Family and Early Life
Du Beke was born Anthony Paul Beke in Sevenoaks, Kent to a Hungarian father, Antal Xavier Beke (1939-2001), and a Spanish mother, Ascensión (née Lema). He also has two younger siblings. He attended Wildernesse School in Sevenoaks.
Du Beke began dancing at 11, when he discovered his local dance school, The Holton School of Dancing in Sevenoaks. The school was run by Beryl Holton together with her mother Velda and later with her husband Stephen Turner. He took his first dancing exam in June 1978 and started competitive dancing a few years later. He had three partners during these formative years before the Holton School of Dancing closed in 1987 when Beryl and Stephen Turner moved with his banking career to Dorset. Du Beke left school at 16 to follow an amateur dancing career. At 17 he decided to specialise in ballroom. Whilst he danced during the evenings and at weekends he had a day job as a salesman in "The Bed Post" in Petts Wood, South London.
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