Strictly Come Dancing's Will Mellor has revealed he's been "in bits" since rehearsals for the next show. On Monday's installment of Strictly - It Takes Two, which aired on November 7 on BBC Two, the actor spoke about his upcoming performance, which will take place on Saturday, November 12, the song he'll be dancing to and the emotional attachment he has to it.
Telling the BBC2 show's host, Rylan Clark - who revealed the song Will and Nancy Xu will be dancing the waltz to is Three Times a Lady by the Commodores - Will revealed this particular number was a favourite of his late dad and one he used to play for his mum.
Speaking of how the rehearsals are going so far - just a few hours in - the 46-year-old actor said: "It's tough, it's good. It's a very emotional song for me. It means a lot to me this song so it's been an emotional day, it has been a bit of a cloud. She's been trying to teach me but I've not been myself."
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Having been asked whether or not he'd been emotional for personal reasons, Will told Rylan: "It's the song my dad used to play to my mum. I didn't choose the song they just sort of said do you want to do it. But it's just absolutely... It means a lot."
He added: "What's very strange is, when you go through grief, you think you can talk about things and you think you can hear songs... then all of a sudden it hits you like a ton of bricks and this routine, I was dancing with her today and it just ... I was in bits."
"But you know what, it will be an honour on the night to do it and I just hope I can hold it together because today I've been all over the place."
The Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps star lost his dad Bill in 2020 - shortly after he was diagnosed with cancer - and he has spoken previous about this being part of the reason he joined the dancing show.
He told Hello! earlier this year: "I have been asked [to do the show] before and it scared me. Doing anything like this scared me. I was worried it would have a negative impact on my acting career and then I lost my dad in 2020 and my mindset completely changed.
"I just thought you've got to grab life. You've got to do things and I'm going to say yes to more stuff and create memories and that really is what life's about. And you realise that when you start losing people and that this is what life's about."
Will came joint sixth place with Ellie Simmonds - who on Sunday, November 7, became the latest celebrity to leave the show - on Saturday night's leaderboard, earning a whopping 33 points.
Speaking of achieving this score, he told Rylan this evening: "Honestly, I can't, we can't control the scores. I thought I did the best I could. I look at Nancy when I finish the dance and I thought, if she's happy, if my teacher is happy, then that's all that matters. Because I know I've done her proud and that's all I can do. I can't change them. I hope they would be better but I always want to be better than I am because that's what I do. I try and push myself and see how far I can go and I'm loving this journey."
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC1 on Saturday, November 12. Strictly It Takes Two returns every weekday at 6.30pm on BBC2.
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