Amy Dowden says her, JB Gill and Lauren Oakley are Strictly ‘dream team’

Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Amy Dowden has said celebrity partner JLS singer JB Gill, fellow dancer Lauren Oakley and herself have been a “real dream team” as she appeared on tonight’s live show.

Watching on from the studio with presenter Claudia Winkleman, the 34-year-old dancer could be seen wearing an all-black outfit and poppy as she applauded the couples up the stairs, after missing out on performing in tonight’s episode due to illness.

The professional dancer missed last Sunday’s results programme after being taken to Barnet Hospital from the BBC One show’s production centre, Elstree Studios, as a “precaution” after the star began “feeling unwell”.

Oakley, 33, who does not have a partner for this year’s series of the BBC dancing show, will stand in for her to perform a Bruno Mars medley with Gill on Saturday’s show.

Turning to Dowden, Winkleman asked: “You three did this together this week, didn’t you?”

To which the dancer replied: “Yeah, it’s been a real dream team, even to the point where Lauren put in on chat: ‘J, do you want a coffee?’ To which I replied: ‘Yes, you’ll have a vanilla latte.'”

It comes after Dowden took to Instagram to wish Oakley and Gill “the absolute best of luck”.

Reality TV star Pete Wicks and his partner Jowita Przystal opened the show dancing to Another One Bites The Dust by Queen, scoring just 22 points, with a performance that included “quite a lot of mistakes” according to head judge Shirley Ballas.

After the salsa, Wicks could be heard telling Przystal “I’m sorry” to which she replied “it’s ok”.

Ballas said of the performance: “What a way to open the show, and you embraced the character of Freddie Mercury so, so well.

“Now listen to me – I’m not really going to over-judge this, and I’ll tell you why you made quite a lot of mistakes, so it wouldn’t be fair to me say, we all know you made mistakes, we can see them.

“But what I was impressed with was how you picked it up, because you got the wrong foot going the wrong way. You carried on like a trooper.”

They were followed by opera singer Wynne Evans and professional partner Katya Jones, who scored 30 dancing the rhumba to Dame Shirley Bassey’s This Is My Life.

After the performance, Evans said: “I’ve always been very open that I’ve struggled with my mental health.

“I’ve had some very dark times and some very happy times. And I think it’s important, what I’ve learned through the Strictly journey, thanks to Katya, is we must have belief in ourselves, and we must try and love ourselves first.

“And if there’s people at home tonight who are feeling slightly down, for whatever reason it is, it’s that love of yourself that we all have to find, and something that I’m discovering.”

Former Olympic hockey player Sam Quek scored 29 performing the American smooth with partner Nikita Kuzmin to Taylor Swift’s Love Story.

Judge Motsi Mabuse said of the performance: “I think she has the right to celebrate today.

“Yes, the last two weeks, you’ve been having some hiccups.

“They’re a mess, they’re up and down, you’ve been having a bit of a struggle with getting the routine.

“And I think you got it this week, and even the vibes of what you were presenting, we got the Romeo and Juliet, with the happy end at the end. You know, I’m happy about that.”