Nigel Harman and Katya Jones’ upcoming Strictly Come Dancing routine will tell a tale, but there was an uneasy moment when they announced what it will be.
Despite splitting the judges with their cha cha, the Casualty actor, 50, and his Russian partner, 34, made it through Halloween week.
Next Saturday, they’ll perform a dance to Miley Cyrus and Mark Ronson’s Nothing Breaks Like a Heart.
When asked by Strictly: It Takes Two host Fleur East what they were focusing on in rehearsals, the duo said their next routine is all about ‘power, drive, and drama’.
Nigel then teased: ‘We’ve got a really good story.’
He turned to Katya, saying: ‘I’ll let you tell the story.’
The former Strictly Come Dancing champion burst out laughing, begging Nigel to explain it instead.
When Nigel revealed the contents of their upcoming performance, spectators understood why Katya didn’t want to be the one to unveil them.
‘We are a couple who are in love with each other, in a long-term relationship, but one of them has strayed from home and so they’re arguing and fighting about it, and nothing breaks like a heart, so there’s real drama in the routine,’ Nigel explained.
‘It’s not really fighting, they really love each other,’ Katya chimed in.
‘I’ve been doing fighting face,’ the actor joked.
‘They still love each other, but the damage is done,’ Katya said.
‘It’s about, can they recover when somebody has had an affair?’, Nigel asked.
Viewers commented on how ‘on the nose’ the moment was, considering the so-called ‘Strictly curse,’ which Katya found herself at the focus of in 2018 when she kissed partner Seann Walsh, both of whom were in relationships at the time.
‘The story for Nigel and Katya’s tango isn’t too on the nose at all’, one person tweeted.
‘I was cringing’, a follower replied.
‘My toes curled’, the original poster added.
Their furious performance comes just after Nigel and Katya shrugged aside reports of romantic emotions between them.
In an interview with Metro.co.uk, the soap actor, who married actress Liemann in 2011 and has a kid, and Katya joked about allegedly being overly familiar with one another.
‘Well, I strapped your leg yesterday, your calf, that was such a moment,’ teased Katya.
‘That was romantic,’ Nigel mocked.
‘To tell you the truth, I don’t operate or move in those circles, so that’s the first I’ve heard of it,’ he insisted.
‘But, you know, it’s inevitable and it’s part of signing up for the show, but I couldn’t be less interested.’
Strictly Come Dancing continues Saturday on BBC One and iPlayer.