Great Balls of fire! Could the incrEDible happen?
Ed lights up Blackpool – and even waspish Craig says he can reach f inal But ballroom purists urge him to quit – and save much better dancers
HE HAS – to everyone’s surprise – lit up Strictly Come Dancing like no one else before.
And last night Ed Balls excelled himself as he continued the extraordinary run that has seen him delight viewers – but defy the harsh verdicts of the judges to remain in the competition.
Looking more like a Las Vegas entertainer than a former Labour MP, Balls descended from the heavens playing Great Balls Of Fire on a piano crowned with flame.
Although unmissable entertainment, the moment was also said to have sparked a row behind the scenes, with judges furious over the possibility that such a poor dancer might go on to claim the trophy.
The spectacle of Balls playing the Jerry Lee Lewis classic marked the landmark moment the hapless politician and his partner Katya Jones reached the crucial Blackpool stage of the competition.
At the start of the series, the pair were greeted with ridicule when they announced they wanted to dance at the world capital of ballroom dancing. But now, in week nine, Balls is one of the seven stars left from the original 15 to have made the lavish final rounds at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom.
His presence is said to have infuriated some of the judges, who reportedly believe he is making a ‘mockery’ of Strictly. And once again Balls and Jones ended up at the bottom of the leader board, with just 23 points.
At the top of the table, Hollyoaks heartthrob Danny Mac and partner Oti Mabuse scored the first perfect 40 of the series for their high-octane Charleston to Puttin’ On The Ritz.
At least one of the experts tried to put a positive spin on Balls’s success, despite slating his ability.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, waspish judge Craig Revel Horwood said it was entirely possible that Balls could win the glitterball trophy – and conceded there may even be positives in that victory as the politician has popularised dance. ‘Ed Balls is waving a flag for all the couch potatoes at home who sit on their bottoms doing nothing,’ he said.
‘He is promoting dance, so I can only see that as a good thing. People at home will be watching him thinking, “Well, I could probably do that.” It might encourage them to go out and do a dance class.
‘Who would have thought that you could put Ed Balls into Strictly Come Dancing and that he would be doing so well with the public? His odds of winning were 100/1 and now they are 25/1. It’s incredible.’
But Horwood accepted Balls’s continuing success could be a headache for the judges. He said: ‘Ed will probably get to the final on December 17. That is the odd thing about Strictly. I can only give my honest opinion about the dancing and what the audience decides to do with that information is entirely up to them. I was rather hoping that I was educating the great British public.
‘We are going to have a situation in the next couple of weeks where we have two extremely good dancers who the judges absolutely love but who’ll end up in the dance-off while Ed will probably go through. Then we have very difficult decisions to make. I hope it doesn’t come to that.’
Horwood said it was still highly possible that viewers could see sense and vote Balls off and let more talented contestants remain. ‘I trust in the judgment of the public,’ he said.
In fact, the situation he fears has already happened. Last Sunday, two of the show’s best dancers, Daisy Lowe and Greg Rutherford, ended up fighting for survival in the danceoff, while Balls sailed through.
One viewer wrote: ‘Boycotting Strictly. How the hell does Ed Balls keep avoiding the dance-off?’ Another added: ‘Good dancers in the dance-off and Ed Balls through for another week, not right.’ One fan described the show as a ‘travesty.’
In the end, Lowe was booted off even though she had achieved some of the highest scores of the series.
Former Strictly contestant Russell Grant also appeared less than impressed with Balls when he appeared on spin-off show It Takes Two. He refused to mention Balls by name and would only say ‘I love Katya’ when the subject of the couple’s routines was brought up.
Many fans want Balls to follow the lead of former BBC journalist John Sergeant, who quit during week ten of the 2008 series. Sergeant, who was useless on the dancefloor, said at the time: ‘There is now a real danger that I might win. Even for me that would be a joke too far.’
But Balls said on last night’s show: ‘We would love to come back and keep dancing.’ Among his fans are Ann Widdecombe, who was kicked out of the 2010 competition in week ten. She has urged Balls not to quit.
And Lord Sugar, who initially criticised Balls’s continuing presence, tweeted: ‘I have been out of order on Ed Balls… He is working at it and giving it his all.’