Strictly Come Dancing viewers were left worried for Will Mellor after the actor received his lowest score yet on Saturday night.
Will has been bookies' favourite to win for weeks now, having blown everyone away with his first performance, a red hot jive to Ricky Martin. Even when his scores faltered seven days later, Will remained the frontrunner, with experts' faith in him repaid when the marks went up again in week three.
However, this week has been the toughest so far for the actor who first shot to fame in the 90s on Hollyoaks, before becoming a much loved member of the Two Pints of Lager cast. Will, 46, sparked loads of comments from worried fans after he was interviewed on Thursday's Strictly It Takes Two, with Will taking to social media to declare he'd been struck down by a viru s. And there were similar comments after he and pro partner Nancy Xu performed a rumba on Saturday evening.
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The pair danced to Ed Sheeran hit The Joker and The Queen but the judges were not enamoured by what they say, particularly Craig Revel-Horwood, who, after laying into the performance, awarded just a 4. Shirley Ballas gave a 5, with Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke both giving 7, making a total of 23, way down on Will's week one score of 34.
Will looked gutted as he and Nancy spoke to host Claudia Winkleman, with Nancy praising him for 'staying on the dancefloor.' As Will started to cough, comments from worried viewers flooded Twitter. Suggesting he should have been allowed to sit out this week, one posted: "Pretty irresponsible from #strictly making/letting Will Mellor dance & cough & splutter over everyone when he is clearly ill & practice has been compromised. Poor."
A second reacted: " WillMellor did brilliantly considering he had been ill all week and certainly looked under par after his performance. Wish judges had acknowledged his illness when they gave judgement," with another tweeting: "Bless Will Mellor. He looks so ill. Get home from @bbcstrictly and get some rest. Feeling for you.
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