Under the Strictly Glitterball with Jamie Laing: ‘I thought dance was about making cool shapes’

Well, we’ve made it to the halfway point of the competition. Can you believe it!? I must admit, every week turns out to be my favourite. Last week’s Samba was perhaps the scariest, though.

There’s a training room backstage at Elstree that all the couples go into five minutes before they’re called to the stage. As the act before you takes to the floor, you warm up in this room and go through your routine one last time. When it was our turn, for some reason, I just couldn’t do the steps. Karen looked at me and said: “You’d better get this!” But thankfully it came together when it mattered and we were given our highest score yet.

I really am in awe of the pro dancers. Before all this, I just thought dance was all about making cool shapes. But there’s real steps, guys. Like a volta and a sprinkler and… er, the pancake. Unfathomably, that last one’s not a joke. If you turned down the music on the night of the live shows, you’d just hear Karen shouting “volta, heel, volta” at me all the time. In fact, during our Spanish-themed Samba, she even said: “C’mon, Antonio Banderas, let’s go!”

I guess it worked because Shirley said that it was the best Samba she’s ever seen on Strictly. That was pretty special. Craig has notoriously been quite harsh on us in particular, and so for him to give us an 8 was spectacular, too. I’m really chuffed with the whole thing.

Maisie is such an incredible dancer so it was a real shock to see her in the dance off. I don’t know, maybe the audience thought she was safe and didn’t bother voting. You have to have a bit of everything for this show - it’s a bit like a full English breakfast. Max did a beautiful dance as well, so it was disappointing to see him go.

Nicola and Katya having to pull out of the competition was also a shock last week. We’re all being as safe as possible and strict in our own time against spreading this virus. To be asked to do this show is a real honour, so they have the right attitude to look back fondly but also to move on with things.

And didn’t he do well? Anton took to the judges’ chair last Saturday, stepping in for Motsi. He’s just amazing, so polite and kind and truthful. He knows how tough it is from our perspective, and just how much work goes into training, so can really put himself in our situation and understand the pressure. You think of Strictly and you think of Anton. The support for him among his peers is huge and everyone was so proud of him last weekend. He likes a laugh as well, and I think he sees a lot of fun in our partnership, too.

I remember Karen saying to me at the start of all this that we only get one day of rest a week. And boy do I need it! On that day of rest, I read the Bible, I do yoga, I eat a lot of chocolate and I sit and watch movies. Last week I watched the whole Harry Potter series. It’s great, isn’t it? I didn’t realise what happened to poor Harry in the end. That Voldemort is a real douchebag.

It’s the big B word this weekend. Yep, Blackpool! I’m very disappointed to not be able to actually go to the Tower Ballroom to perform. I’ve said to Karen that when we can, we’re going to go and stand on the pier and do our dance. I’ve never been to Blackpool, but Karen is obsessed with the place - she even wants to buy a property there.

The Tower Ballroom means a lot to the pro dancers. They come from all over the world to compete in what is seen as the premier dance competition. It's been going since 1920. When you get asked to do Strictly, everyone says: “You just want to get to Blackpool” Now we’re here, we just want to get to the final. We’re pretty hungry for it now.

I guess our partnership is a bit like the film The Producers - we have fun and a laugh in training and then somehow, on the night, it comes together. I suspect Karen is more nervous than me during the live show as she never knows what I’m going to do!

This weekend we have our Couple’s Choice. We’re performing a street dance to Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) - another bone fide classic, and yes, I’m still sweating… a lot. We’re going to channel that Nineties hip hop vibe, which is obviously very easy for me to do. This is Karen’s dance, she just loves it. We start off as two avatars, like Street Fighter, but we become a team by the end.

Dance stars Tommy Franzen and Lizzie Gough have helped to choreograph our routine. They've had to mix the steps up a bit as some of them don’t work on me. I can’t fathom how they move their bodies - it’s just alien to me.

Nevertheless, this week my trotters are free as I’ll be stepping out of the ballroom shoes and into some funky trainers. I feel a bit like Chuckie from Rugrats. His shoes used to squeak when he walked, and mine do the same. I don’t know what that means, but believe me, I am looking “fresh”. Or something like that…

Strictly Come Dancing continues on BBC One on Saturday at 7.15pm and Sunday at 7.25pm

Jamie Laing was talking to Rachel Ward