GOGGLEBOX star Jenny Newby broke down in tears as she watched Rose Ayling-Ellis’ incredible part-silent performance on last week’s Strictly Come Dancing.
The EastEnders actress’ spellbinding routine with Giovanni Pernice saw the music stop halfway through as the couple continued to dance.
The Gogglebox cast were incredibly moved as Rose, 26, the show’s first deaf contestant, gave them a “beautiful” insight into hearing loss.
Jenny struggled to fight back tears as the music stopped and she exclaimed: “This is the bit for death people.”
Newbie Ronnie turned to his wife and said: “I got a bit choked up their Annie.”
Stephen added: “I’m a bit choked up myself, they put out a really powerful message.”
At the end of their routine on Saturday night, Giovanni, 31, told Rose he “loved her” before they received a near-perfect 39 out of 40.
Rose beamed afterwards: “Being deaf, there’s nothing wrong. It’s such a joy to be deaf.”
Judge Anton du Beke fought back tears as he declared: “That’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen on the show. Congratulations.”
Head judge Shirley Ballas stood up and said it took her to a “much deeper place”, adding: “I’m sure the deaf community will be so proud of you. This is a number that will be etched in my heart for a long time, it was absolutely beautiful.”
Appearing on This Morning yesterday, Rose said the silent passage had shown how hard deaf people have to work every day.
“It was a special moment for me because a lot of the time you always see a deaf person getting on well and doing what is normal but you don’t see how much hard work goes behind it,” she said.
“So I think the silent moment was to show this is what I do when I dance. This is the amount of work I do. But I still do it with a smile on my face.
“I think that’s what my message is. And that is what a lot of deaf people go through.”
Giovanni said dancing to even 10 seconds of silence had been a challenge.
He said: “I am a professional dancer. I have been doing it for 23 years.
“Even 10 seconds of silence was so hard because in that 10 seconds you have to think about your steps, you have to keep in the beat.
“So I was like, now I understand what she is (doing). The 10 seconds was just powerful.”
