Ever since Emmerdale's Lewis Cope was announced for this year's Strictly Come Dancing as a replacement for Game of Thrones' Kristian Nairn, there has been a lot of discussion about his previous dance experience and whether he has an advantage. Now he's responded to that discussion.
Before he became famous for playing Nicky in the ITV soap, Cope starred in Billy Elliot the Musical on the West End and was in the hip-hop group Ruff Diamond, who made it to the finals of Got to Dance in 2013.
Speaking to Metro, the actor downplayed any claims of being a professionally trained dancer.
"I don't really know where all that came from, to be honest," he said. "I trained as an actor, I danced a bit when I was a teen, but haven't since.
"It's only ever really been acting for me for a long, long time - so I don't really know where that came from. I don't really take notice of it, though - everyone's so strong, and anyone can pull out a brilliant performance at any point."
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He also said that calling him a professional dancer was a bit disrespectful to the actual pros who work on Strictly and train the celebrities.
"To call me professionally trained or a professional dancer seems a bit bizarre, especially now that I'm working with these pros on the show," he said.
"It's kind of an insult to them, really, to suggest I'm on their level when they've dedicated their lives to becoming as brilliant as they are."
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This weekend's episodes featured Wicked star Cynthia Erivo as a guest judge, although viewers found the whole thing strange as she wasn't given any score paddles to do the judging with.
The season also said goodbye to its second pairing, following another dreaded dance-off.
Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX. Strictly Come Dancing airs on Saturdays 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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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
