Strictly Come Dancing’s Jamie Borthwick couldn’t resist making a playful four-word quip to his dance partner Michelle Tsiakkas.
The EastEnders star, who triumphed in last year’s Strictly Christmas special, debuted on the dance floor with Michelle on Saturday night.
Their Viennese Waltz to Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” earned them a mid-table score of 23 points, placing them halfway up the leaderboard after the first show.
As they prepared for their second performance, Jamie and Michelle joined host Fleur East on the Strictly spin-off show, It Takes Two. Fleur was quick to probe Jamie about his humorous comment that Michelle had a garlic scent during their Saturday performance.
The remark was picked up by a hidden microphone that captures the dancers’ conversations on the dance floor and backstage, offering a glimpse into what the stars really say during their performances, reports OK!.
Fleur teased: “Here at It Takes Two we like to eavesdrop on your mic, I’m sorry we like to introduce.” Before the audio clip was played, Michelle reacted with an apprehensive: “Oh gosh.” In the midst of their dance, Jamie was heard telling Michelle: “You smell of garlic.”
Laughter ensued as Fleur inquired: “what was going on? ” To which Michelle responded: “In the most romantic moment of the dance, he decides to tell me I smell like garlic.”
Jamie then clarified: “Well we’ve had this thing during the week at rehearsal, it was an inside joke where we were eating garlic bread and stuff like that and we’ve been burping in each other’s faces all week.”
“You watch the mic thing now for as long as we are here there is going to be something good on that mic.” Michelle quipped: “I’m going to get him back”.
In another segment of the show, Fleur was keen to find out from Jamie how competing in the Christmas special differed from the main series.
Jamie confessed that his stint on the BBC contest has left him feeling ‘humbled’. He elaborated: “To be honest it’s nothing like it because me and Nancy had a bit of a jolly for a week and a half. We worked hard on our routine but we knew it was light-hearted and just something for Christmas.”
He added: “It was just different but now I’ve been humbled by Strictly, this has been a real experience, especially this week because we’ve had a week and with all the other stuff we have to do the VT’s and I’ve had a filming day this week – it’s all go.”
Strictly Come Dancing airs Saturdays and Sundays on BBC One