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Balvinder Sopal has opened up about ending up in the bottom two on Strictly Come Dancing two weeks in a row

EastEnders actress Balvinder Sopal has spoken candidly about landing in the dance off on Strictly Come Dancing for two consecutive weeks, confessing she felt “crushed” following the most recent results programme.

The soap star joined her dancing partner Julian Callion on Tuesday’s (21 October) edition of It Takes Two, where they discussed the tense dance off with presenter Fleur East.

“My heart just sank. I felt quite disappointed. I thought we’d done enough to come back after the week previous, where we were were again, bottom two,” Balvinder admitted. “Yeah, I was crushed.”

Fleur, a former Strictly contestant from 2022, expressed empathy with Balvinder’s situation, remarking: “Yeah, it is such a crushing feeling.”

Julian, making his debut as a professional on the programme, explained how he comforted Balvinder when the results were announced, reports Wales Online.

“To be honest, I didn’t really say much because we’d actually just been in there seven days ago. I think in those situations where it’s high pressure, it’s high stress, sometimes the more you say and the more you try to think, the worse it is,” Julian said.

He added: “I definitely don’t think we were there based on dance ability or anything.”

The pair went head to head with rugby star Chris Robshaw and his partner Nadiya Bychkova in the elimination showdown, with both couples having garnered the fewest public votes.

The judges voted to save Balvinder, with Craig Revel Horwood having the deciding vote on the night, following a new rule which stops head judge Shirley Ballas having the deciding vote every single week.

“The new rules meant that Craig saved you. How did that feel?” Fleur asked Balvinder, who plays Suki Panesar in BBC One’s EastEnders.

The actress issued a heartfelt message to Craig, who is known for his harsh criticism and low scores on the BBC show, after he saved her due to her “quality” and “technical ability”.

“Oh, I mean, I am so grateful to Craig, actually,” Balvinder said. “And, he’s one of the scariest judges, I think. But, Sunday night, he saved us and I can’t thank him enough.”

It Takes Two airs on weeknights on BBC Two at 6.30pm. Strictly Come Dancing airs on Saturday on BBC One and is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

Craig Revel Horwood nearly slipped and fell on Saturday’s Strictly Come Dancing as he attempted his favourite routine and fans at home flooded social media with their reaction

Craig Revel Horwood nearly slipped and fell on Saturday’s Strictly Come Dancing. The professional dancer, 60, was back in his seat on the judging panel alongside Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke where he had spent much of the evening dishing out his typically-acerbic critique to celebrities like Thomas Skinner, Vicky Pattison and Ross King.

Just before Balvinder Sopal, who is known to fans of BBC soap EastEnders for playing Suki Panesar on the long-running programme, took to the stage, Craig leapt out of his seat once it became apparent that his ‘favourite’ routine was about to be performed. The TV star is a huge fan of the Charletson, and excitedly skipped around in front of the cameras.

Tess Daly was just about to introduce Balvinder to the stage, and laughed as Craig excitedly performed a few seconds of the famous routine. But the move didn’t necessarily go down too well with viewers at home as they noticed straight away that he almost lost his footing.

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One fan wrote on X: “Craig being iconic but also nearly slipping there,” whilst another said: “Craig nearly slipping lmfaoooo” A third simply asked: “What the hell was that Craig?” whilst a fourth said: “Thought i was about to watch Craig faceplant onto the floor there for a sec.” Another added: “What was that all about with Craig? Really cringe & annoying,get back in your box mate!”

Balvinder then took to the stage alongside her professional partner Julian Caillon to perform the dance, all set to Been Like This by Meghan Trainor. They received a score of 30, made up of two sevens and two eights.

But Craig’s dancing moment wasn’t the only thing fans issued a complaint over during the second live show of this year’s series. As soon as the programme began, viewers took issue with the fact that presenters Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly do not get their own introduction, even though the judges do.

One wrote: “Okay…..no intros for Tess and Claudia” and another said: “So Tess and Claudia don’t get introduced anymore” In agreement, a third viewer said: “I hate the way Tess and Claudia don’t get an intro now but the judges do!”

