Former Strictly pro James Jordan hasn’t held back on this series of the hit BBC show with some of Nigel Harman and Katya Jones’ moves coming into the firing line.
The dancer spoke on his podcast Strictly the Truth for Hello Magazine with Hello’s TV and Film editor Emmy Griffiths and discussed the latest in the world of Strictly Come Dancing.
Former EastEnders actor Nigel and Katya danced a salsa to Suavemente by Elvis Crespo, scoring them 33 points out of 40.
The judges scoring saw Craig Revel Horwood award them eight, Motsi Mabuse gave a nine, Shirley Ballas an eight and Anton Du Beke also scoring eight. James reckoned that they would have scored higher if they had taken out one or two moves.
Nigel Harman on Strictly
He started off the episode stating that the show “had a few really good performances”. He added: “A few stand-out performances and then I kind of get why there were lots of sevens thrown about…”
James declared that the middle of the pack was just “meh”. He said how there had also been several “not-so-good performances”, in his opinion.
When it came to dissecting Nigel and Katya, he said: “Welcome back, Nigel,” alluding to the star being a bit lost over the last few weeks.
There was also the lift that they did when he was swinging her around. I thought it was awful.
For James, their salsa was one of his “favourite” performances of the night. However a risky lift marked him down in his professional opinion.
Talking about a swinging lift where Katya went from Nigel’s shoulders to being held by one leg and one arm as he swung her around at a low level, he called it “awful”.
Following Craig’s criticism about the pair’s ending with a messy hand grab before the final post, James added: “Something definitely went wrong.”
After ridiculing their muddled ending, he said: “There was also the lift that they did when he was swinging her around. I thought it was awful. Why put that lift in? It didn’t look pretty. It didn’t suit the routine, and that’s why I gave them an eight and not a nine.”
Nigel will have to try harder on his dance partner work going forward to impress James.
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James also teased that it is often the more entertaining performers who survive longer on the show. Often out lasting more technical dancers.
He teased that Channel 4 news journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy would soon start rising to the top of the leader board as he is “entertaining”. James also said that Krishnan will start “knocking out good dancers” because of his showmanship.
What happened in week four
Last year’s champion professional dancer, Jowita Przystal, and her partner, Jody Cundy, were eliminated during the results show. The pair only scored 19 points and were at the bottom of the standings.
Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin were on top with 37, followed by Nigel and Katya on 33 points as well as Adam Thomas and Luba Mushtuk on 32. Meanwhile, Amanda Abbington and Giovanni Pernice and Angela Rippon and Kai Widdrington were on 31.
Bobby Brazier and Dianne Buswell scored 30 while Annabel Croft and Johannes Radebe scored 29. Angela Scanlon and Carlos Gu, Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola, Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Lauren Oakley and Zara McDermott and Graziano Di Prima all scored 28.
Eddie Kadi and Karen Hauer were second to last with 24.
Read more: Devastating truth behind Karen Hauer’s downcast appearance on Strictly
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