Strictly Come Dancing’s Danny Mac has defended the amount of dance training he received as a youngster ahead of the show’s final on Saturday night.

The Hollyoaks actor has consistently hit the top of the leaderboards alongside partner Oti Mabuse and scored the first 40 for a samba in the competition’s history.

Fans of the show have said Danny was already an experienced dancer before taking part.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of the final, Danny said: “People say there is dance experience but everyone has got varying degrees to what they must know.

“I can give you a full background of it, if you like. It was three years at drama school. And never before and never since.

“I was never going to be a dancer, I was never dancing, that was never going to happen.

“I’ve never been employed as one. It was part of my training at drama school, but if people want to believe that because they don’t want to vote for me then so be it.”

Asked if he thought it would stop him from winning votes, Danny said that would be a “shame”, adding Oti should receive full recognition for him reaching the final.

He said: “Anything I have achieved, giving credit to that would be taking everything away from Oti and that wouldn’t be fair because it’s completely 100% down to her.

“There’s nothing I can really do about it, but I put 100% credit of what I’ve achieved in this show to this girl next to me.”

The pair will dance three routines in a bid to win the glitterball trophy including the samba from week 10 that was awarded a perfect score.

They will also perform a “showdance” set to Adele’s Set Fire To The Rain and a dance of the judges’ choice.

Also in Saturday night’s final are ex-pop star Louise Redknapp and BBC presenter Ore Oduba.