Strictly's Gorka Marquez talks 'most challenging' part of show after major change-up

Edinburgh Live

15-06-2025

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Gorka Marquez, who rose to fame as a Strictly Come Dancing professional, has become a regular face on British telly, popping up again on ITV tonight for Soccer Aid, ahead of his return to the dance floor in the autumn. But it was a TV appearance in his native Spain that made Gorka realise that he might have become slightly too British.
Speaking to Digital Spy, Gorka revealed that Spanish audiences complained about having trouble understanding him.
He explained that, when he appeared as a judge on Spanish TV's version of Strictly, Bailando con las Estrellas, audiences accused him of "putting on an English accent".
"The most challenging thing was speaking Spanish," he said. "I get so many comments from people saying, 'Why is he putting on an English accent if he's Spanish?' and I'm like, 'I'm not putting on an English accent, this is how I speak Spanish now'."
(Image: Mike Marsland, Mike Marsland/WireImagevia Getty Images)
He added that, while Brits might see him as having quite a strong Spanish accent, for Spaniards, he sounds more like an American trying to speak Spanish.
Gorka, who was born in the northern city of Bilbao, explained that having worked on Strictly in the UK for almost a decade, when he thinks about the technicalities of dance, he tends to use English words.
"Most of the time, [when] I speak about dancing it's in English, so when I help to judge them and I have to make a sentence, I translate it from English to Spanish."
(Image: BBC/Guy Levy)
He added that while it was a bit of a "challenge" to make the switch from dancer to judge, he really enjoyed his Bailando con las Estrellas experience. He said that it felt like suddenly switching from being a football player to a team manager, when all you want to do is to go back out and play.
However, he added, UK Strictly fans can look forward to a good few more years of his fancy footwork: "I want to keep dancing, so in the UK I'll stick to dancing,"
Gorka's wife, British actress Gemma Atkinson, complains that, with his Spanish TV role adding to his Strictly commitments, he's rarely at home with her and their two children: "He's never here" she said, "It's Strictly from July to December, if they get a partner, they're based where their partner is in the week. Obviously London at the weekend."
(Image: Carlos Alvarez, Getty Images)
Generally, professional dancers will travel to where ever their celebrity partners are based for midweek practice. Gemma says she always watches the first show of every series with keen interest, hoping that whoever Gorka is partnered with will live near their family home.
She explained: "So every time the line-up's announced, all I do, I think, 'I don't care who it is, I just Google where they live.' If they're in Manchester, I'm like, 'great'."
Gemma herself competed on the show in 2017, but was dancing with Aljaz Skorjanec, while Gorka was partnered with former X Factor winner Alexandra Burke.
Gemma keeps pretty busy herself, with appearances on reality shows such as I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! and Celebrity MasterChef. But as an actress, she's known for her appearances as Lisa Hunter in Hollyoaks, before leaving that show and going to play Carly Hope in Emmerdale.