ANTON Du Beke awkwardly avoided questioning on Strictly Come Dancing on BBC Breakfast.
The longtime star of the BBC dancing competition was put on the spot by Sally Nugent and Ben Thompson today.
Anton, 58, appeared on BBC Breakfast to promote his new children's book, Code Name Foxtrot.
However, both the presenters couldn't help but ask about the scandal that has engulfed Strictly Come Dancing.
The BBC launched a probe into the celebrity dancing competition after Amanda Abbington, 50, complained about her partner, Giovanni Pernice.
The Sherlock star recently claimed that Giovanni, 33, was 'cruel and abusive' to her on the show.
This was before Graziano Di Prima was sacked for alleged misconduct and he later admitted to 'kicking' his own partner, Zara McDermott, 27.
But when Sally and Ben attempted to ask Anton about his verdict ahead of the 20th anniversary of the show, the judge had other ideas.
Ben said: "Let's talk Strictly."
However, Anton quickly changed the subject as he exclaimed: "Can we talk NTA's?
"Expert category, [I'm] shortlisted," he added whilst pointing to himself.
But Sally was quick to snap back as she interjected: "No, we're in charge, hang on!"
After a polite back and forth, the trio did discuss the anticipated National Television Award category.
Anton was keen to note that he was nominated alongside legendary wildlife broadcaster, Sir David Attenborough.
However, he did eventually get onto talking about the show as he gushed about the history.
"I can't wait for the new series of Strictly Come Dancing, it's going to be brilliant. Can you even imagine, 20 years? The 20th anniversary, I mean it's 22 series for goodness sake!" he said.
"I feel very honoured for the fact that it's only myself, Craig and Tess left from the very first show of the very first series. I love that and I feel very proud of that.
"I love the show and I feel very territorial about the show really, because I think it's a brilliant thing."
But Sally noted that he has been there for all the years as both a professional dancer and now a judge.
She described the last few months for the show as "torrid" amid all the backstage drama as she asked Anton whether he ever saw anything that made him "uncomfortable."
It was enormously competitive then, I mean nobody knew we'd be going 20 years later.
Anton Du Beke
But keen to distance himself from any of the misconduct allegations, he replied: "No. But I can only speak for myself.
"The only time we are all together as a group is on the Saturday's, so the live show day. The rest of the week you're off [alone] with your partner."
"That's as much time as you have with everybody else, one day, so you can only speak about one's own experience.
"I enjoyed my time as a professional dancer enormously. I had the most wonderful relationships with all my partners who I wouldn't have changed for the world. All of them."
He added: "That's as much as I can say, I can only speak for myself really."
Sally then asked Anton whether the show has "got a bit too competitive," as all the professionals want to win.
However, Anton revealed that competitiveness between the dancers is not a new thing.
"It was competitive then, I have to be honest with you!", he exclaimed.
"I think back to those days, we were all competitive ballroom dancers who literally just walked off the competitive dance floor into the studio.
I feel very territorial about the show really, because I think it's a brilliant thing
Anton Du Beke
Adding: "It was enormously competitive then, I mean nobody knew we'd be going 20 years later.
"We were there for Strictly, like 'This is what we do, ballroom dancing and this is how it's done', so even in the early days it was competitive."
This comes as the bullying and misconduct probe into the long-running dancing programme has been delayed.
The publicly funded corporation was previously expected to reveal its findings earlier this month after a three month review.
It has now been reported that the findings will not be made public until at least next week at the very earliest.
Giovanni quit Strictly after nine years in May and has denied any wrongdoing.
