Strictly star Wynne Evans looks unrecognisable in Phantom of the Opera stint

Welsh opera singer Wynne Evans, who is competing on this year's Strictly Come Dancing, once starred in a prestigious Andrew Lloyd Webber gala performance at the Royal Albert Hall

Strictly Come Dancing's Wynne Evans will be hoping to come back fighting tonight after the awkward 'grope joke' fiasco.

The Welsh opera singer sparked speculation when he put his hand on his professional dance partner Katya Jones's waist on the show and she brushed it off. Katya, 35, dismissed the incident as an "inside joke", with another clip showing Wynne, 52, going in for a high five with his dance pro and being snubbed.

"I'm absolutely heartbroken by the things that have been written about me in the last day," said the BBC Radio Wales presenter. "It's not nice to live in that time but basically Katya and I are really, really close and we're really good friends, and on Saturday night we made a stupid joke."

The pair had won an impressive 34 points for their Tango to Abba's Money, Money, Money and this isn't the first impressive performance in Wynne's back catalogue. Strictly fans have been stunned to find clips of the star, who modestly describes himself as a "portly balding opera singer", looking unrecognisable as he performed in the Phantom of the Opera back in 2011.

Wynne played Ubaldo Piangi, the portly and accomplished Italian tenor in the Paris Opera House, in three gala performances for the Royal Albert Hall's 25th anniversary celebration of the classic Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Pictures from the performance show the star in gold armour and feather-topped headwear, with a goatee beard. In other snaps, he's wearing a three-piece light brown suit.

The opera singer, who studied at the Guildhall School of Music and National Opera Studio, offered to audition for the musical supremo, but his musical producer, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, offered the role on the spot. "Andrew and Cameron know I'm quite a good character actor and I think it's an ideal comic part for me," he said.

The star has enjoyed a career in opera spanning a quarter of a decade, with two number-one classical music albums. He has performed at the Royal Albert Hall more than 200 times and appeared in productions of classic operas including La bohème, Rigoletto and Salome.

The singer's most famous role, however, is playing Gio Compario in the Go Compare TV adverts. He spent a staggering 11 years portraying the much-loved character, making more than 100 adverts for the brand.

"The advert gave me the opportunity to make an album that I wouldn't have got otherwise," he told the Telegraph. "I feel incredibly fortunate." Gio famously sported a long curly moustache. "The moustaches I wear for the TV adverts cost £1,000 each to make but are vital to my character," Wynne once revealed.

"I really panicked when I thought one had been lost. My daughter had taken it to school for a 'show and tell' lesson. It came back in a packet of cheese and onion crisps."