Strictly feels even better the second time around

Aljaz is back not to lift trophy but to make beautiful TV | Tasha wants to use reignited love of dance to inspire

- NICOLA METHVEN

HIS return to the day job could not have gone any smoother after Aljaz Skorjanec landed a perfect score with Tasha Ghouri on Strictly Come Dancing last weekend.

The dance partners became the first pair of the series to get 40 points following their flawless American Smooth after inspiring Craig Revell Horwood to dust off his 10-paddle.

Fan favourite Aljaz, 34, was not even in the 20th-anniversary series until a few weeks before it launched, having quit following a nine-year stint in 2022.

Drafted in at the eleventh hour when Graziano di Prima was axed by the BBC over his behaviour towards previous celeb partner Zara McDermott, it would be understandable if Aljaz felt a little on the back foot.

But, flashing that ear-to-ear grin, he says that becoming the first pro dancer in the show's history to be invited back has made him incredibly happy.

"I replaced nobody," he declares. "I felt like coming back. I decided myself to step away, and I came back into my own dancing shoes. And I'm still doing Strictly exactly the same way as I did before I left.

"And I'm really happy.

I'm proud of it." Aljaz, 34, says he has seen scores of pro dancers come and go over the years in fact, Karen Hauer is the only one who is still there from when he started the programme in 2013.

"I have always tried to do Strictly in my own positive way, focused on my celebrities 100 per cent of the time," he says.