Giovanni Pernice has opened up about Amanda Abbington’s early Strictly Come Dancing exit.
The professional dancer was paired with Sherlock actress Amanda on Strictly last year but she was forced to pull out just five weeks into the competition citing “medical reasons”.
Speaking on the Invite Only podcast alongside best friend and Strictly judge Anton Du Beke, Giovanni says that the thought Amanda was good enough to potentially win the BBC show.
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Giovanni admitted: “It’s a shame because, in my opinion, she could have gone all the way. I am a perfectionist, 100%, but it comes from a perspective of caring. I think all of the professional dancers are in the same place. In every single part of the world, if you’re a professional dancer on one of these shows, you have to get these people looking the best they can on Saturday night.”
(Image: Ash Knotek/REX/Shutterstock)
“And if we have good scores at the end, I do look back and say, ‘I’ve done a great job. But we all care about our partners and we want that for them every single week – to look great on a Saturday. There’s no specific way that you are, or have to be with your celebrity. You make the most of their strengths so the only thing that’s constant is the fact that you have to do a show on Saturday night.”
(Image: PA)
Anton added: “I thought you and Amanda were marvellous. I thought you were terrific. I remember a few years ago, Kelvin Fletcher came in and danced in week one, and it was amazing. As a judge, you sit there and you don’t know what it’s going to be like. And then you go, like, ‘Stone the crows, that was rather good’.
(Image: PA)
“And you’re a bit overwhelmed by it because normally, it takes a little bit of time. But Kelvin was terrific straight away. And I thought Amanda was the same. She was terrific straight away.” At the time, sources claimed Amanda found former dance partner Giovanni’s “militant” style of training hard to deal with. It was reported the pair regularly clashed and later reported that Amanda demanded bosses hand over footage of her rehearsals with Giovanni after she claimed that she suffered PTSD after the show.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
