Former Strictly pro dancer Brendan Cole says he’s “proud” of the way Pete Wicks has progressed on this year’s show and is hoping he can now go all the way.
Despite being at the bottom of the leaderboard after making a number of mistakes last weekend and the bookies’ favourite to get the boot, the 38-year-old former The Only Way Is Essex star sailed through to the next round after avoiding the dance-off following the public vote
He will now go head-to-head with JB Gill, Sarah Hadland, Chris McCausland and Tasha Ghouri in the semi-finals.
While certainly not the strongest remaining dancer in the competition, he clearly has a lot of people backing him, including Cole, who served as a professional dancer on the hit BBC dance competition from from 2004 until 2018.
Speaking to The Standard on behalf of Sky Vegas, he said: “I hope he [Pete Wicks] wins it – his time on the show has almost been Strictly perfect. He was absolutely terrible at the start and has been getting better week upon week. He had a bit of a rough night in terms of forgetting his routine, going off on the wrong foot technically.
“His time on the show has been a proper journey. He’s still there and people are still loving what he is doing, myself included. You also don’t just want to see all the people with dance training there at the end.”
Cole’s advice to him going forward is to keep on doing what he’s doing and he has even expressed an interest in working with him in the future.
He said: “Pete is doing exactly what he needs to do. As a dancer – and as a former professional on the show – I'd love to work with him but what Jowita [Przystał] has been doing with him is brilliant. She is absolutely sensational to be able to get them to where he is, so I actually wouldn’t want to interfere.
“I feel really proud of him and what he's achieved. I feel proud of all of them with what they've achieved, because there has been some pretty good [numbers] on the show.”
