Charles Venn and Karen Clifton felt a "huge sense of elation" to avoid the bottom two on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ last weekend.
The former ‘EastEnders’ actor and his professional partner scored 36 for their own choice of a street dance on the show a few days ago and their impressive performance meant they did not have to battle it out in the dance off for the first time in three weeks and the pair were overjoyed with their result.
Charles said: "Being in the bottom two for the last couple of weeks, there was a lot of pressure and expectation, we were doing a new category, new dance, it was a huge amount of pressure.
"We felt a wonderful sense of elation, it was amazing."
Karen admitted her partner is "very emotional" and he’s found it particularly tough going into the first few days of rehearsals after the live shows.
She said: "He is very emotional and that’s a lot people don’t see, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays, they’re the hardest days of the week when he has to learn everything.
"It was hard for us to pick ourselves up. It’s a lovely thing not being in the bottom two but you have to pick yourself up and think positive."
This year’s competition has been overshadowed by the kiss between Seann Walsh and his professional partner Katya Jones but Karen insists she and Charles have been able to ignore the gossip as they’re so focused on their own performance.
Asked about the scandal, she told Carol Vorderman on ‘Lorraine’: "We’ve been in the bottom two so that’s all we’ve been focusing on, I don’t even know who I am, all were thinking is how we’re going to deal with our dance, its hard to focus on anything else that’s going on."
And the 45-year-old actor refuses to compare his performances to any of the other contestants as he’d rather just focus on himself.
Asked who he views as his biggest competition, he said: "This is a hackneyed saying but I feel like my biggest competition is myself, that’s not bragging but if you’re putting pressure on to measure up to that contestant or that one, its going to affect how I perform, its counterproductive, we want to just do the best we can."
Charles Venn elated to avoid bottom two
