Former Strictly Come Dancing star Joe Sugg is rooting for Dianne Buswell and Bobby Brazier in this year's series.
The YouTube star and creator of new audio podcast series 'Username Resurgent', has been in a relationship with professional dancer Dianne since late 2018, after the two were partnered together and competed on the show.
In an exclusive interview with Digital Spy, Joe shared his pride at Dianne's partnership with Bobby in what he believes is one of the most difficult years yet of the competition.
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"I’m so proud of both of them and what they’ve achieved," he told us. "It’s a strong year, there's so many good couples.
"We say it every year, but I genuinely think this is the toughest year in terms of competition that there has been — which makes it all the more exciting to watch."
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Joe also weighed in on the EastEnders actor's dance skills, believing that he and Bobby both had a similar dance background before competing on the show.
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"You know, Bobby is a bit like me, he’s got no dance experience. He’s come into this and some of the stuff he’s been doing — even in their Argentine Tango — that lift at the start that they did, that alone is better than anything I could have done.
"And I got to the final, so I'm super excited for that partnership and how far they can get in this competition."
Joe went on to credit his partner Dianne's dance teacher skills for contributing to the couple's success on Strictly this series.
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"Her choreography this year has been insane because she’s putting in so much time into getting it right and up her choreography game every year," he said.
Joe has been similarly preoccupied of late, with November marking the release of his first audio podcast series titled 'Username Resugent'.
The 10-episode audio adventure is centred on a true-crime story set in the same world as Joe's bestselling 'Username' comic book series.
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The podcast cast includes Joe, Shadow and Bone star Kit Young and Queen Charlotte's India Amarteifio, who plays lead character Serena Hall. When her brother Silas goes missing, Serena takes it upon herself to investigate, unearthing a previously unknown involvement in a digital entity known as The Angel of E.Scape.
"It covers dark themes and it really does, listening back through it, it has its cliffhanger moments and we do revisit places and characters we recognise from the books," he told us of the series.
"I feel like it's a bit of nostalgia as well as being something new for them to enjoy."
Joe also assured us that whilst the audio series is connected to his books, you don't need to have read them to enjoy it.
"I think it’s a great story regardless," he said. "It’s been written in a way where you don’t need to know the characters that well."
Username Resurgent is available to download on Audible now.
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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Emily is an experienced freelance entertainment writer and editor, reporting on all things TV, film, soaps and showbiz. An NCTJ-qualified journalist, with a First Class Honours degree in Journalism from the University of Sussex, Emily is a former Deputy News Editor and Evening News Editor at Digital Spy. She has previously worked at Hello magazine, BBC South News and GoodtoKnow.
A small and big-screen obsessive – with subscriptions to every TV and film service under the sun – Emily knows her movie stars from soap stars, and is always clued up on the latest reality show dumping, just-dropped trailer or off-screen spat. She's interviewed a number of celebrities over the years, with highlights including The Masked Singer host Joel Dommett and GMB's Kate Garraway (who "loved" her trousers).
Emily counts Sharon Horgan and Julia Davis as her TV heroes, and is a loyal Wes Anderson fan. LinkedIn
