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It takes a pretty special person to stand-in for Len Goodman on the judges table. Step forward Jennifer Grey who as Champion of Dancing with The Stars and Dirty Dancing royalty, will score our 10 remaining couples tonight...

Online presenter Nikki Dean managed to squeeze in a chat with Jennifer just before she took to her judging duties...

Jennifer Grey with Nicki Dean

Everyone has their favourite line from Dirty Dancing what's yours?

It has to be... "There are no books in Johnny's room"

Have you ever done the 'Time of Your Life Dance' since the film?

I never really did the dance after the film and the first time I ever did the lift was on the set that day and I never did it again - I just did the one take.

I've had the time of my life is one of the most popular first dance songs at weddings, what song did you do your first dance to?

(Sings) 'Baby, now that I've found you...' (laughs) I have to sing it to myself, it was 'Now that I've found you' by The Foundations.

Moving onto Strictly, which of the male professional dancers would you most like to dance with?

Pasha looks good, I've been concentrating so much on the contestants but I think he looks pretty good. He's about my size and he looks very fiery and his choreography is good.

When it comes to dancing who is your biggest inspiration?

I was really just blown away by Derek (Hough) and his dancing and I just wanted to live up to his previous partner, which was Nicole Scherzinger and it was just painful every time I saw one of her dances because I just thought 'How did that happen? How did she get there?'

Well of course you went on to win Dancing with the Stars with Derek and have starred in arguably the biggest dance movie ever, what career ambitions do you have left to achieve?

I have so many career achievements that I must do before I die, but I do know that I want to create a place where everybody can dance and experience the joy of dancing so I'm working on a project at the moment.

Can you give us any more details?

Next year (smiles)!

What was you favourite Dancing With The Stars moment?

I feel like the beginning was the best as the pressure hadn't gotten so intense that it became a misery. It's almost like there's cycles and the beginning was like the honeymoon phase, we're like 'this is so incredible I get to dance hours every day and I get to learn all these great dances' you have three weeks to learn basics of one dance. All of a sudden you're learning two dances a week with only three or four days to learn a whole routine. I was not into the pressure and learning things immediately as I'm a really slow study

When I was doing the Argentine tango that was one of the most painful weeks in rehearsal and the outcome was so exceptional that that was a real high for me.

How did it feel when you won Dancing with the Stars?

Winning at the end was amazing but I had ruptured a disc the night before in my freestyle so I was in the hospital the morning that I won in the operating room. I still had marks from the oxygen tubes on my face when I was in make up so I was a little like a zombie when I went out there. It was a little bit lacking what you think it might be as I think I was just running on fumes.

What would your advice be to this year's Strictly contestants having been on the journey yourself?

Go for it, push yourself, break out of the pack, look after your health and do nothing else. Nothing! Just dance and eat and sleep and dance and eat and sleep.

Have you kept up the dancing since?

I wish, no I have not but there's nearly no place to do it.

How are Strictly judges Len and Bruno perceived by American audiences on Dancing With The Stars?

They are beloved. They love booing Len and they scream with laughter at the hilarity of Bruno, I think they just love the show - they just love all of the bits of it.

And finally, who's your tip to win this year's Strictly?

I think Jason has a great shot, I think harry has a great shot, I think Holly has a great shot and I think Chelsee is the dark horse. As soon as she's done with Waterloo Road and can really devote herself to just dancing I think they're all going to really just look to their laurels.