Strictly Come Dancing eliminates fourth celebrity

Strictly Come Dancing has eliminated the fourth celebrity in the competition, with Ugo Monye and his partner Oti Mabuse leaving the competition on October 24.

They were pitted against Rhys Stephenson and his partner Nancy Xu in the dreaded dance-off, but with each of the judges preferring the latter couple, Ugo's Rumba was his last dance.

Once both couples had performed, Craig Revel Horwood had some lovely words (makes a change) to say to them all.

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"I just want to say I have the greatest respect for every celebrity who is brave enough to come on this show and bare their heart and soul to the nation, it takes guts. But, the couple I'd like to save is Rhys and Nancy."

Motsi Mabuse added: "I feel from the two couples, one couple was definitely stronger in this performance and I will save Rhys and Nancy."

Anton Du Beke agreed with Craig and Motsi, adding that both couples improved in the dance-off.

He said: "Well, it so often turns out that the dance-off seems to instil something in the couples and they've produced their best performances. So, on that performance alone, I'm going to give it to Rhys and Nancy."

Head judge Shirley Ballas agreed with everyone else and would have saved Rhys and Nancy too.

Ugo, who missed last week's show due to injury, said it had been "an absolute privilege" to be on Strictly.

"I've loved it. It's an absolute privilege to be on this show and all I've wanted to do every week is just get a little bit better and I've done that," he admitted. "There's lots of people that I would love to say thank you to. Oti, firstly, just for putting up with me. She said she wanted a challenge and she got one!

"To everyone else that's in the competition, it's truly incredible and I wish you all the very best of luck. To the judges – Craig – I think it's really important to say that if you're willing to accept the positive comments, you have to accept the criticism as well so thank you for all of your comments."

Strictly Come Dancing 2021 continues on Saturday (October 30) on BBC One.