I was in the National Youth Theatre, too, but there was no dancing there. I was doing plays like 'Julius Caesar' and playing the lute very badly.

I really want to emphasise this - 'Strictly' is a positive show. It's interesting that it gets cast into this, understandably, the ordinary net of reality shows, but there's no part of it which feels nihilistic or unpleasant. It's all about learning something and doing well, and you feel this overwhelming sense of people wanting you to do well.

Learning about crime in great detail forces us to ask ourselves how it happened, how the victims and perpetrators got to that point, how the law works, how the police force functions.

I used to deal with high-profile criminal cases that were covered extensively in the media, and one of the things I quickly appreciated was there was a gulf between what really took place in the middle of a case, the impact on victims, the effect on the police and how they solved crimes, and the way it was reported.

We wouldn't turn over our customs service or our border patrol to a foreign government. We shouldn't turn over the ports of the United States, either.

Apple and Google want to create encryption for which they could not provide you the key. Their business model will not survive if the American government has a special relationship with them that requires them to surrender this kind of information.

I want to focus on crimes that affect families and not get distracted going for high-publicity cases. I want to see us move away from politics and focus more on prosecution.

I know - firsthand - that California works best when everyone has the opportunity to succeed. It's a lesson that's hard to learn from the back of a limousine, or behind gated walls. And it's a lesson that guided me every day as the president of the California State Senate - the most productive and progressive policymaking body in America.