Nadiya Bychkova and ‘inspirational’ BBC Strictly partner gear up for history-making moment in Christmas Special
Strictly Come Dancing professional Nadiya Bychkova may have been the first to leave this year’s series, but she will be back on the dancefloor soon for the show’s Christmas Special.
The 35-year-old has been partnered with racing driver Billy Monger for the one-off episode, and speaking ahead of their dancefloor debut, the pair talked about making history with yet another Strictly first.
The 25-year-old admitted he “couldn’t say no” when offered to do the show, adding he “thoroughly enjoyed it”.
Monger also works as a pundit and TV personality. At 18, he was badly hurt in a crash, which resulted in both his legs having to be amputated.
While he now uses prosthetic legs, it hasn’t stopped him from racing and won’t, it seems, stop him from dancing.
Monger is the first double-amputee contestant on the show, but it appears he and Bychkova were able to rise to the challenge.
“I know how inspirational Billy is for so many people,” Bychkova noted.
“And just knowing his story is incredible, so I remember that,” she added when asked about what she knew of her Christmas partner before they began training.”
Monger recently broke the Ironman record – the toughest endurance event in the world – for a double-amputee, and wasn’t given much time to process the victory before being invited to partake in the Christmas Special of Strictly.
“Obviously there was not much time because you had your recovery after Ironman,” Bychkova reflected.
Speaking to Dan Walker on Channel 5, she detailed the challenge the two of them had faced: “So we had a really short period.
“But with your prosthetics, I need to know what I can choreograph because on the show, we’ve never had anyone who’s a double amputee.
“And we were about to do a lovely dance and I go, ‘Ok, I need to know what I’m working with.’
“I said ‘let’s try this or that,’ and there wasn’t even once when Billy said, ‘No, I can’t do that.’
“We kind of worked it out together, and the start was so lovely and it just got better and better every day.”
Admitting he was hesitant to begin with, Monger explained once the training started “I wanted to do as much as I possibly could and throw myself into the whole experience that Strictly is.”
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Billy has scored podiums in British Formula 3 and followed in Lewis Hamilton’s footsteps by winning the Pau Grand Prix in European Formula 3.
Strictly’s history proves challenging circumstances don’t need to stand in the way of success, with this year’s winner Chris McCausland having taken part as the show’s first-ever blind contestant.
He and dance partner Dianne Buswell impressed the nation and the judges and ended up lifting the Glitterball Trophy last weekend.