Jeremy Vine becomes latest celebrity to leave Strictly

Updated

BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine has become the latest celebrity to leave Strictly Come Dancing - and admitted he was "beginning to get nervous" that he would knock a good dancer out of the show.

Vine is the seventh celebrity to be voted out of the BBC One show after landing in the dance-off alongside Jamelia and her partner Tristan MacManus.

After Vine and partner Karen Clifton performed their Quickstep to Going Underground by The Jam again, the judges decided to save Jamelia.

Despite ending up with lowest scores on the leaderboard for many weeks, Vine managed to stay in the competition.

His exit means he has narrowly missed performing at the prestigious Blackpool Tower Ballroom next week.

In 2008, John Sergeant famously pulled out of the show after being kept in by fans week after week, despite not being able to dance very well.

Commenting on whether he'd considered "doing a John Sergeant and leaving", Vine said: "I was beginning to get nervous that at some point I would knock out a good dancer, and I wasn't sure how I would feel about that to be perfectly honest."

He stressed that week after week he worked hard to learn the dances properly, and to make sure fans could see him working hard.

"I feel, Seargie, as they call him, did a brilliant thing when he was on Strictly, but I don't think it's possible to do any more. I think the audience are now quite insightful about the actual dancing and they don't want to see someone larking about.

"I didn't ever lark about, I really wanted to learn to dance."

Asked if he thinks his radio fan base contributed to him staying in longer, he said: "It probably did.

"I was always conscious that being able to speak on the radio for two hours a day to a lot of people who watch Strictly was an advantage for me," he explained.

"You know, different people came in with different things, and that was my thing, so I wouldn't underplay that. I think I was very lucky."

He went on to point out that in parallel he had been "moving his body for the wrong way for 50 years", and added: "The two things probably cancelled each other out."

He said he will definitely keep on dancing and has promised his wife they will waltz, or even tango, at the next wedding they attend.

The judges, notably Craig Revel Horwood, didn't hold back in their comments to him each week, with Revel Horwood commenting he "looked like a stork struck by lightning" at one point.

Vine says he wasn't hurt by their comments, and says watching back some of the shows each week he actually enjoyed the comments the same way an audience member would.

His pick for the winner of the show at this stage is Call The Midwife's Helen George.

He said: "It's very tough - it could almost be any of them. Just right now at this moment I'm going to say Helen George. But I would probably change that tomorrow. And I wouldn't rule out Anita Rani."

The remaining eight couples go through to perform at the Blackpool special on Saturday November 21 at 6.50pm. The Results show is on Sunday November 22 at 7.15pm on BBC One.

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