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Len Goodman makes shock confession about that Will Young spat

Singer left Strictly after disagreement with head judge

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It was one of the most talked-about moments in Strictly Come Dancing history, when Len Goodman sternly told off Will Young on the dancefloor just days before the latter then quit the show.

Now, as Len prepares to leave the BBC show after 12 years of service as head judge, he has revealed exactly what caused him to rant at Will and what he was going to say before he was cut off.

Cast your mind back to the second weekend of October, when Will and his partner Karen Clifton danced a salsa.

After the dance, there was a clash between Will and Len. The professional commented on a lack of salsa in the routine, before he barked at the singer to “turn up, keep up and shut up”.

According to Len, he was actually going to give Will some words of encouragement but after he was snapped at, he changed tack.

Len, 72, told The Sun: “I would have liked to have seen a bit more salsa content and he said ‘well there was 24 bars of recognisable’ and I said ‘well I didn’t see it’.

“I then said ‘turn up, keep up and shut up’. I was going to say ‘turn up, keep up and never give up’ because I had that in my head as a line for some time which would have been nice.

“But because he went on like that and I had that little line in my head it ended up as it ended up.”

Len, who has been a Strictly stalwart since the show began in 2004, then said that their row was not the cause of Will’s departure just days later.

“It was unfortunate that he went the week I said to him he has to ‘turn up, keep up and shut up’,” he said.

“But it wasn’t said in a vicious way. I said there wasn’t enough content which really isn’t even a pop at him – it’s a pop at the choreographer.

“I did ask other people if it was because of that he packed it in and I’ve been assured it wasn’t.”

Will walked out of the show on October 11 for “personal reasons”.


Kaggie Hyland
Editor-in-Chief

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