Craig Revel Horwood would "hate" to see Strictly Come Dancing move time slot

The 51-year-old star was speaking in light of culture secretary John Whittingdale's recent criticism of the positioning of the prime-time entertainment show in the schedules.

Strictly Come Dancing could be affected by proposals being put forward by the government in a white paper this week, which might force the Saturday night competition to move slots in order to prevent it competing with shows like The X Factor on rival channels.

"The scheduling is created around our audience. It’s a family entertainment show. We want families to watch it, people between the ages of three and 93 to watch it. You’d never schedule it at 1am, would you? That would be absolutely ridiculous," added Revel Horwood, saying: "I love the slot that it’s in because it goes to a wider, broader spectrum of audience."

Asked how he'd react if the Conservative cabinet took to the Strictly dancefloor, Revel Horwood said: "If they are in charge of anything entertainment-wise, it would be a complete disaster; we don’t want them in charge of any decisions, creatively."

When it comes to The X Factor, who Strictly beat to the BAFTA for Best Entertainment, Revel Horwood said: "It's not a competition as far as we're concerned."

"One is a wannabe. We’ve already got celebrities," he added, before conceding. "I find it a very useful tool, X Factor. Because I work as a theatre director and choreographer I use that as an audition place. In fact, I’m employing two people from X Factor for Sister Act, so there you are darling! It’s useful. It has its uses. Thank you, Simon [Cowell] for my free auditions!”

Revel Horwood was backstage celebrating Strictly Come Dancing's very first win at BAFTA. "We are just gobsmacked and speechless," he said. "Absolutely delighted!"