Debbie McGee says Strictly Come Dancing has given her strength after Paul Daniel’s death

Debbie McGee says Strictly Come Dancing has given her back ‘sparkle’ following husband Paul Daniels’ death last year.

Debbie’s late partner Paul passed away in 2016 after taking part in the BBC One show himself back in 2010.

Now Debbie says the show has helped give her “strength” and reckons Paul would have wanted her to take part in his memory.

“I think he knew I had it in me,” she said.

Speaking to The Sun newspaper, Debbie added: “I was still very upset and feeling much weaker as a person. Strictly came at the right time when I was getting back to being Debbie.

“When Paul died I completely lost my sparkle. Strictly has given me my strength and the feeling of happiness back.”

Debbie is one of the favourites to win Strictly Come Dancing this year and last night scored the highest marks of the series.

Her Tango left Debbie top of the leaderboard with a perfect score of 40, the first celeb to score all tens from the judges.

But Debbie’s success has not been without controversy; some viewers have claimed that the Graduate of The Royal Ballet School shouldn’t be competing on the show.

However Debbie hit back at the idea her previous training would help her.

“I had ballet training over 30 years ago, it’s so opposite to anything I have ever done,” she told ITV’s This Morning. “The thing is, it’s so different to ballroom and Latin. I’ve never done anything like this. “

Debbie went on: “I danced over thirty years ago, I would describe it as a bit like if you asked a footballer to go and do something else thirty years later.

“It’s a completely different muscle, when you’re older, any muscle that stayed a bit trained from 30 years ago I’ve now got to untrain that, which is hard.”

Strictly Come Dancing 2017 is back on Sunday night on BBC One.