Flavia reveals how Strict she is with lazy Louis

Flavia reveals how Strict she is with lazy Louis
Flavia reveals how Strict she is with lazy Louis

Strictly Come Dancing hopeful Louis Smith has been frustrating his dance partner Flavia Cacace by having a lie down every quarter of an hour during rehearsals. She has grumbled that the gymnast is unable to concentrate during their practice sessions for the show and she has to act like his mother to keep him in check. In an interview for the Radio Times, Louis, 23, said he needed regular rests because he's carrying a number of injuries which affected him during the Olympics. He said: "People think that because I went to the Olympics I am superhuman, but I have a torn cartilage in my knee that needs an operation, a fractured ulna and swollen vertebrae in my back. "So every 15 minutes I'll have a lie down for five minutes." Flavia said: "I was in shock when he first curled up on the floor, pulled his hoodie over his head and asked me to give him five minutes in the middle of training." The silver medal-winning star is accompanied to training by his mother Elaine, who also brings him his lunch most days, but the dance pro said it means both of them are able to drag him off the floor to get him dancing again. Flavia said Louis needed other people to drive him on because he lacks motivation. The gymnast was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when he was a child. Flavia told Radio Times: "Unlike other sportsmen, Louis doesn't push himself - he needs someone to do it for him. "During training he'll start playing with the air-conditioning unit, check Twitter or stare out of the window. I feel a bit like his mum."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.