Debbie McGee’s Strictly gaffe

DEBBIE McGEE couldn’t quick step her way out of trouble when she gave the game away about who had got their marching orders from Strictly Come Dancing at the weekend.

Speaking on BBC Berkshire on Sunday morning, after filming the night before, McGee accidentally let slip that it was the Reverend Richard Coles who’d got the boot — hours before the results show was due to air.

‘Very sad to see Richard go, the Reverend Richard,’ she said, before quickly realising her mistake and adding: ‘Oh — or, or going. He fell over at one point and had to be treated and everything else, so now we’re waiting to see what’s going to happen in the results show tonight.’

But the cat was out of the bag and sure enough the reverend was out on his ear after he and his professional dance partner Dianne Buswell lost out in a dance-off against telly chef Simon Rimmer and his partner Karen Clifton.

Debbie herself survived to dance another day, but she got her comeuppance when she and her partner fell foul of a little-used ’10-second rule’, which means that dancers mustn’t spend more than that amount of time on solo moves. As a result the pair, who topped the leader board last week, scored just 29 points.

The BBC press office had no comment to make about Debbie’s gaffe, but a source told The Sun: ‘She was really embarrassed about spoiling it.’

Author: Anna Thomson