Strictly’s Neil Jones wades in on show fix claims as viewers say Layton Williams has ‘unfair advantage’
STRICTLY Come Dancing star Neil Jones has waded in on show fix claims, after viewers of the BBC show said Layton Williams had an “unfair advantage.”
West End star Layton is partnered with professional dancer Nikita Kuzmin and they topped the leaderboard on Saturday night.
Layton has starred in the musicals Billy Elliot and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and fans are struggling to see past his professional dance training.
But Neil Jones, 41, has jumped to defend the star and told The Sun while at a Shakeup cosmetics brand event on Thursday: “It’s like saying that an Olympian could enter any sport and be able to do it. Well no, they can’t.
“Yes Layton is a performer, but Nikita has been working so hard with him on his technique.
“Don’t get me wrong Layton is good, so Nikita has his work cut out for him, but like Shirley said he needs to keep working on it.”
Neil continued: “There was a man who was just here who is a dancer, and he comes and does dancing with us in Blackpool when we need really good commercial dancers.
“And he will tell you first hand that it is difficult to dance. If you created a TV show where you had to dance ballet, I would enter that show and would not win.
“What people need to realise is on Strictly there’s all different styles and techniques.”
Fans have continuously called out Strictly since the show announced Layton as a contestant.
Moaning on X, formerly known as Twitter, one said: “He’s a west end dancer since 12!!! He’s unbelievably good, played billy eliiott and MJ in thriller, possibly better than the pro’s but ticks every box….”
Another agreed: “The poor other contestants like 78 year old Angela [Rippon] are wasting there precious time to this box ticking bull s**** agenda.”
A third wrote: “How is Layton Williams allowed to be on Strictly? He’s a professional dancer. Played the lead in Billy Elliott and Michael Jackson. Not fair.”
This week, Strictly Come Dancing’s Brendan Cole weighed in on the conversation and said he “feels sorry” for this year’s celebs because Layton is in the lineup.
Speaking to The Sun on behalf of Sky Bingo, Brendan said: “[Leyton] is a professional performer.
“I know he’s not done ballroom dancing before, but there’s too much of a difference between him and the rest.
“I feel sorry for the rest because they can’t even compete with it currently. “
Brendan described Layton and Nikita as “absolutely brilliant” but explained: “It’s like there are two competitions going on. Layton and Nikita, and everybody else.”