Ed Balls shared his experience of undergoing professional dancer Katya Jones’ ‘brutal’ coaching on Strictly Come Dancing on Monday morning.
The Good Morning Britain host shared the insight into his one Strictly stint after Tony Adams appeared to be having a ‘heated argument’ with Katya during the closing moments of Saturday's live show.
The former footballer, 56, had made a string of mistakes during his Salsa and ended up at the bottom of the leaderboard with Katya, 33.
Good Morning Britain played a clip of the moment when Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly were wrapping up the show, as host Susanna Reid noted it ‘looked like they were having a bit of a frustrated conversation’.
Tony could be seen speaking and gesturing to the pro dancer, who had her back to the camera.
Ed replied saying of the moment: “I think that was Katya doing Katya-style coaching. In my experience, it can be brutal. She’s really tough. She’s a world champion.”
Susanna said: “They’re all sweetness and light right at the end,” as Katya and Tony held hands and smiled at the moment when the show’s stars tell the audience to ‘Keep dancing’ in the closing moments.
Reminiscing, Ed continued: “There was one moment we were practising the jive and she was so brutal to me I had to go and stand in the kitchen for five minutes, while Neil said to her, ‘Katya, he’s only got so much bounce’.
“I was doing my best bounce! Of course she had a point. There was another time she said, ‘We’re not going to move on until you’ve done this right 30 times’. And I said, ‘Katya, I can't do it that many times’.
“She said, ‘I've been coming in every day for 20 years, doing the same moves. I can still be better and you can do this for three days. So get over yourself and get on with it right now’ – and I did. Pretty tough.”
Susanna replied smiling: “You’ve dealt with some of the toughest politicians in history, but it was Katya who reduced you to standing in the corner and feeling sorry for yourself.”
Tony and Katya were hoping to improve on their highest scores from last week with a Salsa to 'I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)' by Pitbull.
However, the pair received mixed remarks from the judging panel for the performance.
Speaking to Claudia afterwards, Tony said: “I was too busy having fun! The crowd was all up and it was great, then I looked down there and thought, ‘Oh sugar, what's going on there?’
“I looked at her face and she went, ‘Oh my god’”. Katya then admitted she had shouted at the former football star to ‘focus’ during the performance.
