Scots Holby City star Joe McFadden would love to get his kilt on for Strictly’s Halloween week

STRICTLY COME DANCING’S Joe McFadden has told how he would love to don his kilt for a punk rock-inspired Halloween dance.

As the BBC One show’s spooky spectacular approaches, the Holby City actor said he would like to incorporate some of his Scottish heritage – if he makes it far enough into the competition.

With barely a day to go before he takes to the stage again with partner Katya Jones – this time taking on the Cha Cha – he told the Press Association: “I’d love to get a kilt on at some point, I think that would be quite fun – and everyone expects it.

“I would like to do it in a cool way, like a punk with leather and big boots, rather than like a shortbread tin. Get a Mohawk on, blue hair, stuff like that.”

The pair have already marked themselves out as show favourites, currently in third position on the leaderboard with a score of 32 following their stunning Viennese Waltz to Somewhere My Love, from Doctor Zhivago, on last weekend’s movie-themed episode.

But McFadden confessed that, while his body is getting used to the arduous training demands, he still struggles to remember the steps for each new dance.

“Going into it you don’t know if you are going to be able to get the steps in, and that’s my downfall, the thing that I find most difficult,” he said.

“The doing of them, sometimes I’m alright and sometimes I’m not so good, but it’s the learning, the thing that lets me down. We’ve worked out methods of getting the steps to go in and remember them.

But Jones assures him: “He just has a natural body ability, not just legs.

“I’m not saying it’s great, but there’s a potential that we keep trying to get at more and more. Once I see that he can do something I’m going to push that button – he has got to make it bigger and better every time.”

While McFadden’s “body ability” and technical skill have set him apart from Jones’s previous partner, Ed Balls, the star admitted that he looked up to his predecessor.

He explained: “Ed was better at (learning the steps).

“He really threw himself into it. He gave me (valuable words of advice)…just things like really committing to it and not being wishy-washy.

“Things like using the energy of the audience and playing to them as well, which I hadn’t really thought about because the thought of it scared me.”

Strictly Come Dancing continues on BBC One at 6.45pm on Saturday.

Strictly star Joe McFadden’s hoping for a very tappy birthday