Strictly Craig’s frosty welcome back for Ballas

Is there a touch of froideur between Craig Revel horwood and new strictly chief judge shirley Ballas?

Craig, 53, says Ballas was a bag of nerves for her debut on the show last year and that he doesn’t socialise with her off screen, unlike with his other strictly colleagues.

‘she was very nervous,’ he says of her performance.

‘Look, she was never going to be a like-for-like replacement for Len Goodman. Len was tongue in cheek with a twinkle in the eye — shirley doesn’t come from the entertainment world like he did.’

Meanwhile, he says of his strictly co- stars: ‘Bruno and I hang out in London when we can. We do dinner and the theatre a lot. Darcey is also a real laugh. Claudia is hilarious and Tess is brilliant, we have a lot of fun backstage.

‘shirley lives in LA so I don’t see her that much away from the show.’