A heart condition forced Graeme Hall to put his dancing shoes away – but, seven years on, the TV star is preparing to return to the dancefloor as a Strictly Come Dancing contestant. The 59-year-old, who is best known as the dog trainer on Channel 5’s Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly, suffered a stroke in 2019 after which doctors discovered a hole in his heart. Hall underwent an operation to fix the hole, but the diagnosis left him fearing that his dancing days were over.
While he is not a fully trained dancer, Hall had fallen in love with the sport after competing in several small competitions. Hall went on to compete in regional events held in church halls and community centres, but was forced to stop after his stroke. Happily, Hall is now fully recovered and preparing to make his dancing comeback on television’s most famous dancefloor: Strictly Come Dancing.
Hall went on to say that the prospect of dancing on Strictly would have seemed impossible years ago. New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. Hall is not the first contestant to have heart troubles get in the way of dancing. In 2021, Robert Webb was forced to withdraw mid-competition from Strictly’s 19th series when the Peep Show actor began experiencing symptoms in training.
His doctor advised him to step back, given that he had undergone open-heart surgery only two years earlier, in 2019. Reflecting on the moment in a 2025 interview, Webb said that he’d accepted the Strictly offer as “these opportunities don’t come along very often”. Why don’t you contribute and participate?’ he said, noting that “it all added up to a big mistake”.
Although Webb was in “quite good shape” on paper, the actor struggled with Strictly’s intense schedule. I don’t think it’d be a very good idea.” Hopefully Hall will not run into similar troubles during his forthcoming stint on the programme, kicking off with its pre-recorded launch episode on Saturday 19 September during which the celebrities will be paired with their celebrity partners. Hall is joined this year by stars including EastEnders actor Lacey Turner, singer Delta Goodrem, TV personality Dani Dyer, actor Jaime Winstone and footballer Shaun Wright-Phillips.
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