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Anton Du Beke has shared the ingenious ways he used to conceal his Strictly Come Dancing partners’ lack of ability while he was a professional dancer on the programme.
While providing feedback to Paul Merson and Karen Hauer about their week four performance, the show’s judge explained the distractions he utilised when his celebrity contestant was struggling.
Before replacing Bruno Tonioli as a full-time judge on the BBC competition, Du Beke participated as a professional for 18 series, and was partnered with stars including Patsy Palmer, Kate Garraway and Judy Murray.
Du Beke found biggest Strictly success alongside opera singer Lesley Garrett, actor Laila Rouass, newsreader Katie Derham and EastEnders star Emma Barton, with whom he finished in second place in 2019.
However, throughout his time as a professional, Du Beke often found himself paired with celebrities who either failed to make it far in the competition or sailed through as that year’s “joke” contestant. These included Anne Widdecombe, Gillian Taylforth, Lesley Joseph and Susannah Constantine.
Speaking to Merson following his Quickstep to “I Won’t Dance” by Fred Astaire, Du Beke said: “I take my hat off to you and to Karen as well.”
He explained: “I’ve been in this position where I’ve been partnered with people and I’ve thought ‘here we go’. I’ve flown them in, I’ve had exploding maracas, you do everything you can to avoid actually dancing!”
Of Merson’s Strictly journey, the judge added: “When I watched you at the beginning I thought we could be going down this road but when you danced this I thought yes! This is great. You did it seriously. You did it straight...You look great in a tail suit.”
The former Arsenal player received a four from Craig Revel Horwood, six points each from Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas and a seven from Du Beke, bringing his total to 23 - his highest score so far.
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Strictly Come Dancing fans on X/Twitter praised Merson’s performance, calling the Quickstep his first “serious” dance of the competition so far.
Viewers of the show had previously begged Strictly producers to stop making Merson the “joke” act of the season after he was made to dance a American Smooth to the popular football chant song “Vindaloo” by Fat Les in week one.
“Stop making the middle-aged ex-footballer the automatic ‘joke’ act and just teach them how to dance, Strictly!” one fan demanded.
“Merse was never going to be the best dancer,” another supporter added. “But making him do an American Smooth to ‘Vindaloo’ is a massive, massive stitch up.”
