Strictly fans fume and make same complaint over couple's score

29 October 2023 , 12:17

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Strictly Come Dancing viewers weren't impressed with the judges' scoring of Angela Rippon and Kai Widdrington (Image: BBC)

Viewers of Strictly Come Dancing were left fuming over the score dished out to one couple during the BBC show's Halloween special on Saturday night.

Week six of this year's contest saw Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola top the leaderboard with an impressive 38 for their Salsa to Sophie Ellis-Bextor's aptly named Murder on the Dancefloor. The pair were closely followed (36) by Layton Williams Nikita Kumzin for their Tango to the sounds of Olivia Rodrigo's Vampire.

It was the scoring of a pairing that finished in joint-third place on the night that set tongues-wagging, however. Fans felt the 33 awarded to Angela Rippon and Kai Widdrington by judges Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton du Beke was unjust, and took to social media afterwards to vent their frustrations.

Television presenter Angela, 79, performed an energetic Charleston to the theme tune of Murder She Wrote, which saw Kai throw himself at his partner before pulling her up to her knees in one of the episode's highlights. It prompted the normally harsh Craig to label the dance as a "swivel masterclass" before dishing out a 9 to the couple.

Angela and Kai were then awarded an 8 by the remaining three judges, but even that was too high in the eyes of numerous viewers. One disgruntled X (formerly Twitter) user declared: "Angela Rippon is great for her age, BUT... this has to stop now. She sat on a bench whilst moving her feet, and there was hardly any steps when she was up. Kai does a good job of giving her easy dances, but the judges are being unfair to others by giving her high scores!"

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Viewers were particularly shocked by Craig Revel Horwood's awarding of a 9 to Angela Rippon and Kai Widdrington (BBC/Guy Levy)

Another agreed: "Does anyone else feel like the judges are over marking Angela Rippon on #Strictly, just because she’s 79? She looked like she couldn't be a***d in her Charleston last night." A third added: "Not again! Angela's score of 33 was so overmarked! Craig a 9! melting over her ‘swivels’ which were non existent! No doubt she is doing well at her age… but really! And Shirley going on about fairness! Terrible marking."

A fourth commented: "Did the judges watch a different dance to me? I thought Angela Rippon was awkward to watch!!? I get she’s 79 but still." And a fifth said: "Angela R is a BBC institution so the show seems to feel obliged to overpraise her. She has dance and flexibility abilities but is over marked. Wonder if it’s just to get her and Kai to Blackpool/might change after that?"

Earlier this week, meanwhile, Angela hit out at critics, who claimed she has only performed "slow dances" on the competition so far. Speaking on Thursday's Good Morning Britain with Kai about their journey so far, Angela said: "We did the Quickstep, there's a clue in the title, and we did the very first dance which was the Cha Cha Cha."

Kai added: "We have something fast [this weekend], it's going to be fun and we're going to go for a bit of comedy as well. "Make no mistake, Angela is doing lots of steps to a fast Charleston and she's being very much lifted over my head more than once with another trick in there!"

And Angela continued to get her point across: "Also, of course, dance isn't all just about being fast and running around a ballroom, it's about technique, it's about precision, and that's what we've done I think in the last two particularly. While it may not look as if it's very exhausting, to actually get that physical muscular precision when you're doing things like the Rumba, the Argentine Tango, requires a heck of a lot of energy in a different way!"

Alan Johnson