Strictly favourite? Will used to dance ‘like David Brent’
HE’S a favourite to pick up this year’s glitterball but in the past Will Mellor’s dancing has been compared to The Office’s David Brent.
The Hollyoaks actor, 46, who last week topped the Strictly leader board with 34 points, has left his friends laughing at his embarrassing moves in nightclubs.
Jeremy Edwards, his co-star on the Channel 4 soap, said: ‘Will isn’t a stage school kid, he’s just done acting. He is very good at doing funny, silly David Brent-type dancing. He’s like a dad at a wedding.
‘But I’ve never seen him dance sober, so now will be interesting.
‘He is definitely not a trained dancer and he had to practice for his first dance on his wedding day.
‘His wife is a professional dancer and she can give him some tips while he is on Strictly.’
Mellor was last night described as ‘exceptional’ by Strictly judges following his salsa to Luther Vandross’s Never Too Much.
But he and partner Nancy Xu were disappointed after they dropped eight points from last week, with 26 out of 40. The dance was risque, with Mellor unbuttoning his shirt at the end but Edwards says there is no way he will fall for the Strictly curse which has ruined several marriages since the show began in 2004.
Mellor has been married to Michelle since 2007 and their children are Renee and Autumn.
Edwards, who met Mellor in 1996, said: ‘I know Michelle very well and those two are so much fun. She understands him like none else.
‘He has got a wonderful family. He came from a very poor upbringing, a council estate. He lost his dad during Covid recently, which made it very difficult because he couldn’t have a funeral.’ Ex-footballer Tony Adams left judges in hysterics with his charleston to Lonnie Donegan’s My Old Man’s a Dustman.
He and partner Katya Jones scored 22 points – seven more than last week’s 15.
Social media was awash with support for the former Arsenal defender, with fans vowing to vote for him. Judge Anton Du Beke, a former Strictly dancer, said that he hadn’t had ‘so much fun’ since he ‘dragged Ann Widdecombe’ across the floor during her stint on the show in 2010.