Strictly Come Dancing star Tony Adams received a wave of praise for his performance during the latest live show over the weekend, and also took the opportunity to issue a public apology to Head Judge Shirley Ballas.
After receiving his positive critiques, the former Arsenal player told host Claudia Winkleman: “I’ve got to say to Shirley, I made a comment last week… I ain’t got a clue.
“I accept a four, I accept an eight. It doesn’t really matter, I don’t understand. But I’ve got to apologise for my comment.”
The previous week, Tony jokingly had told Shirley to “go home” after she critiqued his Cha Cha Cha routine, which failed to impress the panel.
However, on Saturday night, he insisted: “Listen, don’t go home Shirley, you can stay, because she is Strictly.”
Shirley was not on camera at the time of Tony’s apology, so was not able to respond.
The BBC had no comment when contacted by HuffPost UK.
Despite having consistently been near the bottom of the leaderboard over the course of this year’s Strictly, Tony’s Quickstep performance earned him a score of 31, putting him at fifth place in this year’s Halloween special.
In the end, EastEnders star James Bye and pop singer Fleur East landed in the bottom two during Sunday night’s results show, with the latter being in the dance-off for the second time.
Fleur was once again unanimously saved by the panel, with James and his professional partner Amy Dowden becoming the fifth pair to leave the competition.
Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday night on BBC One.