It was Amber Davies‘ night in the end, though, as the former Love Island winner and musical theatre star topped the leaderboard with a score of 56, when combining her scores from this week and the first week of the show.

To make things extra special for the West End actress, she celebrated her 29th birthday on Saturday and was surprised with a cake that came with a picture of her and her professional partner Kai Widdrington printed onto it. Just hours before the show, he surprised her with a large bouquet of flowers along with a Happy Birthday balloon.

The moment was captured on video, and Amber, who will star as Elle Woods in next year’s UK tour of Legally Blonde: The Musical, captioned the Instagram post saying: “Little me would never believe I would be celebrating my last birthday in my twenties on the Strictly ballroom dancefloor.”

She added: “Golden star for the most fab pro partner ever @nikita__kuzmin !!! He remembered guys best birthday EVER !!!! @bbcstrictly (he did infact say happy 40th birthday whilst handing me this gift..) Thank you so much for all the birthday love, time to celebrate with a SAMBAAAAA.”

And friends and family wasted no time in sending their best wishes to Amber. One person wrote: “Happy birthday beautiful!!! What a special day it’s going to be! The last year of your twenties is going to be the best

Meanwhile, It Takes Two’s roving reporter and former Strictly finalist Tasha Ghouri wrote: “Happy birthday lovely!! ” And Sue Davies, Amber’s mother, penned: “A very special birthday my girl love you so much .”

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Craig Revel Horwood has called for a former Strictly Come Dancing professional to make a comeback almost a decade on from when she left the BBC dancing programme

Craig Revel Horwood has called for a former Strictly Come Dancing professional to make a comeback almost a decade on from when she left. The TV star, 60, is gearing up to take his usual place on the panel alongside Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas, and Anton Du Beke, where he will be no doubt unleashing his typically acerbic feedback onto contestants like Love Island winner Dani Dyer, Neighbours legend Stefan Dennis and rugby player Chris Robshaw, amongst a host of others.

But when asked if he had to take to the floor himself, Craig, who was a professional dancer himself before joining the BBC competition series and is no stranger to the stage, having directed musicals like Sister Act and starred in hit shows like Annie and The Wizard of Oz over the years, revealed he would dance a Charleston and want to be paired up with Natalie Lowe.

He said: It would be a Charleston because I love the energy and goofiness of the dance. I would dance to Fat Sam’s Grand Slam [from the musical Bugsy Malone] and if I could choose any pro to dance with, I’d bring back Natalie Lowe.”

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Speaking about why he would choose Natalie, who left the show in 2017, he added: “She’s a blast from the past, she’s really tall, and I think she’s fantastic to dance with.

Natalie first found fame when she was a professional on Dancing with the Stars in Australia, and she won with footballer Anthony Koutoufides in 2004, and also made it to the final with boxer Danny Green and former Home and Away star Tim Campbell.

Following this success, she moved to the UK to compete in Strictly Come Dancing and joined the programme in its seventh series.

While Natalie never managed to win the programme, she did reach the final with former Hollyoaks star Ricky Whittle, and got considerably far into the competition with stars like TV chef Ainsley Harriott and EastEnders actor Scott Maslen. After competing alongside Olympian Greg Rutherford in 2016, she announced that she had quit.

“This was a very difficult decision for me not to accept the invitation to appear on this season of Strictly Come Dancing,” she told the Press Association at the time.

“It is with a very heavy heart that I have arrived at this decision. I’ll be forever grateful for the amazing time, opportunities and memories that Strictly has created for me. My time on the programme has been everything that I dreamed it would be and more.

“From the friendships I developed, the amazing dances I was able to perform in and the experiences that Strictly provided, it has been an incredible and extraordinary adventure.”

But amid all the scandals that have unfolded around Strictly in recent years, Greg had nothing but praise for his former dancing partner.

At the time, he said: “I was fortunate that I had a very experienced dancer in Natalie. We just tried to have as much fun as we could because it was her last season.”

Reflecting on the recent furore surrounding the professional dancers, which has marred the star-studded series, he concluded: “It works both ways. It’s a very intense show and you have dancers that have a very different view of the world to others.”

Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Saturday for its launch show.

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