Charles Venn has become the 10th celebrity to leave Strictly Come Dancing 2018.
After the judges’ scores were combined with viewers’ votes, Venn and professional partner Karen Clifton, and Ashley Roberts and professional partner Pasha Kovalev, were left in the bottom two.
Both pairs performed their Saturday night routines again, Venn his rumba to “Maria” from West Side Story and Roberts her quickstep to Funny Girl‘s “Don’t Rain On My Parade”.
All four judges chose to save Roberts, with head judge Shirley Ballas’s input not being required.
Craig Revel Horwood: “Well let me firstly say I truly loved both performances and of course, I hate saying the word ‘difficult’ but I have to. But for the most solid and technically demanding performanceI’m going to choose Ashley and Pasha.”
Darcey Bussell: “This is horrible to make a choice between these two but the couple I would like to save on the pure complexity and brilliance of the dance is Ashley and Pasha.”
Bruno Tonioli: “First I would like to say thank you to both of you because you really gave wonderful, completely different but wonderful performances but I have to choose the performance that I thought was stronger, more accomplished, more complicated, and more exciting so I have to go for Ashley and Pasha.”
Departing the series, Venn paid “extreme homage” to his dance partner Clifton.
“This woman has been by my side and supported me,” he said. “She’s been strict, she’s been solid, she’s been caring and loving, sensitive, intuitive, and I’m adamant that without her I don’t know how I would have got to this level.”
Five couples remain – they’ll take to the dancefloor when Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday 8 December at 6.35pm.
