To the Strictly Come Dancingjudges he was the “dancing pig” who made a mockery of the competition. But to the public he was a hapless hero.

John Sergeant may have dashed his chances of taking the Strictly crown by quitting the last series, but the former BBC and ITN journalist has been a winner in the long term.

Since dancing his last waltz onStrictly, which he quit because there was a “real danger I might win the competition”, Sergeant has found himself in huge demand on the public-speaking circuit, overwhelmed with television commissions and been booked for a lucrative advertising campaign by Marks & Spencer.

Sergeant, 65, marked his exit from the programme by embarking on a P&O cruise to the Caribbean. He gave after-dinner speeches and was paid by the ferry company. He now gives speeches on average once every two weeks, for which he is paid £5,000 to £10,000 a time.

On television, he appears weekly as a roving reporter for The One Show, the BBC One teatime magazine programme, for which he is paid in the region of £500 per appearance. In August he hosted the show for a week, with the singer Myleene Klass.

His big break in primetime television will come in November. He has filmed a three-part ITV series, entitled John Sergeant’s Tourist Trail, which has been billed as a “celebratory journey around Britain, taking in our most famous tourist sites along with quirky destinations not found in mainstream guidebooks”.

In January BBC Four will screen How the Railways Built India, in which he embarks “on a unique journey to discover how Britain built a ‘railway nation’ in India”.

His role as host on Argumental, a panel debating show on the UKTV channel Dave, has become his most successful commission, watched by more than eight million viewers in the past year.

Far more lucrative has been his signing by Marks & Spencer to appear in its Christmas campaign. It is thought that the former political journalist will earn £100,000 to film with celebrities such as Stephen Fry and Joanna Lumley.
(It sure looks like he had the last laugh.
He's laughing all the way to the bank)