Strictly Come Dancing contestant  Davood Ghadami has shrugged off judges’ comments about chemistry with his dance partner.

Bruno Tonioli compared the EastEnders’ actor’s samba with pro dancer  Nadiya Bychkova to a “race to the bedroom”.

But Ghadami, 35,  who has been married for seven years, told The Sun: “After you dance that dance, it’s all a bit of a blur but I always felt Bruno’s comments were in relation to the story of that dance.

“We decided to go for a story that involves a couple meeting at a library and becoming an item.”

The actor, best known as market trader Kush Kazemi in EastEnders, dismissed the so-called Strictly curse and suggested he was too tired for sex, saying that “even my most basic needs are overlooked”.

Asked if he is on a self-inflicted sex ban with his wife because he is so exhausted, he joked: “It’s maybe an IOU. You know in the back of your mind that, worst case scenario, it’s to the middle of December and not forever.”

Ghadami was in the dance-off last weekend against Charlotte Hawkins, who became the latest celebrity to leave the BBC1 show.