MAX Bowden has spoken out about his EastEnders co-star Jamie Borthwick joining Strictly Come Dancing. It was announced yesterday that EastEnders star Jamie , 30, has signed up for Strictly 's 20th anniversary series. Now Max , 29, who starred alongside Jamie as Ben Mitchell until March, revealed why his pal will do well on the show.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain , he said: "I spoke to him about eight minutes ago, he’s nervous but he’s very excited. "He’s a good mover - he dances all the time. He’s a music fanatic, as soon as he hears a song he breaks into routine.

I’m very proud of him." Jamie, who plays Jay Brown in the BBC One soap, took part in Strictly's Christmas special last year. More on EastEnders He and professional partner Nancy Xu scored the highest possible mark of 40 in the special episode.

Ahead of attempting to lift the Glitterball for a second time , Jamie told Radio 1: "Doing the Christmas show is what made me do this. I had such a fantastic time." Meanwhile Max recently opened up about his EastEnders exit and why it was time to leave.

He said: "I did nearly six hundred episodes in five years, which is a hell of a lot, and it was time for a rest. Most read in TV "The character was tired, I was tired, they [the producers] were probably tired of me being tired. "From an honest perspective, I think yeah, a lot of it was that I needed to go for a bit.

" Speaking to podcast host Lewis Nicholls on his YouTube show, Max added: "I needed to go work on me.