BBC Strictly Come Dancing star says it's 'absolutely ridiculous' as she slams judges' move

A former Strictly Come Dancing star has branded the latest scoring as 'absolutely ridiculous' as she slammed the judges. The BBC One dance contest was broadcast live from Blackpool last weekend as part of the show's annual special.

Celebrating its 20th year, Strictly started the special show live from the world-famous Tower Ballroom on Saturday night (November 16) with a performance from the Pet Shop Boys, who opened with a medley of hits as the Strictly professional dancers performed a routine around them.

It was then time for the remaining celebrities and their professional dance partners to take to the famous ballroom floor with their latest performances which they hoped would take them one step closer to the coveted Glitterball trophy set to be handed out in just a few weeks time.

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It was a great night for actress Sarah Hadland and former Love Island star Tasha Ghouri who jointly topped the Strictly leader board in Blackpool with their performances, for which the judges individually gave them a near-perfect score of 39 points.

Bottom of the leader board, however, was reality star Pete Wicks, who danced a cha cha to I’m Too Sexy by Right Said Fred with professional Jowita Przystal, and opera singer Wynne Evans, who finished his Charleston routine by swinging his partner Katya Jones by her feet, and later became the eighth couple to leave Strictly's 2024 series.

Following the epic Blackpool spectacle, Strictly fans pointed out the show was missing a perfect score with Tasha and Sarah coming close alongside Chris McCausland, who opened the show with dance partner Dianne Buswell with an American Smooth which earned them 37 points, their highest score of the series so far.

But Ola Jordan, who starred in the dance show as a pro dancer from 2006 to 2015, didn't actually agree with viewers who thought 40's should have been handed out last weekend.

Speaking to Mecca Bingo, the dancer said: "I didn’t agree with the judges scoring. Montell [Douglas] got nines from the judges. She got 8, 9, 9, 9 for her salsa. That was definitely not a nine for me. Sarah and Vito [Coppola] got 9, 10, 10. 10 – that was definitely not a 10. Pete and Jowita got 8, 8 from Shirley and Anton, come on, that's not an 8."

She went on: "Tasha should have got all four 10s for me, that's no question. Jamie [Borthwick] and Michelle [Tsiakkas] got 8, 8, 8 and 9 – never in a million years should they get that. I think overall the marks are high. It seems like they've been overmarking everyone except for Tasha. They are giving nines to people who shouldn't really be having nines."

Ola was also asked if a dance can be "too perfect" after Craig Revel Horwood said just that to Sarah as an excuse for not giving her a 10. She added: "That’s absolutely ridiculous. ‘It's too perfect. Can I give you a nine?’ don't be stupid. I don't know where he gets that from. I don't know if he's been told to give a 9 or say that she was the best.

"I don't know what's going on there. It doesn't make sense to me because if it's the best, you give the best marks, right? But he didn't, so it's not the best then, is it? It's just really confusing."