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Strictly star lashes out at one of the show’s judges

It was a disastrous night...

It’s fair to say Strictly Come Dancing pro Brendan Cole is NOT happy with one of this year’s judges.

The pro dancer took aim at new head judge Shirley Ballas for her “disappointing” comments after he and Charlotte Hawkins were scored a measly 12 points out of 40 for their Cha Cha Cha on Saturday night.

Ouch.

Not afraid to let loose, the furious star ranted on Strictly Come Dancing’s spinoff show, It Takes Two, that he couldn’t win when it came to choreographing the pair’s routines.

Brendan is unhappy with Shirley Ballas [Credit: BBC]
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After Charlotte went blank on her dance moves during their live performance, Brendan was annoyed that newbie Shirley told him the Cha Cha Cha would have been better if he’d simplified it.

Too simple and it wasn’t difficult enough.

Too difficult and he’s told to make it more simple…

“I think she should keep those opinions to herself,” raged Brendan. “I put in two difficult steps that we could do in training but when something goes wrong at the start [it’s hard to recover].

“If Shirley wants to swap places with me, I’m quite happy to judge – I know how to do that.”

Brendan and Charlotte received just 12 points for their Cha Cha Cha [Credit: BBC]
He continued: “It disappoints me because as the pros, you almost can’t do the right thing. If you give too much, it’s too much. If you give too little, it’s not enough for them, they want more.

“She did say in the opening show, ‘I want to be excited. I’ve seen everything. Show me something I haven’t seen before’. I did that and it’s, ‘No, you made it too hard’.

“It’s frustrating but I don’t worry about them.”

Good Morning Britain presenter Charlotte agreed, saying: “You don’t want to go out there and do something ordinary.”

Shirley felt the dance needed to be simplified [Credit: BBC]
They danced their Cha Cha Cha to Maroon 5’s Sugar but received a dismal score of 2, 4, 3, 3 from the underwhelmed judges.

Charlotte said: “I don’t know what was going through my head during the dance, really – unfortunately  it wasn’t the dance moves!

“It was not my night. I just couldn’t get there. I was so disappointed. It was a nightmare for me.

“It’s like someone has ripped the rug out from under your feet, like you’ve stepped off a cliff edge. I was looking in his eyes thinking I don’t actually know what to do now.

“I’m so grateful for everyone who voted and the fact I’m still here, we’re still dancing and we’ll come back next week.”

Brendan said he couldn’t win when it came to choreography [Credit: BBC]
Brendan said the couple were so convinced they’d be in the dance off they were “out back frantically practising” their routine in case they had to do it all over again.

He said: “I was trying to get Charlotte into the space where she knew she could do it. In training everything was fine, it would never be our strongest dance, but it was fine.

“I thought if we were in the dance off, I couldn’t have her going out thinking she doesn’t know what she’s doing when she did.”

Meanwhile, Brendan also vented his anger on Twitter following Saturday night’s disastrous performance.

The pair have vowed to come back stronger next week [Credit: Instagram @brendancoleinsta]
In a string of furious tweets, he told fans: “It was definitely a tough night at the office & maybe the scores were just! What I object to is belittling someone who has worked hard and is clearly upset at the situation.

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“I have no time for negativity when someone is down! It was obvious that things hadn’t gone to plan and at that time you can be honest but constructively positive!

“This can be humiliating at the best of times and laughing at another’s misfortune is disgusting and although Strictly is just an entertainment show, we invest time and emotion into it and therefore it matters to us who take part.

“We are not changing the world but we do care. That’s all, rant over! We are coming back stronger next week, I believe in team #CharCole.”

Well said, Brendan!


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor