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Joe Sugg and Kim Winston chat to all the couples of 2022! They also hear from current champ Rose Ayling-Ellis about how she feels returning to the dancefloor.

2018 Strictly finalist Joe Sugg teams up with producer Kim Winston to bring the fans an Access All Areas backstage pass to the show. Kim has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Strictly, having worked on the show since 2009, and Joe knows first-hand what all the couples are going through, making them the perfect duo to give the listeners an exclusive insight of what really goes on backstage.

In this episode they chat to all the couples of 2022! T They also hear from current champ Rose Ayling-Ellis about how she feels returning to the dancefloor.

The Strictly Come Dancing Official Podcast is made by ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Studios and produced by Kim Winston and edited by Jonathan O’Sullivan. Listen now on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Sounds.

Release date:

Available now

26 minutes

Joe's Chat with Rose Ayling-Ellis Transcript:

Joe: I am joined with current champion Rose and we're also in the room you had on the show.

Rose: Yeah. this is my old dressing room and I missed it so much, so much memory in this room. So much emotion in this room.

Joe: I love the size of it. I'm very jealous. I never had a room this size. My room was probably about a quarter of the size of this room.

Joe: Did you make the most of it? Did you play games in here? Like what sort of things did you get up to?

Rose: Definitely. I had my interpreter team here and then I had people coming in and out and in and out. I just let everybody come in. And every week we had a different game. So one was swing ball, we actually got a white board and would score it.

Rose: So Kai used to come in, Gio used to come in… and Rhys and we’d see who got the highest score. Oh, everyone took it so serious!

Joe: This sounds incredible! The fact that you had swing ball going in one of the rooms is mind blowing. Take me back to just under a year ago, the strictly final that whole night. What do you remember from that night?

Rose: I think the best memory I have is when they called my name out. I didn't want to know if it was exactly us or not. And I looked at Gio jumping up and down and I thought ‘Oh, OK! It must be us then!’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God. And I was completely frozen, I couldn't speak, I felt very numb. And it took me time to process it and then I burst into tears.

Joe: Aww! Have you kept in touch with Giovanni?

Rose: Oh, Yeah. definitely. I mean, after what we went through, how could we not stay in touch? Um, we have so many different events that happened throughout the year. We went to the BAFTA’s. That was definitely our highlight that we went to the BAFTA’s together.

Joe: Yes, congratulations!

Rose: Thank you! That was an incredible night. My knees were shaking and for a first time ever I thought Giovanni was actually quite shaky.

Joe: It cracked Giovanni. We finally got through that tough skin. So your performing at the launch show? How has that been rehearsing? Like has the routine come back as quick as you thought?

Rose: Yeah! I realise it's all in my body still. My body remembered it before my brain did and because my brain is very slow, so I'm very lucky I can rely on my body to remember it. So, it's nice that it all came back! But it's just really nice to being the studio rehearsing with Gio again. And then doing this launch show... doing the rehearsal… urgh! I wanna do it again! 

Joe: Yeah! Especially the year after you've been on there, you do get that a feeling of, you know, what they're all about to go through this new gang and you just sort of have that feeling of like, ‘I just wish I could sort of just sneak in there somehow’.

Joe: Have you got any advice for this new class for 2022?   

Rose: Really? I'm just so happy for them all to go through the epxerience that I went through. I can't wait to see their reaction to it. I can't wait to see who's gonna win!

Joe: Yeah! We got like 13 weeks to wait but thank you very much!

Rose: Thank you!

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