Lorraine: Helen Skelton 'taking one week at a time'

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Strictly viewers were surprised to see Helen Skelton and Gorka Marquez near the bottom of the leaderboard last week. The judges were conflicted over her Samba, with Anton Du Beke praising her for bringing her personality to the dancefloor. Meanwhile, Craig Revel Horwood criticised her body action, yet dance expert Gary Edwards told Express.co.uk he was being “too harsh”.

The Strictly audience booed Craig when he told TV presenter Helen “that trolley had more body action”.

He added to Gorka: “This [pointing to his torso] was very rigid and it was made obvious when you had your shirt open, darling.”

“It was very straight, it was very wooden, there was no bounce,” he continued.

“It was very square. Fantastic personality, you brought that to the floor at least.”

Professional dancer Gary Edwards said Ballroom Samba was naturally a “stiff” dance.

He said: “It was very Ballroom Samba, yes it was stiff but Ballroom Samba is very stiff.

“I still thought they were a little bit harsh on her, she had a lot of content in there and dance-wise it was very good.

“Her confidence is going through the roof. If she can work on that and again start to come out of her shell now this confidence is there…

“Where her confidence was this week considering how they were with her, I don’t think she’s necessarily out yet.”

He said the one thing Helen does need to improve on is her ability to dominate the floor.

He explained: “She’s got quality but it doesn’t do much for me. It was a very steady, good performance, but good isn’t going to win.

“Were her feet better than Hamza [Yassin]? Yes, but she hasn’t got the Hamza effect as he dominates the floor with his personality and strength.”

As for the rest of the judges, Motsi Mabuse said she saw many details in the Samba.

She said: “Just two tiny little things, very important in the Samba, first of all, where is your weight?

“Your weight was a little bit back and because of that, we couldn’t get that going in here and get that rhythm in the body.

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“But what I did see honestly is you guys put a lot of work in there and that is the feeling of a Samba.”

Head judge Shirley Ballas praised Helen for her “self-belief”, adding: “I see you coming out here this evening with this new-found confidence.

“And this beautiful personality with Gorka, it was very entertaining.”

Helen took to Instagram after her performance to thank her fans for keeping her in the competition.

She said: “Here we are ringing the bell to Musicals Week and celebrating that we get to dance for one more week.

“This is all down to you guys we are so grateful for all of your love and support and we’re gonna keep doing our best to make you all proud!”

The star opened up on Strictly’s It Takes Two about the emotional few months she has had.

She said: “I came into this and I underestimated it, because I thought, ‘It’s dancing and nice dresses and interesting people’.

“But it’s weird, it’s so much more than that. It makes you ask questions of yourself that you don’t ask.

“I’m a 39-year-old woman with three kids and you do your job and your relationships and your house and your career and all of that – and you don’t really just challenge yourself and find joy in yourself. So it’s been a rollercoaster of emotions that I didn’t expect.”

Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One on Friday at 8pm.

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