When you get that big cheer it's like, 'ha ha, it's my night'

It's the return of the Strictly Legends as MARION McMULLEN checks out the backstage banter with dance stars Pasha Kovalev and Brendan Cole

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All of us - Brendan, James Jordan, Vincent Simone, Ian Waite and myself - have toured and been quite successful, but we had never experienced it together, so last year we took a chance and it was nice to see our fans are still there. We absolutely loved it.

Brendan: It was interesting to see. On paper the concept looked quite good and when we got together for the first photo shoot the camaraderie and banter and silliness and the naughtiness all just went bang, and I think, at that moment, we knew we had something. (Laughs) It may not have been dancing, but it was definitely something.

Pasha, you met your wife Rachel Riley on Strictly and you now have two young daughters. Do they enjoy dancing?

They dance around and go to a little ballet class and they absolutely love it. I really enjoy watching them dancing. It’s funny because being in the dance system all my life, before I had children, I would see kids perform and their parents saying ‘oh, it's the best thing ever’ and I would be ‘What are you talking about?’ But now, looking at my girls, I understand it from the parents’ perspective.

Pasha: The dancing was great as well.