A fan of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, he started tap classes but an adjudicator told his mum he was naturally suited to ballet (shades of Billy Elliot). Born in Plymouth to a single mother, he grew up in working-class Hartlepool. We’re not far from where Sleep first landed in London, aged 13, when he won a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School in Richmond Park. The house, which he shares with husband Jose Bergera, is filled with photos of Sleep in his favourite roles – from choreographers Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, John Neumeier, Jerome Robbins as Mr Mistoffelees in the original Cats and there are snapshots of Sleep with friends: one shows him smiling with his arms round Elton John and Freddie Mercury at Live Aid. Though not as spry as he once was, he’ll still get up and dance to demonstrate whatever he’s talking about. Close-cropped white hair has long replaced the shaggy 70s curls.
#RAIN SOUNDS THUNDER FOR SLEEPING FULL#
At 5ft 2in (“and shrinking”) he’s voluble, cheeky, full of laughter, skittering across topics and off on tangents. I meet him at his house in west London by the Thames. He’ll be in conversation with Alan Titchmarsh, and performing too (you’ll have to wait and see what). Sleep is about to mark his 75th birthday with a celebratory event at his old workplace, the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden. Nobody since has so successfully crossed the line between classical dance and mainstream entertainment. He made up for his short stature with explosive technique, giant leaps and natural charisma, energy always fizzing.
But of course, he was also a seriously talented classical ballet dancer, “the greatest virtuoso dancer the Royal Ballet has ever produced”, the company’s founder Ninette de Valois once said. In the 80s and 90s, Wayne Sleep was prime-time famous, on Wogan and Parkinson, Give Us a Clue, getting Gotcha’d by Noel Edmonds and Mr Blobby.
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