Susan Calman has become the ninth celebrity to be voted off this year’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.
The comedian and her partner Kevin Clifton were axed from the BBC ballroom competition after landing in the dance-off with Alexandra Burke and Gorka Marquez during Sunday’s (26 November) results show.
Both couples performed their routines again, Alexandra and Gorka did their Rumba to ‘Halo’ by Beyoncé and Susan and Kevin performed their American Smooth to ‘Beyond the Sea’ by Bobby Darin in a bid to impress the judges and remain in the competition.
However, it was not enough to save Susan, with the judges voting unanimously to save Alexandra and Gorka.
After the verdict came in, Susan told host Tess Daly: “I have loved every minute of it. Everyone from wardrobe, make-up, the runners, you and lovely Claudia, Zoe on ‘It Takes Two’, the beautiful judges who have brought such light into my life every single week, everyone involved in the show, the audience, everyone who voted for us, we got far further than we thought we would.
“To my friends and my family and my lovely wife who’s here every single week supporting me. Most of all, I’ve made a friend for life and Kevin may not have won the Glitterball this year but he’s won ‘Strictly’ for me.”
Kevin added, “I’d like to say a couple of thank yous actually; when ‘Strictly’ is on I’m not the easiest person to live with, I go a bit mad so I’d like to say first of all thanks to my wife for putting up with me.
“I’d like to say thank you to ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and echoing everything that Susan said about everyone on it because I think in a world where not everything going on at the moment is always nice, ‘Strictly’ is the one thing that brings a lot of joy and happiness into the world through the wonderful thing that is dance. And I think Susan you’ve been the absolute epitome of joy and happiness throughout this whole competition, which in my eyes, makes you a beautiful dancer.
“So thank you for dancing with me and thanks for being my friend.”
The remaining six couples will take to the dancefloor again next week for Musicals Week, airing on Saturday 2 December on BBC One.