Vincent Simone gets asked back to ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ every year – but he won’t return because the show has changed too much.
The dancing professional – who has his own tour show, ‘The Last Tango’, with dance partner Flavia Cacace since leaving the BBC One show in 2013 – claims producers invite them to return for each series but he didn’t like the way the programme was trying to be like America’s ‘Dancing with the Stars’.
He said: "The most important thing was that when I was involved in it there was only me, my partner and the music, nothing else.
"If I’m teaching you to dance people need to see you, what you’ve learnt – get involved with what we’ve created in the week.
"It works in America because in America everything is big, but I don’t know. I think there was something about the simplicity of just a man and a woman dancing, in my opinion.
"Everything changed, so we thought – that’s it, it’s perfect to leave now."
Vincent doesn’t think it would be right to return to ‘Strictly’ because there is a "younger" team of professional dancers nowadays so it wouldn’t feel the same.
He explained: "Now these guys are much younger and they are a little team now because they know each other, that’s like I had my own team, so it wouldn’t be the same, I think."
However, the star still has plenty of fond memories from his time dancing on the show without too many special effects.
He added to the Sun Online: "I used to love it – especially when I made the final with Rachel Stevens, that was just me and her and the music and you get drawn into what we’re doing and you don’t have a car or a train, dogs … So that was the best time. I was lucky to be part of [it]."