Craig Revel Horwood has picked the three couples who he thinks should make the final of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.
The acid-tongued judge named Rose Ayling-Ellis, AJ Odudu and John Whaite as the trio who should be battling it out for the Glitterball Trophy in three weeks’ time.
“If I was choosing, that’s who it would be,” he told Hello magazine.
“The standard has been so high this year, though – we’ve never had dancing like it. And there’s been no joke act – no Anne Widdicombe, or John Sergeant – it’s been fair and square and tough competition.”
He continued: “And the closer they get to the end, the more competitive they’re all becoming because they can see themselves holding that Glitterball – and with that always comes offers for new shows. So there’s a lot at stake really and they’re all hungry for it.”
Currently five celebrities remain in the competition, following the exit of Tilly Ramsay and partner Nikita Kuzmin on Sunday.
Dan Walker and Rhys Stephenson will compete alongside Rose, AJ and John in this weekend’s quarter final.
And while Craig doesn’t see Dan and his partner Nadiya Bychkova making the final, he did heap praise on the BBC Breakfast presenter in an interview with the Daily Mail.
“I rather fell in love with Dan, and I didn’t expect to,” he said. “Looking at his dancing, I had no clue why people were voting for him before.
“But suddenly I thought, ‘Oh, I see why – he’s really sweet.’ I learned a lot about why people vote for who they do.”
Following Sunday’s results show, Dan also had a reminder for his critics, having swerved the dance-off yet again, despite being second from bottom of the leaderboard.
Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 6.40pm on BBC One.
Read the full Hello magazine interview with Craig in this week’s issue, out now.