As the Strictly Come Dancing quarter-final approaches, another celebrity has been eliminated from the running, after a tough week in the ballroom.
It was a week of highs and lows for the celebs, with both Amber Davies and Karen Carney securing their first ever perfect scores, before each of the stars took part in the chaotic Instant Dance challenge.
However, not everyone can go through to the next week’s show, which will be Musicals Week, with two couples ending up in the dance off – Balvinder Sopal and Alex Kingston.
The judges ultimately decided to save Balvinder, with Alex becoming the latest star to leave the competition after performing the Cha Cha to Ring My Bell by Anita Ward with partner Johannes Radebe.
When asked by presenter Tess Daly about her time on the show, Alex said: “I had never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would last this long. It’s been just the most incredible journey for me. I feel quite proud of myself because I’ve loved the process, I mean 100%, you can tell by my smile. Everyone always says that their dance partner is a friend for life, but JoJo really will be.”
When asked by Tess about their brilliant partnership, Johannes added: “I’ve never grinned as much as I have in the last few weeks. Thank you Alex for being a trooper, I will hold on to the memories. As far as the dancing goes, I think we’ve achieved what we wanted to achieve. These memories are just the beginning for us, we can say that we are very much a Strictly family.”
It was a difficult week for Alex, who admitted that she wasn’t happy with her performance.
Alex Kingston and Johannes Radebe dancing on Strictly Come Dancing BBC/Kieron McCarron
She agreed with the judges’ critiques – even after a particularly brutal comment from Craig Revel Horwood, who declared that her performance got “worse and worse and worse”.
“The thing is, when I’m watching the show as a member of the public, most of the time I do agree with Craig,” she said. “So now that I’m in it, I can’t go ‘Oh no, he’s talking rubbish,’ because I know myself watching the telly would agree with him.”
She continued: “Also I feel like this is a time just to sort of talk to the public, actually, about where we’re all at as competitive dancers in this. And it’s never really discussed, when you’re at the sharp end, how our bodies are really suffering.”
After Alex’s performance, Craig awarded her just 4 points, before she was given 6 apiece from Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas and a more generous 7 from Anton Du Beke.
That put her total score at 23 – her lowest score in the competition since her very first dance back in week 1.
However, with some stunning dances under her belt, the actress is sure to be proud of her time on the show as a whole.
Now, it’s time to look forward to the quarter-final – which will see our stars take part in yet another high-stakes dance challenge. Hold onto your glitterballs…
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One and iPlayer on Saturday 6th December at 6.50pm.
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