Craig Revel Horwood has insisted he’s standing by a divisive remark he made during the most recent Strictly Come Dancing live show, in which he described one of Molly Rainford’s moves as “ugly”.
On Saturday night, Strictly aired its annual Halloween special, with Molly and her partner Carlos Gu performing an Argentine Tango to Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill, having landed in the dance-off a week earlier.
However, Craig – who has garnered a reputation as Strictly’s harshest critic during his 20 series on the panel – made it clear he was less than impressed with the routine.
“Getting in and out of the lifts was really, really ugly,” he told the pair. “You need to make that a lot more beautiful.”
As the studio audience booed, Craig urged them to “please, shut up!”, before telling presenter Tess Daly he was “finished” with his critiques.
The following morning, Craig responded to one Strictly fan, who told him it was “really unkind” of him “to describe a lovely young girl dancing beautifully as ‘ugly’”.
“It is never OK to be so unkind,” they added.
Craig wrote back: “Not unkind, in fact, the opposite! I know for a fact I’d rather get an honest opinion over lies! Be the best you can be, even if you must listen to the truth.
“Thanks so much for your support and comments they are valuable and thanks for watching and caring.”
While Craig gave Molly just six marks for her Argentine Tango, the rest of the panel were more enthusiastic, awarding her nine points each.
This score enabled Molly to swerve the bottom two in Sunday night’s results show, with James Bye and Fleur East taking part in the dance-off.
Ultimately, the judges unanimously voted to save Fleur, with James and his partner Amy Dowden becoming the fifth pair to bow out of the competition.
Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday night on BBC One.