Strictly Come Dancing‘s Dr Punam is becoming more and more nervous, while Gorka Marquez is contemptuous of insults directed at the couple, according to body language expert Darren Stanton.
Fans on Twitter have become convinced that the pair will be the next act to be eliminated on tonight’s results show. Meanwhile, the behavioural expert, who spoke on behalf of Betfair, told of how he sees things playing out behind the scenes.
“With Gorka and Punam, we could see them in trouble this weekend,” he agreed, echoing the sentiment some viewers have expressed. “During last week’s show, Gorka didn’t like it when Craig said the routine was ‘sloppy’ – he took it as an insult and flashed an expression of contempt.
“He also voiced how he felt, and said, ‘She’s a GP, not a dancer’, defending the comments. Punam has been super confident from the outset, but I feel in the last week or so, we’ve seen a decrease in illustrators e.g. her facial expressions.”
He added that she “flashes fear and nerves quite a lot”, with a dramatic increase in these emotions over the last couple of weeks. “She’s become less confident in what she’s doing,” he suggested, “and shows an internal feeling that she knows she will struggle.”
Meanwhile, Dr Punam’s desire to succeed is all the more intense due to her feeling the need to please her parents, who originally immigrated from Punjab to Glasgow.
She revealed that her dad had been in tears watching her on the BBC show and that her portrayal of a Bollywood movie star had been poignant for them.
The BBC Morning Live star also admitted to the Herald that both parents had “worried” about her losing her connection with her Indian heritage, due to growing up in a “wildly different culture”.
Movie Week had been a chance for her to reconnect with those early roots.