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Sophie Finnegan

Strictly's Tess Daly calls out Shirley Ballas for 'very strict' comments towards Ellie Taylor

Strictly Come Dancing host Tess Daly jumped to the defence of Ellie Taylor after she received some "very strict" comments from judge Shirley Ballas.

Comedian Ellie danced the Cha Cha Cha to 'The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)' from Mermaids alongside partner Johannes Radebe on Saturday's Movie Week. And while the audience was loving the dance and Ellie's huge wig, Shirley wasn't overly impressed by what she saw.

Shirley told her: "Well you're starting to add things to your basket... what I would like to see moving forward is that things don't move quite so blocked and when I say blocked I mean everything moves in one piece, so a little bit more isolation could now be had.

Read more: Strictly viewers slam Giovanni Pernice's 'cheap' outfit 'bought straight off Amazon'

"Also no heel leads we are going into week three and the first step of every step was a heel lead so from today, I'm not accepting any heel leads and that goes for everybody else because you have a choice and I know that you have been told. You have got to get your weight and your posture in the right place over a straight leg and give me that leg action but otherwise some very nice pieces."

The audience stirred in response to the judge's comments whilst Tess hit back at Shirley saying she was being "very strict". Meanwhile, fellow judge Anton Du Beke said: "If it's any consolation, I feel like I've been a bit told off myself," which Shirley laughed at.

Shirley Ballas had some harsh critiques for Ellie Taylor (BBC)

Viewers took to Twitter to slam Shirley's harshness with one saying: "It's week three Shirley - like you *said yourself* - you can't expect everyone to have all the basics down yet. They're changing dances every week with no prep beforehand. Go easy on them (and maybe stop overscoring too)." Some viewers also accused Shirley of being 'biased'.

In total Ellie and Johannes received a score of 21 with Craig commenting it looked stompy while Motsi loved the timing and transitions. Celebrities were dressed in all sorts of wild and wacky costumes this week as Strictly celebrated all things movie on Saturday night.

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