Lewis Cope says Strictly’s Katya Jones helped him ‘fall in love with life again’

Former Emmerdale actor Lewis Cope has said his Strictly professional dancer Katya Jones has helped him “fall in love with life again” after their shock elimination on Sunday.

Cope and Jones found themselves at the bottom of the Strictly Come Dancing leader board and subsequently lost the dance-off as the judges chose to save West End star Amber Davies and professional Nikita Kuzmin.

It came almost a week after Cope and Jones topped the Strictly leader board and won the first Instant Dance challenge.

He told BBC Two’s It Takes Two: “We’re just trying to focus on the positives, really.

“It’s been an amazing 11 weeks and of course it hurts and it’ll take a bit of time to get over, but I’m really proud of what we’ve done.

“It’s not really about dancing or anything. You (Jones) have made me fall in love with dance, but you’ve also made me fall in love with life again. So thank you.”

Cope said that despite his family being “gutted” about the elimination, there was “so much to like about the whole thing”.

He said: “To have them four generations come together every Saturday and to open different conversations that they’ve never really had before, and show different sides to them that I’ve never seen before as well, it’s been really beautiful for me.

“I’d just like to say thank you to everyone at home because without them I wouldn’t have been here this long.”

Jones, who appeared emotional, described Cope as “one of a kind” and said she was “really proud” of how much they “grafted”.

She said: “I wouldn’t do anything any differently. We stayed true to ourselves and each number.

“A lot of my life I was told less Katya, less. But finally, I just needed the right dance partner to match that.

“We were in a tough position. I feel like we were expected to deliver this almost perfect show-stopping routines every single Saturday – which you (Cope) did. I don’t know how, but you did because of you. It’s tough, but also I’m really, really proud. We grafted.

“We were so lucky, the whole nation, we were so lucky to watch your magic because you are one of a kind and you are made for something extraordinary.”

Davies joins EastEnders actress Balvinder Sopal, internet star George Clarke and former Lioness and sports broadcaster Karen Carney as semi-finalists.

The couples will perform during next weekend’s semi-final, airing on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 6.35pm on Saturday, with the results show at 7.45pm on Sunday.

Each couple will perform two new routines and there will be performances from Australian singer Kylie Minogue and boyband Five.