Toyah Willcox should have gone home from Strictly last weekend.
Poor Unfortunate Soul didn’t stand a chance in the dance off this week. The Strictly judges weren’t going to make the same mistake twice after causing uproar from Strictly fans watching at home (myself included). Really it was Willcox who deserved to be booted off the show last weekend but instead Olympic champion Tom Dean was robbed of his Cha-Cha-Chance.
Movie week spelled disaster for Willcox. Even the playful booing on Saturday night’s live show from Willcox’s guitarist husband Robert Fripp couldn’t save her from being evicted. A brave man, the musician had no qualms risking the wrath of Craig Revel Horwood who ordered him to sit down in front of the whole live Strictly Come Dancing audience.
Read more: ‘Strictly’s Tom Dean was robbed in the dance off’
When her name was called in Sunday’s results show, Willcox had no chance. There was no way the singer was going to escape the dance off twice in a row. That would be too lucky.
This week the right two celebrities were in the bottom two: Willcox and retired football manager Paul Merson. Both stars were bottom of the leaderboard, with Merson marginally ahead of Willcox by a mere four points.
Willcox and her pro Neil Jones had to do a second take of their Samba to The Little Mermaid’s Poor Unfortunate Souls. The illusion of Ursula’s huge tentacles didn’t have the audience spellbound, leaving her vulnerable to eviction.
Watch Toyah Willcox and Neil Jones do the Samba to Poor Unfortunate Souls
Merson and Karen Hauer got back on the horse to perform their Cha Cha again to The Magnificent Seven from The Magnificent Seven. It was cheeky, fun and even notoriously difficult critic Revel Horwood said they had performed their routine second time round. Every single judge voted to save them (even head judge Shirley Ballas who didn’t need to have her say).
Willcox had waited 20 years to say “yes” to Strictly so she had bags of enthusiasm for the BBC show but her luck run out.
Now only five women remain on Strictly Come Dancing, compared to eight men. The BBC only signed up six women (compared to nine men) after the Giovanni Pernice and Amanda Abbington scandal. Sure, that may get more noticeable as the competition goes on but it’s important the Strictly judges vote off the weaker dance, regardless of gender. That’s clear from the reaction to last week’s dance off. The show must go on.
Strictly’s movie week leaderboard
Tasha Ghouri and Aljaž Å korjanec – 34
Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola – 33
Shayne Ward and Nancy Xu – 33
Punam Krishan and Gorka Márquez – 33
JB Gill and Amy Dowden MBE – 32
Wynne Evans and Katya Jones – 30
Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell – 30
Jamie Borthwick and Michelle Tsiakkas – 30
Sam Quek MBE and Nikita Kuzmin – 30
Montell Douglas and Johannes Radebe – 28
Pete Wicks and Jowita PrzystaÅ‚ – 26
Paul Merson and Karen Hauer – 19
Toyah Willcox and Neil Jones – 15