Former Strictly Come Dancing professional AJ Pritchard has said that he would have loved the chance to dance with another male during his time on the BBC ballroom contest.

The 25-year-old quit the show after four years in March ahead of a rumoured appearance on ITV's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! later this year.

The new series will feature Strictly's first ever same-sex pairing, with a female pro partnering up with boxer Nicola Adams, and Pritchard has hailed it as an "important" move.

"I'd have definitely been up for it," he told The Sun. "It's probably one of the most important things the show has done. I'm intrigued to see how the choreography works.

"I know certain pro dancers would like to dance with a woman because that is what tradition is, and it kind of makes sense but it is very much down to someone's personal opinion of what ballroom and Latin dancing actually is.

"My view is, for example with ballroom and Latin, they do same-sex competitions for under 12s and there are usually more girls than boys who want to dance and so there would be all-girl partnerships."

Strictly's new series starts on BBC One on Saturday, October 24.