Anton’s despair at being first off Strictly
ANTON Du Beke was left distraught last night after he and partner Susannah Constantine were the first couple voted off this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.
The show’s longest-serving male professional has never been eliminated first in 15 years of service.
He was, however, voted off in week two in 2008 when partnered with actress Gillian Taylforth.
In a desperate tweet on Saturday night he had urged fans to vote for him, writing: “We’re going to need your votes tonight, my loves!” However, it was not to be.
Former What Not To Wear presenter Susannah had been mocked by Craig Revel Horwood last week for looking like she was “staggering about lost and drunk at a party” during her debut.
And on Saturday she flopped again as she foxtrotted with Du Beke to They Can’t Take That Away From Me by Frank Sinatra and Natalie Cole, amid dry ice.
Gutted
Judge Craig told them: “Even the smoke couldn’t cover that – a complete disaster.” He gave them just one point.
Bruno Tonioli told Du Beke: “You could have got better movement from a lamppost.”
But she took the jibe in good spirit when she was eliminated following a dance-off against former Blue singer Lee Ryan and his partner Nadiya Bychkova.
Susannah, 56, said: “I’m obviously gutted to be going but I’m more gutted for Anton. I was bottom of the leaderboard twice.
“I got two ones from Craig so fair dos that I’m going first.”
When asked if she would carry on dancing she smiled: “You’ve got to know your limitations in life, you’ve got to know what you’re good at and I’m not good at dancing. So I will probably focus on the things that I am good at.”
Susannah, married to businessman Sten Bertelsen, with whom she has three children, joked about the Strictly relationship curse when paired with Anton.
Last night she said apart from the “amazing” experience of being on the show she had gained even more: “I’ve got two husbands now. I’ve got Sten the man who I love and married and I’ve now got Anton, who is husband number two, so I am a double winner.”
Pussycat Doll Ashley Roberts, bookmaker Coral’s second favourite to win the Glitterball Trophy after Joe Sugg, finished top of the leaderboard on Saturday.
Meanwhile, judge Darcey Bussell unintentionally gave an eyeful of her knickers as she sashayed to her seat on Saturday night. The former ballerina was wearing a skirt slit to the thigh and as she walked down the staircase into the ballroom her flesh-coloured underwear clearly became visible.
Strictly Come Dancing was the most watched TV show on Saturday with a peak of 9.5 million viewers and an average of 8.4 million. Audience share was 47 per cent.
Rival X Factor had an average of 4.6 million viewers, enjoying a 27 per cent audience share.