tossing, tug-of-war and ceilidh dancing for the Charleston and the American Smooth.
She said: “Ardnamurchan has been gripped by what Hamza has achieved. We’ve all been behind him. He only broke into wildlife TV in the last few years and we’ve been watching him on Animal Park, Countryfile and Ranger Hamza. And now he is not just on the telly, he is the telly.
“Hamza is coming home a star. He has been away from the community for quite a long while and people are really ready to have him back. What a homecoming he will have – it is going to be amazing.”
‘We are extremely proud of him’
Meanwhile Amanda Gane, 56, the Ardnamurchan woman he has adopted as his “Scottish mum”, said: “Everyone says what a revelation Hamza is but I knew he could dance from the ceilidhs we’ve been to. I knew he was light-footed and had fantastic balance because I have seen him hopping from boats and rocks.
“I knew that as soon as public got to see what kind of guy he was, they would fall in love with him. It’s impossible not to. He collects friends and people that love him like others collect shells on the beach.”
Mrs Gane, who with her husband Chris, 58, has a grown-up son and twin daughters, said she was delighted for Mr Yassin’s parents south of the border. “Hamza is really close to his mum and dad – I’m just the back up. Chris and I call him our African son. We are extremely proud of him.”
As the last show of the Strictly season aired last night, his friends and fans on the Ardnamurchan peninsula turned out in all their glitz to cheer him on from the community centre where the final was on the big screen.
Ms Curtis, 53, said: “We’re a small community but we’ve been going to the community centre every week to watch the competition on the big screen. Everyone’s been buzzing.
“When Hamza started out on the show with his first dance we were thinking ‘this is interesting’. But a lot of folk have been to ceilidhs in the hall where he was learning to do Highland dances and he picked them up quite quickly, so we knew he was going to be OK. He has been consistent from day one and has just gotten better and better. It’s his lifts, they’re great.
"This is the best thing that's ever happened to me."
All those weeks of hard work have paid off. What an incredible journey it's been for Hamza and Jowita! #Strictly@HamzaYassin3 pic.twitter.com/gf7qoowE1E
— BBC Strictly ✨ (@bbcstrictly) December 17, 2022
‘Hamza was already a star for us’
“Hamza was already a star for us. We have seen him wearing his Ardnamurchan sweatshirt in training sessions, he has had his home blazoned across his chest every week and has put Ardnamurchan on the map big style.”
The youngest in a family of three he moved to the UK from Sudan as a child, after his medic parents were invited to work here by the Royal College of Medicine and settled in Northampton. He went on to receive a degree in zoology with conservation from Bangor University in 2011 and a further master’s degree in biological photography and imaging.
Conversation