Nikita Kuzmin and Layton Williams received the highest score of this year's Strictly Come Dancing with their incredible Cha Cha Cha on Saturday night.
They wowed the judges after dancing to Million Dollar Bill by Whitney Houston, going to score an impressive 37 points. But watch the clip below to see what they said during the highly energetic dance routine…
After Strictly released this week's hidden mics clip, fans went wild – with professional dancer Gorka Marquez joking: "I still can't get over this @nikita__kuzmin @laytonwilliams #justbasic."
Another follower said: "Nikita really is having the time of his life with Layton, I love to see it." A third post read: "Absolutely unreal how much Layton and Nikita are slaying it!" A fourth person stated: "The SAY YEAH at the beginning, I mean Layton and Nikita's energy is just infectious and I love their dancing every single week."
Following the dance routine, Layton thanked fans for their support and for keeping them in the competition. "What a week. What a night. Through to week 5! So grateful... THANK YOU to everyone who voted. We love you," he wrote.
© BBCPro dancer Nikita added: "Thank you! Thanks for all the love that this group number has received. It means a lot! We are so grateful to be a small part of such an amazing team. "The genius of @chrislxd @jasongilkison. Thank you @its_sashax for assisting and of course @jack.will.g @sarahjamesface @justjoecreative @ginanaomibirch for trusting us with this important number, thank you @vitocoppola who I’ve finally got to dance with after knowing him for 16 years!"
Every Strictly Come Dancing winner so far
- 2004: Natisha Kaplinsky (partner Brendan Cole)
- 2004: Jill Halfpenny (partner Darren Bennett)
- 2005: Darren Gough (partner Lilia Kopylova)
- 2006: Mark Ramprakash (partner Karen Hardy)
- 2007: Alesha Dixon (partner Matthew Cutler)
- 2008: Tom Chambers (partner Camilla Dallerup)
- 2009: Chris Hollins (partner Ola Jordan)
- 2010: Kara Tointon (partner Artem Chigvintsev)
- 2011: Harry Judd (partner Aliona Vilani)
- 2012: Louis Smith (partner Flavia Cacace)
- 2013: Abbey Clancy (partner Aljaž Škorjanec)
- 2014: Caroline Flack (partner Pasha Kovalev)
- 2015: Jay McGuiness (partner Aliona Vilani)
- 2016: Ore Oduba (partner Joanne Clifton)
- 2017: Joe McFadden (partner Katya Jones)
- 2018: Stacey Dooley (partner Kevin Clifton)
- 2019: Kelvin Fletcher (partner Oti Mabuse)
- 2020: Bill Bailey (partner Oti Mabuse)
- 2021: Rose Ayling-Ellis (partner Giovanni Pernice)
- 2022: Hamza Yassin (partner Jowita Przystał)
- 2023: Ellie Leach (partner Vito Coppola)
Layton, who appeared in the West End show Everyone's Talking About Jamie, has faced some backlash to his previous dance experience. During a chat with The Guardian, the actor has responded to the complaints, admitting that rehearsals are not as easy for him as it might look.
© Guy Levy"I've taken it on the chin; I get what everyone's saying," he said. "But if you could be a fly on the wall in this rehearsal room, it's not easy for me." The star confessed that the Strictly choreography is challenging, and suspects judges might be scoring him with his musical background in mind.
He added: "I'm not sad about that - I want to rise to the challenge." This week, the dancer duo will perform the Salsa to Quimbara by Johnny Pacheco and Celia Cruz.
