Strictly professional Katya Jones has revealed the message that Lewis Cope sent her on the morning of his TV dancing debut.
Cope, best known for his role as Nicky Milligan on Emmerdale, is one of the 15 celebrities taking to the dancefloor for the latest season of BBC’s flagship programme.
The actor, 30, and Jones wowed the judges with their moves during the first live show of the series last week, dancing the Jive to “Get Ready” by The Temptations.
Appearing on Strictly’s companion show It Takes Two on Wednesday (1 October), the duo reflected on their performance and the glowing feedback they received from the judges.
Jones, 36, told host Janette Manrara that Cope had been so excited about making his dancing debut that he had texted her at 4.29am: “Why does it feel like Christmas morning?”
Manrara agreed with the sentiment, responding that he’s in the “right ballpark” since Strictly takes place in the lead-up to the festive season.
Cope’s moves on Saturday (27 September) won over the judging panel, including the notoriously hard to impress Craig Revel Horwood who told him: “Very good – darling!”
Their success on the dancefloor landed them in joint first place on the leaderboard alongside Amber Davies and Nikita Kuzmin, and Karen Carney and Carlos Gu.

This weekend, the pair will be dancing the Viennese Waltz to Teddy Swims’s hit song “Lose Control”.
Cope became the early hero of this year’s series when he was brought in to replace Game of Thrones star Kristian Nairn who was forced to withdraw from the competition on medical grounds.
The actor, who made his stage debut at just 11 years old, playing Michael in the West End hit Billy Elliot: The Musical, had been walking down Oxford Street when he received the phone call to say he would be part of the show.
Also drafted in at the last minute was Amber Davies, who replaced fellow ex-Love Island star Dani Dyer after she fractured her ankle.
Davies’s involvement has been the subject of some controversy given her extensive experience in musical theatre.

Earlier this week, the wife of Strictly contestant Chris Robshaw expressed disapproval of the show’s more experienced competitors. Rugby player Robshaw found himself near the bottom of the leaderboard after the first live show.
Robshaw’s wife Camilla Kerslake agreed with Love Island star Amber Gill’s social media complaint about the “unfair” gap in experience among the show’s competitors.
The classical crossover singer wrote: “The experience differences are absolutely wild. Definitely.”
Davies recently defended herself from backlash on It Takes Two, stating: “Ballroom and Latin are worlds apart from what I’ve experienced on a West End stage, you know”. She called them completely different techniques.
Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday on BBC One at 6.20pm.
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