Tom Chambers (actor)

Tom Chambers
Born	Thomas Stuart Chambers (1977-05-22) 22 May 1977 Darley Dale, Derbyshire, England
Occupation(s)	Actor, Television Personality
Spouse	Clare Harding (2008–present)
Children	William Stanley Robert Chambers

Thomas Stuart "Tom" Chambers (born 22 May 1977) is a British actor, known for his role as Sam Strachan in the BBC medical drama Holby City. He also won the sixth season of Strictly Come Dancing with his partner Camilla Dallerup.

Personal life

Tom Chambers was born and raised in a small village called Darley Dale in Derbyshire. Chambers was educated at Repton School.

In December 2000, he came close to death when the British Airways flight on which he was travelling from London to Nairobi was disrupted in a hijack attempt. Paul Mukonyi, a 27-year old mental patient from Kenya, burst into the cockpit of the Boeing 747. As the cockpit crew fought to restrain Mukonyi, the auto-pilot became disengaged in the struggle, the jumbo was knocked off course and it plunged about 19,000 feet (5,700 metres) with 398 passengers on board. The pilots recovered control of the aircraft and all passengers landed safely. Chambers described this as "the most terrifying experience of my life". It was this flight that caused him to seek out his teenage sweetheart, Clare Harding, and propose. Chambers married Clare in October 2008 in Derbyshire, having to change the date due to his commitments in Strictly Come Dancing. Tom announced on his Twitter page on New Year's Eve 2010 that he was expecting a child with Clare in May 2011. "We are indeed expecting a little Chambers around 24th May next year :)) very excited parents in the making we are... X" their son William Stanley Robert Chambers was born May 29 2011.

In 2008, Chambers took part in the Great Walk to Beijing which was organised by singer Olivia Newton-John in aid of breast cancer awareness and research.

Professional career

Chambers attended the National Youth Music Theatre and Guildford School of Acting. He has starred opposite Matthew Rhys and Kate Ashfield in the British film Fakers.

Tom's interest in dance led him to recreate the sequence from the 1937 RKO film A Damsel in Distress in which Fred Astaire tap dances with a drum kit. The video was sent to casting directors and led to Tom gaining a part in Holby City. A video of the performance was posted on YouTube prior to Tom's appearance on the BBC TV pro-celebrity dance show Strictly Come Dancing. He later uploaded a video diary of his rehearsals for the recording. On leaving Holby City they honoured him with a montage of his three years work.

In May 2009, it was announced by Denise Welch on Loose Women that Tom would be joining the fifth series of BBC drama, Waterloo Road as new Executive Head Teacher, Max Tyler to which he appeared in 10 episodes.

He currently narrates the series The Real A&E broadcast on Sky1 Daily. Chambers will star in the stage version tour of Top Hat, beginning in November 2011. Tom was interviewed in June 2012 with questions about his career and in particular his role in Top Hat

Strictly Come Dancing

Chambers competed in and won the 2008 series of Strictly Come Dancing, paired with professional dancer Camilla Dallerup. The pair opened the series by performing the Cha-Cha-Cha in Week 1, and scored 28 points. After being top of the leaderboard twice in the series (joint first place with Lisa Snowdon in Week 5, and joint first with Snowdon and Cherie Lunghi in week 8), Chambers made it to the semi-finals of the competition, seeing off his apparent biggest challenger Austin Healey with whom he shared a friendly rivalry. It was here, however, that Chambers' participation looked most in doubt, as he finished bottom of the leaderboard. However, he was reprieved when it became apparent that a tie between the other two couples at the top of the leaderboard meant that there was no way for him to be saved from the dance-off, leading the BBC to put all three couples through to the final. In the final, Chambers beat Lisa Snowdon into third place, before competing head to head with Rachel Stevens in the final round, where his showdance with Dallerup was massively praised by the judges. It was announced that Chambers and Dallerup had gained the most public votes and won the show, making Chambers the third male winner of Strictly Come Dancing. It was Dallerup's first win on the show, despite competing in all six series. On Christmas Day 2008, Chambers returned to partner Dallerup in the Christmas special; however, they came second from bottom of the leaderboard and were not voted into the final two by the studio audience. Chambers and Dallerup have since appeared on the Strictly Come Dancing tour in early 2009 dancing the Quickstep and the Samba.

Week #	Dance/Song	Judges' scores					Result
		Horwood	Phillips	Goodman	Tonioli	Total
1	Cha-cha-cha/Nowhere to Run	6	7	8	7	28	Safe
3	Jive/Black and Gold	7	8	9	9	33	Safe
5	American Smooth/Chicago	8	9	9	9	35	Joint First Place/Safe
6	Viennese Waltz/Can't Help Falling in Love with You	7	9	7	9	32	Safe
7	Paso doble/I Just Died In Your Arms	8	9	8	9	34	Safe
8	Quickstep/A Town Called Malice	9	9	9	9	36	Joint First Place/Safe
9	Salsa/Pa Goza Con Fruko	8	9	9	9	35	Safe
10	Tango/Please Mr. Brown	9	9	9	9	36	Safe
11	Waltz/Moon River	7	9	10	9	35	Safe
	Samba/Mr. Melody	8	9	9	9	35
Q-Final	Foxtrot/Here You Come Again	9	10	10	10	39	Safe
	Rumba/You Needed Me	9	9	8	8	34
S-Final	Jive/Waterloo	8	8	9	8	33	Last Place/Safe
	Argentine Tango/Por Una Cabeza	8	8	9	9	34
Final	Foxtrot/Here You Come Again	8	9	9	9	35	Last Place/Winners
	Salsa/Pa Goza Con Fruko	9	10	10	9	38
Christmas Special 2008	Foxtrot/Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer	9	10	9	9	37

Waterloo Road

In May 2009 Chambers joined the cast of the BBC Drama Waterloo Road. His first episode was the opener of the 20 part 5th Series which first aired the week commencing 25 October 2009. In the show he plays the Executive headmaster Max Tyler who is brought in to oversee the merger of Waterloo Road and local private school John Fosters. His distorted personality is progressively revealed, which climaxes in episode 5.10 where his true colours are finally revealed (when he hits a student)to the relief of the large majority of the school community, which results in his suspension.

External links

• Tom Chambers at the Silverstone Classic 2010
• Tom Chambers at IMDb