Exclusive: Strictly star Jaime Winstone reveals dad Ray "cries" at her performances: 'He's so proud'

Strictly Come Dancing's Jaime Winstone has opened up about her dad Ray's reaction to her performances on the BBC One show, after the Nil by Mouth and Beowulf actor has been seen in the audience supporting his daughter.

Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, she said the famous 'hard man' actually welled up watching on the dancefloor with professional partner Carlos Gu.

"My dad loved it, my dad loved it!", she said.

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"He was, close to tears, very close to tears. There might have been a tear.... Ray Winstone cries!

"He absolutely was so proud of me and Carlos, what we achieved. He knows how nervous I get and what a big deal it was to dance to Bowie, to the Paso. It's a very confident dance. There's no way you can do it half-hearted. So I had a proper go at it.

"And he said to me, 'Just go out there and do it.' And we did. My mum was definitely crying."

She added that she was glad that the public seem to be enjoying her performances too, stating that she's "been sent the meme of me spinning about a hundred times".

"I just feel, I feel elated by it", she added. "It was something, it was a dream of mine to do something on that level, as Bowie, with Carlos, to his favourite dance, my favourite artist."

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Ray isn't the only famous dad who's been seen in the Strictly audience this season, as Danny Dyer has also popped down to the studio to support his daughter Dani, as well as Jaime, who he's known a long time.

She said the pairing of Danny and Ray "Very, very cute" and "very special".

"My dad and Danny are like father and son in some ways. They've worked together a few times, [and] we're all loving it. It's very nice."

Strictly Come Dancing continues tonight at 6.30pm on BBC One and iPlayer.

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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.