By Liam de Brun

Copyright manchestereveningnews

Strictly Come Dancing’s Claudia Winkleman called out Amy Dowden’s reaction to one of her dance partner Thomas Skinner’s comments. The annual BBC dancing competition returned for its 23rd season on Saturday night (September 20) with a pre-recorded launch show. It was a night where all 15 of the famous faces taking part, learned which of the professional dancers they’d be paired up with. Amy previously underwent treatment for breast cancer and shared her diagnosis publicly after being given the news in May 2023. After finding a lump the day before her honeymoon with fellow dancer Ben Jones, Amy had to undergo a single mastectomy before having chemotherapy treatment. In February 2024, the 34-year-old announced she had ‘no evidence of disease’ following tests and later made her return to the hit BBC dance show for its 20th-anniversary series last year. Sadly, Amy was forced to pull out of the series, where she was paired with JLS’ JB Gill, due to picking up a foot injury. The 2025 launch show saw Amy back on the programme, with it revealed that she would be teaching The Apprentice’s Thomas the art of dance. It’s been a frantic few weeks in the run-up to Thomas’ Strictly debut, with him walking out of an interview ahead of the show and later admitting that he had a ‘fling”, despite being married to his wife Sinead. Thomas , who has three children with his wife, said in the video interview with the Sun on Sunday: “I’m just so lucky that she forgave me. When I told my wife, I fully understood if she were to never speak to me again. “It just shows you that 10 minutes can just ruin your whole life”. He added: “I had a fling, I suppose, it was nothing more than that, it was the one time, it was a mistake, then I woke up feeling absolutely terrible about it.” Appearing on Strictly for the first time, Thomas told Claudia that he is ‘over the moon’ to be working with fan favourite Amy. “Amy is a legend, inspirational and hopefully she can teach me a few moves because I’m useless,” he said. Asked about the ‘perfect Strictly breakfast’, he replied: “The best breakfast, we go down to Dino’s cafe nice and early before we get started. “Get your spicy Korean noodles with the chicken breast, poached eggs, a little bit of tabasco sauce and we never look when we pour. If you don’t fancy that, we’ll have the sunshine chicken curry.” Amy proceeded to pull a shocked face in front of the camera, only for Claudia to point it out in front of the other stars in the room. “This is always such a lovely moment where everyone goes ‘I’m so happy’. Look at Amy,” The Traitors presenter said. Replying directly to Thomas, Amy noted: “I really hope your food doesn’t repeat while you dance. Latin is so close, you know that don’t you?” Prior to Amy emerging, Thomas was asked by Tess Daly on why he views himself as ‘an underdog’ to win the series . He explained: “I do feel like the underdog, the only dancing I’ve done is at weddings after a couple of beers. I’m not the best of dancers, I’ve got two left feet, but I will give it my all. “I’ll give it 110%, I’ll try my hardest and I will learn… I’m struggling a little bit because they’ve stuck me in a tube thing and I’m struggling to breathe.”