Radio DJ Vick Hope and her dance partner Graziano di Prima are the fourth couple to be knocked out of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing competition.
The pair lost out to Seann Walsh and Katya Jones after the crucial dance-off which saw the judges opt to save the controversial comedian from the chop.
Vick, 28, had been left right at the bottom of the leaderboard on Saturday night after judges Shirley Ballas, Darcey Bussell, Craig Revel Horwood and guest Alfonso Ribeiro gave her and Graziano a score of 20 for their Cha Cha.
They trailed Seann and Katya and Paralympic athlete Lauren Steadman and AJ Pritchard – who both scored 24 points – in the table and were picked by viewers to be in the running to be booted off the dance floor.
Read more: Shirley Ballas slammed for ‘ill-timed’ dig at Seann Walsh
Just last week judges told Vick she was the most improved performer on the show but unfortunately for her that development did not progress further after she came in for mixed verdicts on her dance to James Hype’s More Than Friends.
“I was not expecting that,” said Darcey during her evaluation.
“Incredibly sexy Cha Cha Cha. Not typical, but I have to admire your conviction. It didn’t all come together for me as a whole but you went for it.”
Darcey’s encouraging comments brought smiles to both her and Graziano’s faces – but Shirley’s assessment was not as positive.
“It just wasn’t my cup of tea today,” she said as Vick’s face fell.
“It wasn’t a typical Cha Cha. It took a minute for you to get going.”
She continued: “The expression did not go with the movement. It lacked body action and facial expression.”
Read more: Strictly Come Dancing’s Danny John-Jules receives series’ first 10
Craig also objected to a lack of technical prowess in the display, scoring the couple a 4 – just like Shirley.
He suggested the passion and energy that fizzled through their movements was detrimental to technique.
“It is a shame because I really wanted to love it but it was quite a disaster,” he concluded, to boos from the audience.
Stand-in judge Alfonso, meanwhile, was overjoyed with what he saw and, like Darcey, gave the pair a 6 for their efforts.
He whooped: “If you were in a club right now, I’d be like ‘I’m dancing with her!'”
Alfonso and Craig chose to save Vick, after Darcey picked Seann to stay. The casting vote went to head judge Shirley, who chose to keep Seann.
Elsewhere on the show this weekend Danny John-Jules picked up the first perfect ten of the series as he danced the Jive to Flip, Flop and Fly.
Susannah Constantine and Anton du Beke, Lee Ryan and Nadiya Bychkova, and Katie Piper and Gorka Márquez have already been eliminated from this sixteenth series of the hit BBC show.
Next week’s Strictly will be a Halloween-themed special.
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