Strictly's Jamie Borthwick compares show to Christmas special
Strictly Come Dancing star Jamie Borthwick has revealed how the Christmas special compares to the main series.
The EastEnders star notably won last year's festive episode after scoring a perfect 40 for his Quickstep with professional partner Nancy Xu.
Appearing on It Takes Two with his new partner Michelle Tsiakkas on Friday (September 27), Jamie discussed how "different" his experience has been on this year's series.
"Well, to be honest it's nothing like it," he told host Fleur East. "Me and Nancy had a jolly up for two weeks, well it wasn't even two weeks – a week and a half.
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"It was great. We worked hard on our routine obviously, but we knew it was light and for Christmas... just different.
"Now, I've been humbled by Strictly. Especially this week because we've only had that week [to rehearse]. It's not even five days, it's four days with all the other stuff we have to do – our VTs and I've had a filming day this week. It's all go."
Last weekend, Jamie and Michelle performed a Viennese Waltz to 'Beautiful Things' by Benson Boone, which scored 23 points.
This week, they are taking on the dreaded Rumba to 'Ain't No Sunshine' by Bill Withers – the first Rumba in 15 years to be performed in week two.
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Speaking about the challenging dance, Jamie revealed that he was very "sore" after practising his swaying hip movements – but he still loves the dance.
"I love the Rumba. People are kind of like, 'Oh no it's really hard' and everyone hates it," he said, adding: "Oddly enough, by sheer luck, I like the Rumba."
This weekend, viewers can vote for the first time to save their favourite couples, with the judges' scores from the first two weeks being combined to determine the leaderboard. The two couples with the lowest votes will face the first dance-off of the series.
As well as Jamie and Michelle's Rumba, Saturday's dances include two Cha Chas, two American Smooths, two Viennese Waltzes and two Foxtrots.
Strictly Come Dancing airs on Saturdays and Sundays on BBC One, while spin-off Strictly: It Takes Two airs on weeknights on BBC Two. Both shows are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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