At last, a brighter outlook for Carol on Strictly
HER debut on Strictly Come Dancing a week ago saw her quickstep to the bottom of the leaderboard.
But Carol Kirkwood’s second turn on Saturday night’s show received a warmer reception from the judges and was enough to keep her in the competition.
The Scottish weather presenter’s American Smooth, with partner Pasha Kovalev, earned 20 points, four more than the opening weekend.
It lifted her from the bottom to third last, ahead of broadcaster Jeremy Vine and former athlete Iwan Thomas, who was last night voted out in the dance-off.
Miss Kirkwood, 53, of Morar, Inverness- shire, stepped out in a flowing lavender gown with a sparkly top – and even notoriously hard-to-please Craig Revel Horwood told her she did ‘a lot better’.
Fellow judge Len Goodman added: ‘ The clouds parts and a ray of sunshine came out onto the floor. You just come out and make me smile.’
Bruno Tonioli added: ‘I can see bright spots on the horizon, not so many mistakes.’
Ex-sprinter Mr Thomas, 41, became the first celebrity to l eave the show and admitted that going up against the judges was ‘more nervewracking than the Olympics’.
He lost out to singer Jamelia and her partner Tristan MacManus in the dance- off, finishing despite breaking one of his shoes during the exuberant routine.
He said that he had ‘cherished’ his time on the competition and will be tuning in every week to see how his fellow celebrities are faring.
Mr Thomas added: ‘It was scary. I had my whole career against Michael Johnson, it was pretty amazing to look across at him and think “Blimey, he’s fast”. But it was something I had trained for. It was my job.
‘Training was the hardest bit about athletics, racing was quite easy. The problem I found on Strictly was that it was subjective and it is hard.’
Singer Peter Andre l eads the competition thanks to 30 points on the night for his lively quickstep with partner Janette Manrara.
Scots rocker Rod Stewart also appeared on the show with his new single Please.