Greg Wise has admitted nerves got the better of him before his final 'Strictly Come Dancing' performance.
Greg Wise and Karen Hauer
The 55-year-old actor - who is married to Hollywood actress Emma Thompson - has confessed he felt some anxiety creep up on him out of nowhere just moments before he and pro partner Karen Hauer performed for the final time last weekend.
In a piece for the Daily Telegraph newspaper, he wrote: "Well, I have to confess, that was a bit of a shock to the system.
“How odd is the human mind? I hadn’t felt any form of anxiety on any of the previous weeks, but for some reason I was very suddenly, very, very nervous as I stood on the ballroom floor waiting for the dance to be announced. I could hardly form a pucker to blow my conch.
“The weirdest thing was that I knew it so well. We were dancing the Samba in its entirety by Wednesday. We must have done it 30 times without any mistakes, but all of that went out of the window as I set off on the wrong foot.
"It’s a horrible feeling - like one of those dreams when you’re on the Tube wearing nothing but a short vest.”
Karen and Greg became were eliminated from this year's 'Strictly' after scoring only 19 points for their Samba to 'Macarena', and following his exit, Greg downed a large whiskey.
He added: “'Strictly' is such a fascinating show. It’s a dance competition, but it seems to me to be about so much more.
“Every Saturday we witness a myriad of possibilities in the minds and bodies of the participants, see their self-belief either grow or (like me) crumble suddenly, watch as people experience mind-boggling levels of exposure, unforeseen triumphs and terrifying moments of messing-up, and all in front of eight million people.
“I sat in the garden with a large whiskey when I got home after the show and couldn’t quite believe what I’d just lived.”
Tagged in Emma Thompson Greg Wise