Ricky Whittle & Natalie Lowe: Video and bios of the Strictly contestants

• Week 10: American Smooth - 36 / 40

• Week 9: Jive - 35 / 40

• Week 8: Tango - 35 / 40

• Week 7: Quickstep - 39 / 40

• Week 6: Samba - 32 / 40

• Week 5: Viennese waltz - 36 / 40

• Week 4: Quickstep - 32 / 40

• Week 3: Quickstep - 35 / 40

• Week 2 - Show 2: Rumba - 32 / 40

• Week 2 - Show 1: Waltz - 33 / 40

View our weekly scoreboards gallery to see where Ricky was placed.

You can join our Message Board to discuss Ricky's progress too. danceitagaing said: "I think Ricky was the best on the night ...yes, the lift was out of place, but the rest of the dance WOW...absolutely beautiful . He deserved 36."

He’s hoping to look just as impressive on the Strictly dance floor and would love to receive a perfect 40 from the Strictly judges.

Ricky was born in Oldham. His father was in the RAF which resulted in the family travelling to numerous different bases around the world.

He excelled in many sports at school, particularly impressing at football, representing his country at youth level several times. Despite being scouted by both Arsenal and Celtic, an injury ended any hopes he had to pursue a professional career and so Ricky began a four year law degree at Southampton University. Whilst there he began modelling, securing some high profile campaigns.

In 2002, he successfully auditioned for Sky One's Dream Team and played bad boy Ryan Naysmith. He enjoyed the filming experience so much that he decided to forgo his career in the law courts and opted instead to pursue a career on screen.

In 2006 he joined to cast of Channel 4's Hollyoaks and has set many hearts fluttering as good boy turned bad, Calvin Valentine. He has been nominated several times for sexiest male at various soap awards, no doubt helped by his many scenes featuring him in nothing but scantily clad underwear and Heat magazine Torso of the Week features!

Natalie’s mother and father weren’t dancers, apart from the occasional shuffle around the kitchen table, but she was encouraged by her neighbours to start ballroom dancing at three years old. She started out at the local Seven Hills RSL club in 1985.

Natalie had her first try out in 1986 with Jonathon Doone and she started competing straight away. She later decided she wanted to dance with her brother Glenn, even though he was 5 years older than her. So she missed out most of her junior years to dance with him and went straight to the adult category.

They competed in small, intensive trips overseas and had lessons from some of the world’s best teachers. Natalie was planning to move to Europe to further her dance education and training, but due to a family illness she stayed in Australia.

What she didn’t realise at the time was that this would be the start of her ‘Strictly’ story, as she was picked to be a regular dancer on ‘Dancing With The Stars’ there. Series 7 is her first on the UK's Strictly Come Dancing.