Lisa Riley has admitted that she struggles with the slower ballroom routines on Strictly Come Dancing.

The former Emmerdale actress topped the leaderboard on the first show of the series with her energetic cha cha cha and last weekend, came in second place after her quick paced jive. Her waltz in week two did receive positive comments from the judges, but not quite the rave reviews that came after her her other two.

Lisa has revealed that she finds the faster dances easier to learn and better to perform and confessed that she will need ‘a bit more time’ to master the more controlled routines.

She said:
“I struggle more with the ballroom, as do a lot of us, the fast stuff suits my personality more. The ballroom is going to take a bit more time.”

Riley has seen her odds of winning the show slashed by bookies in recent weeks, after her surprisingly good performances on the first few shows, however she’s not counting her chicks before they’ve hatched and laughed:

“There is the biggest mountain to climb and within that mountain there is a whole lot of ballroom. You can’t say what’s going to happen…it would be amazing but I am just enjoying everything week by week.”

In fact if she had to pick who she thinks will win the series this December, her name wouldn’t be on the list and she added:

“If I called my top thee, I’d go Kim, Den, Louis.”

Meanwhile, Lisa also revealed that she is glad to be flying the flag for larger women on the BBC dance show. The actress has dropped four dress sizes since joining the series last month, due to the constant rehearsals and practice sessions with professional partner Robin Windsor. However, she’s still attracting a lot of attention and praise from other more buxom women and she explained:

“Someone sent me an email saying 42% of this country are size 16 plus and it’s never been portrayed on any of these shows before. I’m coming out with a skill, I am learning every single day. I am encouraging women to get out there, to dance and not feel embarrassed about themselves.”

She was initially worried that her size would cause her many issues on the show though and confessed:

“I did initially worry yeah, just about the lifting, because I thought that every dance warranted a lift. But Robin is so clever with his choreography that we can do so many other things.”

Robin seems to be enjoying Lisa’s company too and he admitted that although they are training constantly and really giving their all to preparations for the show, he can’t call it work, as Riley makes the experience so enjoyable. He said:

“Everyday, we have so much fun, we laugh, we joke , but we work really hard. We wouldn’t call it really hard because we enjoy each other’s company and have such a good time. We just enjoy every single second.”

Watch Lisa and Robin’s jive and tell us, do you think she could win? Leave your comments below….