Jody Cundy was overcome with emotion after completing his Strictly Come Dancing Movie Week dance, and with cause.
The 44-year-old Paralympian acknowledged that it had been a ‘difficult’ week since he had been in a hospital just a few days before when his leg became infected.
Speaking to Janette Manrara on It Takes Two, the sporting star explained: ‘The first two days, absolutely flown by, the end of day 2, we’d done the routine a number of times from start to finish, which I had not done for the previous two dances.
‘Really confident that we could just perfect everything for Saturday, I got home on Tuesday night, took my leg off, and was like, “Ooh, that’s quite sore,” and didn’t really think too much of it. Cleaned it, bathed it, made sure it was all ok.
‘Then I got up around 4am, looked at my leg, and it was warm, swollen, and I was like, “That’s getting infected, I need to see somebody about it”.’
Jody was then sent to the hospital, where physicians administered antibiotics.
However, by the next morning, he still couldn’t get his leg on.
This sidelined him for two days, putting Saturday’s performance in peril.
Fortunately, he was able to get it out into the dancefloor, leaving spectators amazed at how he was able to pull through his stunning Up performance with so little preparation time.
‘It’s been emotional,’ Jody stated to Claudia Winkleman after receiving his judges’ comments and collecting 20 points.
‘I had two really good days, I was like, “I’ve nailed this, now I’ll get the spit and polish on it and make it really good for today,” then I spent two days with my feet up.’
Not me crying at #strictly and that beautiful ‘Up’ routine – how Craig could give that a 4 I just don’t know. Jody and Jowita were lovely.
— Sharon-apparently-an-Orioles-fan-Ibbotson (@seibbotson) October 7, 2023
Wow didn’t expect that from Jody, that was gorgeous. My favourite of the night so far #strictly
— Doubtfire1747 (@poursomesugar92) October 7, 2023
I think Jody could have got higher marks. Christ two days practice and they pulled that off. Thought it was pretty good for the week he's had #strictly
— Ellen (@ellenmboyd971) October 7, 2023
‘He then praised his ‘lovely’ fiancée’s Lucy for ‘looking after’ him.
‘She took a day off work to make sure everything was alright and everything was done for me,’ he said sweetly.
‘I can’t do all these things without her, she’s been amazing.’
Jowita Przysta, her professional partner, was equally overjoyed for her celebrity.
‘I’m extremely proud,’ she said.
‘Literally, he had two days, he pulled it off, he said to me, “I wanna dance, I wanna perform that routine because it means so much,” and it means so much to me as well, so I am super proud.’
Strictly Come Dancing spectators were quick to applaud Jody on Twitter following his act.
‘Aw, Jody and Jowita’s dance was so sweet! I loved it!’, one viewer wrote.
One argued that Jody should have been ‘given another week to rest.’
‘So sorry Jody had to miss so much training, what a shame’, one said.
Strictly Come Dancing continues Sunday on BBC One and iPlayer.
