It was a decidedly unsexy salsa. But Ann Widdecombe's unique interpretation of the Latin dance, stripped of its racier aspects, earned her enough public votes to keep her in for another week of Strictly Come Dancing. The self-described "blundering duffer", who has said a mixture of "modesty and sheer incompetence" means she may never master the more complicated routines, sent up her matronly image.
When her partner Anton Du Beke ripped open his shirt at the start of the performance, Ann promptly buttoned him back up. And as he danced towards her wiggling his hips, she gave him a decisive shove on the dance floor. The climax came when 63-year-old Ann leapt into Anton's arms as he spun her around – to the delight of the crowd. It might have been a big hit with the Strictly audience, but the former MP's dance did not go down well with the judges.
They gave her a score of just 12 points out of a possible 40 – the lowest ever for a salsa. "There is not one word in the English language that can describe what 10 million people just witnessed," commented Craig Revel-Horwood. The audience, though, voted to save Ann, and music star Goldie instead became the first celebrity to leave the show.
The English DJ – real name Clifford Price – was awarded 26 points by the judges, but he and partner Kristina Rihanoff were voted off after landing in the bottom place when the public votes were also taken into account. In previous series of Strictly, one duo out of the two lowest-scoring couples could be given a reprieve by the judges following a dance-off.
But a new format means the dance-off has been scrapped"It was a bit of a shocker, I didn’t see it coming," said the 45-year-old. "If there had been a dance-off, the result would have been different. "You've either got to be really bad at dancing or completely hilarious, or really good. There's no room for being in the middle," he added. "It's not about dancing. Maybe if I'd fallen over a bit more I'd have done better."
