Strictly’s Anton Du Beke breaks silence on show fix row amid rumours judges had been told to ‘keep contestant in’
STRICTLY Come Dancing Anton Du Beke has spoken out on allegations that he and the other judges have been asked to ‘fix’ the results to keep contestants in the show.
This comes after a number of viewers have accused the show of giving Angela Rippon higher scores than her dancing merits to keep her in the show until its annual trip to the iconic Blackpool Tower.
Many fans suggested the judges had been “told by producers” to keep Angela, 79, in the competition until Blackpool for the press tie-in, as the TV presenter famously hosted the series Come Dancing, the predecessor for Strictly.
However, judge Anton Du Beke cleared up the unproven rumours in an interview with Jane Garvey on Times Radio, saying that he has never been asked to fix the voting.
Getting straight to the point, Jane, 59, asked: “Angela Rippon was always going to get to Blackpool, wasn’t she?“
“No, are you mad? No. If she was terrible in week one, she’d have been first to go, probably. It doesn’t really work that way,” the 57-year-old judge replied.
However, not satisfied with his answer, Jane pressed for more.
“So, though, if she had, and I take your point. Week one, she was actually brilliant, a standout performance. But did she deserve it on her dance ability, without patronising somebody, to get to Blackpool?” Jane asked.
“Yes,” Anton replied, to which Jane asked, “Without question?”
Anton affirmed: “Yeah. But we had the opportunity as judges to eliminate. And we chose not to because she was worthy of a place in the dance off to stay in the competition.”
Anton insisted that Angela remained in the competition because she deserved to be there.
“The suggestion is that we care more about who stays and who goes out than we do, we don’t care. Makes no difference to us,” he continued.
“What does it make to me? The producers don’t speak to me. They don’t come to me and go, ‘Listen, we wouldn’t mind if you kept such-and-such in.’”
Angela did, in fact, make it to Blackpool, but had her last dance there this weekend along with her partner Kai Widdrington.
The duo were relegated to the dance-off, where they competed against Bobby Brazier and his dance partner Dianne Buswell. The EastEnders star won, keeping him in the show, while Angela was eliminated.
After being voted off, Angela looked back fondly at the experience.
“I have to tell you that the last nine weeks have probably been the most terrifying, the most fantastic, the most glorious, the most joyful that I have spent for a very long time in my profession,” she told host Tess Daly.
“I have had the time of my life. People keep making reference to the fact that I presented Come Dancing, but that was 40 years ago. That was a different time!
“He (Kai) wasn’t even born then! But, actually, being this side of the competition, this side of the programme, has been really an eye-opener for me in so many different ways.”