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 camara-derie and banter and silliness and the naughtiness all just went bang, and I think, at that moment, we knew we had some-thing. (Laughs) It may not have been dancing, but it was defi-nitely something.

Pasha: The dancing was great as well.

Brendan: I think the energy between us had something very unique that perhaps other shows didn’t have and I think that was key to the success of it.

How do you keep fit?