Cumbrian Helen Skelton has reached the quarter final stage of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing.

Despite only receiving 29 points from the judges, including a five from notoriously picky judge, Craig Revel-Horwood for her Samba with Spanish partner Gorka Marquez, the public voted Helen through into musical week.

In the rehearsal video before her live dance on BBC One, Helen talked about how she feels like a ‘different person’ on the show following a difficult few months after she split with her husband, Leeds Rhinos star, Richie Myler.

During an emotional chat with partner Gorka, Helen said: ‘I definitely am a different person from when we started” before adding to her dance partner “‘I think even you say I’m a different person from day one, right?”

Despite mixed reviews for her Samba, Helen remains second favourite to take home the iconic glitter ball trophy.

A mixture of consistent performances and natural flair have left Helen well placed to win the title, however she has some ground to make up over runaway favourite, TV presenter and wildlife expert Hamza Yassin.

Hamza has amazed the judges, putting together a string of top performances with his elegant style leaving viewers in no doubt who the favourite for the series is.

Hamza and his partner Jowita are currently odds on favourite to win with bookies’ pricing them at 1/3 to win the show.

Topping the leader board this week was Coronation Street actor, Will Mellor with a Charleston and former X-Factor star Fleur East also put in a solid performance dancing the notoriously difficult Ruma.

Actress Kym Marsh was unable to take part this week due to a positive Covid test, meaning she received a bye into musical week.

But despite strong performances from the best of the rest, this year’s Strictly Come Dancing title seems to be going down to a two horse race between Helen and Hamza.

Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC on the changed day of Friday, December 2 at 8pm with the results show following on Saturday at 5:40pm.

 

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