Strictly Come Dancing star Toyah Willcox has broken her silence and returned to social media on Wednesday morning after she and partner Neil Jones were at risk of being sent home on Sunday night.
Willcox, 66, and Jones were saved from the Strictly chop as Tom Dean and Nadiya Bychkova were sent home during Sunday night’s results show – with the decision not going down well with fans.
Many viewers claimed that the results had been fixed and left Bychkova and Dean to express their sadness that their journey was over already – especially since Bychkova didn’t get a partner last year either.
Jones made it clear on his Instagram that he thought they deserved to make it through to Movie Week and penned: “Ladies and Gentlemen when you ask me how my Saturday night went.
“I just want to say it’s week 2 @toyahofficial is not a dancer but every day she’s improving. Each day I tell Toyah, it might not be perfect but you are improving and at the same time you are not losing who you really are and that is what @bbcstrictly is all about.
“You bring so much joy in our lives and I feel lucky that I have the opportunity to teach and guide you so we can both entertain,” before being met with criticism from his followers.
Now, Willcox has put on a united front and appeared upbeat during a recent Instagram post, but later admitted that she was getting “overwhelmed” with the show and insisted that it was up to her to “get it right”.
Appearing in a bright red wrap top and black leggings, she said with much enthusiasm: “It’s Wednesday and I love Wednesdays because this is when Neil and I start to dance the complete dance over and over and over again.
“But this week, because we’re doing characterisations because we are characters from the movie The Little Mermaid, it’s another layer. So I need to know certain lines and I need to know how to respond to them and act it while doing the Samba – one of the hardest dances I’m going to learn!
“So I’m really excited, I’m slightly overwhelmed but I see absolutely everything about Strictly is that I am being offered opportunity after opportunity and now it’s up to me to make the most of this and get it right!”
The couple moved past the fix claims during their rehearsals
This Saturday the couple will be performing the Samba to Poor Unfortunate Souls from The Little Mermaid.
The couple appeared on Strictly: It Takes Two last night, with Jones once again defending his partner and told host Fleur East: “It is one of those things that I said before to Toyah, I said ‘Look, two couples are going to be in that position’.
“I said ‘If that happens it is what it is and we can’t do anything about it, other than come back fighting’ and I was just really proud of her because I was like she was brilliant, she was so good and you improved so much that week.”
The Roses in Chains singer concluded: “As a singer you know when we have to perform in whatever environment we’re in, we perform. And when went into this kind of dance-off, something went off in me like hellfire.
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Toyah Willcox and Neil Jones were saved by the judges
BBC
“I just thought ‘No one is going to do this to me, I am going to survive this’, I went somewhere else and I felt powerful and I think we did well.”
On Saturday night, the points from Week one and Week two were rolled into one, which still saw Tasha Ghouri, Sarah Hadland and JB Gill at the top of the leaderboard with 65, 62 and 58 point respectively.