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Oti Mabuse is philosophical about coronavirus restrictions

Oti Mabuse is philosophical about the coronavirus restrictions facing the stars of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.

The 29-year-old professional dancer is being asked to go into quarantine by the BBC ahead of this year’s series, but Oti accepts it’s a necessary sacrifice to ensure the show goes ahead.

She said: "I think with everything happening, we’ve had to adjust and adapt these interesting times.

"We will all be quarantining because I think for most productions and most shows health safety is the most important thing.

"So we will be taking care of ourselves and all the pros will be quarantining to make sure we’re all fit and healthy to do the show."

Oti won the coveted ‘Strictly’ trophy alongside soap star Kelvin Fletcher in 2019, and she’s feeling excited ahead of the new series.

Asked if she’s feeling under pressure, Oti told ‘Lorraine’: "It’s exciting because I don’t actually know what I’m going to do.

"Am I going to fight for it again? Am I going to be chilled? I think it really depends on who I get because I don’t know yet.

"Either way, every single season for me is always that exciting, meeting someone new, getting to teach them how to dance and seeing how far we can go."

By contrast, Anton du Beke previously admitted he hopes that he and his co-stars will not have to quarantine in a hotel.

He said: "Potentially, we will end up in a hotel for a couple of weeks or a month. That’s what has been spoken about and has been provisionally pencilled in.

"Everything else is contingencies but we’re waiting for instructions and the situation is massively fluid at the moment, so we will see what happens.

"It will be lovely to be with my ‘Strictly’ family – they are terrific and I love them all – but without Hannah and the children will be difficult, especially after having all this time together.

"I’m hoping we’re not going to have to do it but we will wait and see."