BBC Strictly Come Dancing legend defends Layton after dance history backlash
Strictly: Arlene Phillips discusses criticism of Layton
Strictly Come Dancing legend Arlene Phillips waded in on the backlash that Layton Williams had been receiving and defended the BBC’s decision to have him on the show. Arlene was head judge on the show from 2004 to 2008 and became one of the judges the contestants were desperate to impress.
Tomorrow night the final three stars will take to the dancefloor with their professional partners to compete for the last time and do their best to win the public vote and win the Glitterball Trophy. However, fans have claimed Layton shouldn’t win because he has had prior training in dance due to his West End career.
Arlene joined ITV host Lorraine Kelly on Friday morning to discuss her views on the backlash that he had been receiving. Arlene fiercely defended Layton and claimed that he “should win” as he has “struggled” to learn Ballroom and Latin.
Lorraine asked: “What do you make of the criticism though because of course he is a trained dancer and he started off so high up and has maintained that and got better.
“But you know that there have been people who have criticised the fact that he does have that previous experience.”
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Arlene defended: “Yes he does and having dance experience, here in the UK has been criticised before with Ashley Roberts who is an awesome dancer too.
“The thing is as a dancer, in Ballroom and Latin, Layton has found it hard. Naturally, his feet turn in and that doesn’t work.
“He has worked and worked on it, a lot of things. He doesn’t understand a Rumba, it is hard for him and really difficult but he works non-stop to find what is needed.”
Layton has also recently spoken out on the backlash he had received and told Express.co.uk and other press: “I think people think I just rock up to the studio and go ‘let’s go’ and I wish we could get people to see sometimes.
“But it is not like we are just doing it. From the very beginning, I have been like ‘Ok, cool if people are going to expect a certain level then let’s give them that momentum’.
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“And I feel like hopefully we have managed to rise to people’s expectations and potentially then some and really push it to a place where actually if that is what you thought then OK, we are really going to do our best.
“It has been hard, the pressure of feeling like you have to do well. No one is going hard and complaining when I am rubbish, remember the Viennese Waltz….. didn’t get many tweets that week did I?
“It’s only when you do it good is when people want to drag you down and we have managed to get around that. And the biggest inspiration really is the people that it is inspiring and what we have managed to do as a duo.
“Using it as ammo to be like ‘We deserve to be here’ and being here is inspiring so many people to be themselves, not conform and not taking what people’s opinions are of us.
“Because at the end of the day, it is not really my business either, and I have kind of managed to take it on the chin and just get on with it.”
Strictly Come Dancing final airs Saturday, December 16 from 7pm on BBC One.
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