Strictly's Giovanni Pernice and Rose Ayling-Ellis delight fans with reunion

Virgin Radio

18 Sep 2023, 14:13

As Strictly Come Dancing returns to our screens, one of the most iconic duos in the show’s history have shared a sweet reunion video.

While professional dancer Giovanni Pernice has been paired with actress Amanda Abbington in the new series, which kicked off at the weekend, he hasn’t forgotten his old pal, Rose Ayling-Ellis. 

Giovanni hung out with his partner from the 2021 series, and shared their reunion on Instagram.

The pair won the famous glitterball trophy two years ago and, in doing so, delivered one of the all-time greatest moments in the hit BBC show’s history with their Couple’s Choice dance to Symphony by Clean Bandit, during which the music stopped and they danced in silence.

The routine raised awareness for the Deaf community.

On his Instagram Stories, the Strictly pro posted a video of two shadows, and asked followers: “Who is this?”

He then posted another clip, revealing that he was with the former EastEnders star. In a follow-up video, the actor says: “Hello, Giovanni wanted me to do a video saying, yes it is me.” She then joked, “My name is Rebecca,” to the confusion of the dancer.

“Who? Rebecca?” Giovanni said, before adding: “Hi Rose.” 

“My name is Rebecca!” she said again, before Giovanni teased her that she had food in her teeth (she didn’t).

All of the pairings for this year’s Strictly were revealed over the weekend, as the new series got going. Member of the Virgin Radio family, Angela Scanlon is teaming up with Carlos Gu.

 Angela Rippon will be with Kai Widdrington, Les Dennis and Nancy Xu are a team, as are Annabel Croft and Johannes Radebe. See the full pairings here.

Hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman are back at the helm, with judges Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood, and Motsi Mabuse dishing out the scores.

Watch Strictly Come Dancing on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.