Susannah Constantine and her dance partner Anton Du Beke are the first couple to leave Strictly Come Dancing, after the judges voted to save Lee Ryan and Nadiya Bychkova following the dreaded dance off. The decision comes after judge Craig Revel Horwood made a comment about Anton using heavy smoke during Saturday night's performance to hide Susannah's footwork. After they performed the Foxtrot to They Can’t Take That Away From Me by Frank Sinatra, Craig said: "Even the smoke, sadly couldn't cover that complete dance disaster." The pair performed the same dance against Lee and Nadiya who repeated their Jive to Blue Suede Shoes by Elvis Presley on Sunday's elimination show, before Craig voted by saying: "For me it’s a no brainer and the couple I would like to save is Lee and Nadiya."
The couples in the dance off
Susannah - who has lacked confidence in the competition - emotionally described her short time on the show, telling Tess Daly: "I know it has gone a bit quick, but you know what - I just feel so lucky to have had three weeks learning to dance with Anton and to have met all these amazing people. And for me they are the most important and I feel really privileged to have met them all, and it has been amazing. And thank you [judges] you’ve made the right choice you guys, Lee and Nadiya were brilliant but Anton is still the king!” An upset Anton added: "It’s just all too brief, I have had the most fabulous time with Susannah, she is going to be a great loss to the show. Sadly someone’s got to go but I wish it wasn’t you because you’re wonderful to be with. I’m going to miss spending time with you in the studio, we’ve had a great time, we’ve had enormous amounts of fun and you’re wonderful and thank you very much indeed."
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The pair's infmaous first performance
Susannah received some tough comments from the judges on Saturday after her two performances on the show. After her first hilarious Samba (complete with fruit basket, maracas and Anton's tangerine trousers) which scored just 12 points, the mum-of-three shared a video of herself crying because her son was moving away to university. After their second dance, Bruno Tonioli told Anton: "I am stunned. Anton, you could have got better movement out of a lampost. You were just dragging her. Bring back the maracas!" Poor Susannah, we'll be very sad to see this pair go so soon.
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