Solid starts for Jayde Adams and Ellie Taylor

Both Jayde Adams and Ellie Taylor got standing ovations from the audience for their first appearances on Strictly Come Dancing last night.

Adams – paired with Karen Hauer as One of Two same-sex couples on the show – brought the house down with their samba to Christina Aguilera’s Dirrty.

Head judge Shirley Ballas told her: I don’t know if I’ve seen that much attitude in week one. What a start, young lady!’

And Anton Du Beke joked that the performance made him ‘feel a bit sick’, before adding: ’It was brilliant. I loved it. What went on upstairs was magic. Keep that up, my love, I loved it.’

They scored 23 out of a possible 40, placing them in a mid-table joint eight.

Before the show, Adams said she wanted to dance with a woman as boys ‘ain’t strong enough’ to lift her, but ‘I’m now going to be able to throw Karen Hauer around that dance floor. ‘

Meanwhile, Taylor and Johannes Radebe came joint fifth, scoring 26 points for their elegant quickstep to I Am What I Am.

Du Beke said: ‘You epitomised the golden age of Hollywood’ but said she needed to improve her footwork, and some of the other judges agreed.

Ballas called her ‘beautiful,’ and Motsi Mabuse called her ‘divine’.

In the audience, Adams could be seen getting emotion on behalf of her fellow stand-up.

Leading the pack on week one were Will Mellor and Nancy Xu, and Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal, both with 34 points. At the bottom, ex-footballer Tony Adams and Katya Jones scored 15

No dancers go home in the first week.

Published: 25 Sep 2022