Strictly Come Dancing’s Aston Merrygold hits back at his critics

Aston Merrygold has hit back at his critics on Strictly Come Dancing 2017.

Aston and pro partner Janette Manrara have been regularly scoring top marks from the judges.

But the pair – who are one of the favourites to win – have been accused of having an unfair advantage because of Aston’s boyband past.

However, Aston this week insisted he has no professional dance experience at all.

He told ITV’s Loose Women: “People assumed that I’m trained because I danced in a boyband before, but I’ve never stepped into a dance class, I’ve never had a teacher before.

“I just used to watch Michael Jackson videos and Justin Timberlake videos, stuff like that, and I used to just enjoy it.”

Chatting to Zoe Ball on It Takes Two previously, Aston also insisted he had no real advantage over the other celebs.

“Of course I’ve had dance experience , I was in a boy band and used to throw a few tricks around and backflips,” said Aston, who was also a judge on Sky1 show Got To Dance. “But I’ve never had training or college training or been to a dance class.

“It’s very different and Janette puts up with a lot. I’m slowly getting there, just trying to shift the bad habits.”

And proving he’s far from the perfect dancer, the show went on to reveal Aston DROPPING Janette in training.

Meanwhile, Aston revealed how his own mum gave him a critical review following the first live show.

While the judges awarded the JLS singer a hefty 31 points out of 40, his Strictly fan mother had a lot to say.

He said: “Strictly is her show, this is her show. She was like ‘This, this and this was okay, but Janette did this and you need to do this'”

Strictly Come Dancing 2017 airs this Saturday night on BBC One with its Halloween special.

Then on Sunday night, one more celebrity will be given the boot in the latest results show.