Ellie Leach has addressed the fact she’s the outright frontrunner to win this year’s Strictly Come Dancing after topping the leaderboard yet again this past weekend.
Alongside pro partner Vito Coppola, Leach has earned plaudit after plaudit thanks to her show-stopping performances on the Strictly dance floor.
At the start of the series, Leach was priced as a rank outsider to lift the Glitterball, with the likes of Bobby Brazier, Layton Williams and Nigel Harman all dominating the market in the early stages.
But with the final now just a few weeks away, Leach is odds-on with a majority of bookmakers to emerge from the finale as Strictly Come Dancing champion.
And she did little to dent her chances this past weekend after she and Coppola topped the leaderboard with their intense Argentine Tango, scoring an impressive 38.
It was Angela Scanlon and Williams who landed in the dance-off with the latter being saved by three of the judges – although Shirley Ballas sparked rift rumours by admitting she’d have saved Scanlon.
Speaking to former pro-turned-It Takes Two host Janette Manrara, the pair have spoken out on the odds and the fanfare they’ve received – although admit they aren’t looking beyond Musicals Week this coming weekend.
Ellie and Vito’s Argentine Tango earned them top spot on the leaderboard in Week 10
BBC
Manara said to the pair on Wednesday: “Top of the leaderboard, fourth time now guys, this is amazing!
“Do you think that the public perception of you being a dark horse has led you to be favourites? What do we think?”
The pair ummed and ahhed as they took a moment to ponder the question before Coppola replied: “Honestly, I don’t know because we are always really every week focussed on the dance and we never ever, ever speak about the next week before the end of this week for example in this case.
“So we are very grateful towards all the people who support us. They are so lovely, they send the love, the comments, messages, they really support us a lot and we feel the love and we’re very, very grateful for this.”
Refusing to entertain the possibility of lifting the Glitterball ahead of the quarter-finals, Leach echoed her partner’s response.
“Yeah, we really are (grateful),” Leach weighed in. “And having that support just makes us wanna do better every week.
“So we just really focus on going from week to week,” she added.
Leach will be hoping to avoid the dance-off this weekend and in order to do so, she and Coppola will be taking on a Quickstep to Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola are favourites to win the series
BBC
However, they face an uphill struggle as Manrara pointed out the Quickstep is yet to receive a single score of 10 from any of the judges so far in this series.
If the odds are anything to go by, however, Leach should be safe from elimination this weekend – although fans are fearful for one star, in particular, because of the routine and song choice they’ve been given.
Brazier and Dianne Buswell will tackle a Salsa to the classic tune of (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life from Dirty Dancing.
But the routine has come under fire before the pair have even hit the dance floor with some fans fearing the overuse of the song previously could hinder Brazier.
