Strictly’s Oti Mabuse has joked that she feared for her life during a complicated lift with celebrity partner Kelvin Fletcher.

The pair showed off the tricky move in their routine on the BBC show at the weekend. They had rehearsed an even harder version but had to simplify it a little on the night.

When she appeared on spin-off It Takes Two, Mabuse was asked by host Zoe Ball if she was fearing for her life, and admitted: “I was!”

She explained: “With Kelvin, every week he starts really slow and then he progresses incredibly, so when we were doing it we were doing it really slow and I was like, ‘How about we do this, you have your hands up and I have my hands up?’

“On Wednesday he gets faster and I almost fly across the room! I was like, ‘Oh my God’.

“So we had to adjust it.”

“That was scary,” she added.

The pair are now gearing up for Blackpool Week – one of the highlights of the competition.

Fletcher said he could not believe he had made it there after coming into the show late to replace injured Made In Chelsea star Jamie Laing.

He said: “I wasn’t even supposed to be here. I’m here and I’m going to Blackpool.

“I’ve had that many holidays in Blackpool being from the North West … and Blackpool was the holiday destination. Amazing place.

“I’ve been to the Tower Ballroom before, my nan and grandad watched people dance and now I’m going to be dancing there with Oti Mabuse!”

“It’s unbelievable, I could never have imagined it,” he added.