Pete Wicks: ‘Strictly Come Dancing is wracking me with guilt’-Adam Miller-Entertainment – Metro

Pete Wicks does think he deserves to be on Strictly Come Dancing anymore (Picture: BBC)

‘I feel a lot of guilt and have done for the last few weeks,’ says Pete Wicks, after surviving another Strictly Come Dancing elimination.

On Sunday night, no one was more surprised than Pete, 36, when Tess Daly confirmed he’d escaped the dance-off once again, leaving Tasha Ghouri – arguably this series’ best dancer – and Gladiators star Montell Douglas to fight it out for a spot in the semi-final.

The judges chose to save Love Island star Tasha, the first and only contestant to achieve a perfect 40 so far this series. Between the two, it was a no-brainer.

But for Pete, watching two more dancers who scored better than him on the leaderboard compete for their spot in the contest feels wrong.

‘There’s some great dancers, who are working so hard and then I’m clearly the weakest,’ he says.

‘I get wracked with guilt about it, because I would never want to take this opportunity away from anyone.’

The thing is, even if Pete doesn’t think he deserves a spot in the semi-final, the public clearly do. A concept he finds ‘incredibly difficult’ to process.

No one was more surprised than Pete to make it to the Strictly semi-finals (Picture: BBC)

‘I have no idea why people are voting for me, and I can’t believe every week when I get through,’ he says.

After being among the favourites for the chop in week one, the reality star has become an unlikely hero for Strictly fans.

He’s not a natural-born performer and that’s part of his charm.

Without realising it, he sums up why so many viewers are compelled to pick up the phone and vote for him.

‘Every week, this has been about trying to feel comfortable being uncomfortable. I’m not comfortable dancing, particularly in front of people but I’ve always put 150% into everything I do. I’ve taken this show seriously, but I’ve never taken myself too seriously.’

That’s what Strictly is all about. It’s watching someone shake off their inhibitions and become a person they never knew they could be.

‘Sometimes just because you’re not the best at something doesn’t mean that you should stop,’ he says.

‘We all want to be good at things, and we all want to be the best, and that’s why you continue to improve, continue to learn and better yourself.

‘That’s all I’ve done in this. I’m never going to be at the level of some of the others. They’re leagues ahead, and that’s okay, but all I want to do is give it 100%.’

(Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)

On Saturday night, Pete’s Waltz was littered with mistakes. Few viewers can really call themselves qualified to judge a dance contest but there were clear errors and Pete knew it. Visibly heartbroken, holding his head in his hands, he apologised to his partner Jowita Pryzstal and the judges.

‘I was absolutely gutted because in rehearsals we’d been doing it all absolutely fine. I get a mind blank on stage, it just hits me what I’m doing and sends me off kilter.

‘It’s so different to anything I’ve ever done, I’m not a performer. I’ve never performed in front of people like that, and the show has made me feel very vulnerable.

‘It just hits me and when that happens it’s very difficult for me to contemplate what’s going on.’

Still, despite the knocks to his confidence and even death threats from disturbed Strictly fans, Pete is still determined to make it to the final, if not for himself then for his partner Jowita, who previously lifted the Glitterball trophy with Hamza Yassin in 2022

‘She’s just an incredible person,’ he says. ‘She’s the best teacher I’ve ever had in anything and she’s become such an amazing friend to me. I really believe that she deserves to be in a final and I would love to be able to give her an opportunity to dance in a final again.’

I’m so bang average – that’s partly why people have got behind me

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Asked if he’s thinking about lifting the Glitterball trophy, Pete laughs: ‘There’s no chance whatsoever.’

In many ways though, Pete is emerging as the real winner of Strictly.

Reality television stars have traditionally been deemed below the calibre of celebrity for Strictly Come Dancing – Craig Revel Horwood even said Pete’s Towie co-star Gemma Collins was banned from gracing the dancefloor.

Granted there’s a stigma that comes with being reality TV star, particularly when you’ve played the heartbreaker like Pete.

Strictly, however, will be the making of him. After a decade of playing the bad boy, he’s becoming the people’s champion.

‘I’ve made a bit of a caricature of myself on TV before, and played into that idea people have of me. On Strictly I can be authentic, I’m just a normal bloke – I’m so bang average and normal that I think that’s partly why people have got behind me.

‘People just assume because of the way I look that I’m arrogant, take myself very seriously, and I’m the opposite of that. Really, I don’t take myself seriously.

‘They assume that coming from a reality background everything just gets handed to me on a plate and I don’t work hard when I’ve spent my whole life grafting.

‘I don’t come from money, I don’t come from this background. It’s been an uphill struggle to get to where I am now and I’ve enjoyed every moment, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve not worked my nuts off to get here.’

Like AJ Odudu, Jamie Laing and fellow Towie star Mark Wright, Strictly Come Dancing is about to open up a whole new world of opportunities for Pete. He’s already one half of one of the most popular partnerships going at the moment, hosting the podcast Staying Relevant with I’m A Celebrity winner Sam Thompson.

They balance silly humour with being vulnerable, making the perfect recipe for success. It seems inevitable the next step is bottling that chemistry and putting it on television.

For now though, Pete is staying grounded.

‘I take every day as it comes. I lost someone really close and it made me realise we worry too much about the future and what the future holds. One thing we always seem to forget as people is the present and where we are now, trying to enjoy those moments because they don’t come back.

‘You live a moment and you can’t get it back again, and if you don’t enjoy them, it’s very hard to look back – you just remember what you did and not how it made you feel.

‘Before I worry about next year, I’ll reflect on the year I’ve just had.’

Strictly Come Dancing continues Saturday at 6.30pm on BBC One.

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