Is Natalie too Strict for Scott? (VIDEO)

Scott Maslen has admitted that training for Strictly Come Dancing has been a painful process. The EastEnders star said professional dance partner Natalie Lowe is really putting him through his paces as he prepares to show off his moves on TV. He confessed: "It's extremely hard work. It's all the cliches. You see the shows and think 'yeah right'. But when you're in there doing six hours a day with a world champion and you haven't got an idea what you're doing and it's a whole new skill set... I'm having ups and downs, but we're getting there and I'm enjoying the process, as painful as it can be." The actor, who picked up the Sexiest Male gong at Monday's bash, detailed his injuries so far as tight hamstrings and sore knees. "We're all over the place, she's testing me out," he added. However, he denied that Australian Natalie has moved into his family home, as reports had suggested was on the cards "Nat comes round our house quite a lot with me and my wife. We end up eating together because we're doing so much," he explained. Watch Scott and Natalie's dance practice ahead of their first live show

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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.