ACTING IS WHAT I WAS BORN TO DO

He's the sports-mad broadcaster who won Strictly Come Dancing. Now, Ore Oduba is making new moves playing a 'dastardly spoilt brat' in the new stage adaptation of a Peter James crime thriller. And, as he tells KAREN ROCKETT, it's all thanks to lifting the Glitterball trophy

- KAREN ROCKETT

WHEN one unsuspecting couple unearths a potentially priceless masterpiece at a car boot sale, they discover their dream find is about to turn into their worst nightmare... because beneath the respectable veneer of the rarified world of fine art lurks a dark underworld of deception and murder.

Curtain up and enter stage left sports presenter and Strictly Come Dancing champion Ore Oduba!

The broadcaster turned thespian has waltzed his way into the latest Peter James stage adaptation, Picture You Dead, currently on a UK tour until the end of July.

Ore portrays the suave but dangerously devious art collector Stuart Piper, who is determined to get his hands on the painting. And the chance to play “a dastardly spoilt brat who thinks he is superior to everyone else” is clearly one he relishes.

“I put on those beige trousers and I park my own life at the stage door,” he laughs. “As an actor, he is a character you can really get your teeth in to and I hope the audience enjoy him.”

Crime fiction fans will be very familiar with the writer’s DS Roy Grace, who has appeared in 21 books to date. The troubled Brighton-based sleuth is the favourite fictional detective of royal bookworm Queen Camilla. And TV audiences will be familiar with ITV’s smash-hit series Grace, based on the books and starring John Simm as the sleuth.

But Picture You Dead has never been seen on stage or screen until now. James was inspired by the real-life masterpieces of Brighton-based art forger turned legitimate copyist David Henty, upon whom one of the play’s main characters, David Hegarty, is based.

Picture You Dead is also Ore’s first play and it’s a long way from the 39-year-old’s original plan of a career in sports broadcasting.