Strictly Come Dancing: Anton Du Beke reveals how he used to cover for terrible female dancers

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Anton Du Beke has shared the ingenious ways he used to hide his Come dance strictly the partners’ lack of skill while he was a professional dancer on the show.

While giving comments to Paul Merson and Karen Hauer about their performance in week four, the show’s judge explained the distractions he used when his celebrity contestant was struggling.

Before replacing Bruno Tonioli as a full-time judge on the BBC competition, Du Beke took part as a professional for 18 series and teamed up with stars such as Patsy Palmer, Kate Garraway and Judy Murray.

Du Beke found the largest strictly hit alongside opera singer Lesley Garrett, actor Laila Rouass, newsreader Katie Derham and EastEnders star Emma Barton, with whom he finished second 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 passed as that year’s “joke” contestant. These included Anne Widdecombe, Gillian Taylforth, Lesley Joseph and Susannah Constantine.

Speaking to Merson following his Quickstep to Fred Astaire’s I Won’t Dance, Du Beke said: “Hats off to you and Karen too.”

He explained: “I’ve been in this position where I’ve been partnered with people and I’ve thought ‘here we go’. I’ve blown them, I’ve had explosive maracas, try your best not to dance!”.

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From Merson strictly trip, the judge added: “When I saw you at first I thought we might go down that road, but when you danced that I thought yes! That’s great. You’ve got it serious. You’ve got it straight… You you look great in a tail dress.”

The former Arsenal player got a four from Craig Revel Horwood, six points each from Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas and a seven from Du Beke, taking his tally to 23, his highest score to date.

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Come dance strictly fans on X/Twitter praised Merson’s performance, calling the Quickstep her first “serious” dance of the competition so far.

Viewers of the show had previously pleaded strictly producers stopped making Merson the “joke” act of the season after they had him dance an American Smooth to the popular football song “Vindaloo” by Fat Les during the first week.

“Stop making the middle-aged ex-footballer the automatic ‘joke’ act and just teach them to dance, strictly!” asked a fan.

“Merse was never going to be the best dancer,” added another supporter. “But having him do an American Smooth on ‘Vindaloo’ is a massive, massive kick.”