Strictly’s Anton shocks viewers with racy remark during Layton and Nikita critique
Strictly’s Anton Du Beke has reportedly been given a “warning’ after comments following Layton Williams’ performance. (BBC)
Strictly Come Dancing viewers were left shocked after judge Anton Du Beke made a racy comment about one of his fellow judges during Saturday night’s show (21 October).
Following a stunning salsa performance by Everybody’s Talking About Jamie star Layton Williams and his professional dance partner Nikita Kuzmin, which included spins, cartwheels, and a Dirty Dancing-style lift, Anton Du Beke made a risqué remark while the judges were giving their feedback.
The former Strictly pro dancer turned judge used his time to make a racy joke about fellow judge Craig Revel Horwood.
“I was watching you there and it reminded me of a weekend that Craig and I spent away together. We were in Wigan and… we didn’t know what to do,” Du Beke began.
“So I said to him, ‘why don’t we try that lift?’ And he came at me, and I said: ‘shouldn’t you put some clothes on?’ I managed to get him half way up and then we collapsed into a heap.”
Immediately, the audience burst into hysterical laughter, before Du Beke explained that he had only made the joke as he had nothing more to say about Williams’ “pretty much pefect” performance.
“The only reason I’m telling you this is because I’ve nothing to say about the dance. It was pretty much perfect,” he explained.
Though the studio audience, viewers at home and Williams himself found the joke amusing, the main takeaway from the evening was Williams receiving yet another historic score for his Salsa routine.
Following his and Kuzman’s electric dance to “Quimbara” by Johnny Pacheco and Celia Cruz, all judges awarded them a full ten marks out of ten, bar Revel Horwood, who gave the pair a nine.
In total, they received 39 out of 40 points – the highest score in week five of the competition for 13 years.
In week four, Williams set two more records: one for the highest scoring dance of the season so far, and another for the earliest ever 10 score for a Cha Cha dance in Strictly history.
While Williams is slaying the competition, the West End actor has once again been forced to call out homophobic social media trolls.
Writing on X (formerly Twitter) earlier on (23 October), Williams urged people online to “choose joy”.
“Instead of coming at me with hateful comments, use your energy to shower your fave celeb with love instead. Pretty sure it will make us all feel much better,” he wrote, alongside the hashtag “#ChooseJoy”.
Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday 28 October on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Update 23/10/23 14:26: This story originally ran under the headline “Strictly’s Anton ‘issued warning by show bosses’ after remark during Layton and Nikita critique”. The article has been updated to reflect that Anton was not spoken to by Strictly producers following Saturday night’s show.
