Judge Rinder is terrified of dropping his partner Oksana Platero.
The 38-year-old criminal judge – whose full name is Robert Rinder – is busy rehearsing for this weekend’s performance on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ in the hope he will walk away with the 2016 Mirrorball trophy, but he has admitted he’s worried the routine could go "horribly wrong" and he will injure his professional dance partner.
Speaking on the Absolute Radio Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show on Friday (30.09.16), the ‘Judge Rinder’ host said: "I’m doing something called an American smooth which involves all sorts of things including various lifts, which I’m a bit alarmed about because frankly it could all go horribly wrong. I can’t imagine it ending terribly well for me if I drop poor Oksana."
And Judge Rinder has revealed his nerves are also on edge because he is "completely terrified" of Oksana when she shouts at him, which is her tactic to make him work harder.
He said: "Never underestimate the enormous power and creative output when you’ve got somebody who completely terrifies you."
But it hasn’t made a blind bit of difference to his concentration during rehearsals for the BBC One show.
He explained: "You’re supposed to do rather a lot of training, sort of six or seven hours really but I can only take so much in. I read books fairly quickly and get bored after a while and there’s only so much shouting she can do at me before I sort of flip into a coma."
And it’s not just his mental state that’s taking a battering. He has also revealed he can barely walk following his last performance, where he twirled around so much he almost ended up on Bruno Tonioli’s lap.
He said: "I’m walking around like a slightly strange combination of John Wayne [legs wide apart] at the moment because I can barely walk. It’s a disaster. The audience should watch tomorrow just to see what’s going to happen through their fingers."