The man behind the Strictly Come Dancing leaks each weekend has hit back at claims he is spoiling the BBC show for viewers, by insisting he makes Sunday night's 'more bearable.'
David Thorp, 42, has been revealing the identity of the axed pairings on his website Strictly Spoiler every Saturday evening since 2012 - much to the dismay of the Strictly Come Dancing team and judge Anton Du Beke, who recently suggested David is 'ruining' the show for fans.
But David defends his routine spoilers in an exclusive chat with the Mirror, explaining how in a digital world the BBC are 'silly' if they think they can escape falling victims to spoilers and reveals some viewers who visit his website even say they find the results show on Sunday 'more bearable' when they already know who goes.
The Strictly Come Dancing 'super leaker' also admits the attention he has received over the past few days can make him 'a little bit anxious' at times, but he has no intention of ever stopping his weekly spoilers - claiming there would be more of an uproar from his fans if he did so.
During our chat about all things Strictly, David reveals how the BBC show shouldn't just be trying to find one 'mole', as it's actually usually a different person who leaks the results to him each week, and predicts which couple he thinks will lift the Glitterball trophy later this year.
"I mean, I say this on my website, we live in an age where it’s possible to transmit information around the world pretty much in the blink of an eye with the internet," David begins as we discuss the BBC's angry reaction to the results being leaked ahead of Sunday's show each week.
"So I just find it a little bit silly of them to pre-record the results show of what is their main reality TV show and broadcast it a whole day later and expect people not to find out in this online world we live in."
He goes on to address Anton Du Beke's outburst on Monday regarding the 'Strictly mole', after the talent show judge appeared on Loose Women and claimed spoilers ruin the show for viewers.
"It gets on my nerves. Please stop. I don’t know who you are but please stop. Don’t do it. Why would you do it? Nobody knows who it is," Anton declared on the ITV show, later adding: "They call you a spoiler for a reason - because you’re a spoiler. Don’t do it… Try to stop spoiling it please, because people don’t want to know."
David disagrees with Anton's claims his website is ruining the Strictly experience for viewers, explaining: "I mean, as far as the people who are accessing it go through me, they are actively seeking it out. They want to know.
"So I'm not spoiling it for people who don’t want to know and I do my very best not to - I try limit it to those who want to find out. People google the results and hit my website through searching."
He adds: "If there wasn’t a demand for the information to be out there, my site wouldn’t get as many hits as it does."
David goes on to muse how the uproar each weekend creates good publicity for the show, saying: "I mean there has been a media storm about this for the last few days and it certainly doesn’t do the show any harm - it keeps the show in the public’s mind."
The blogger also reveals Anton and the rest of the Strictly team are way off the mark if they're looking for just one 'mole' in the audience each week.
"It’s a different person every week usually," David reveals when quizzed about who he gets the results from ahead of time each weekend.
"The vast majority of the time it’s someone who’s been in the audience and seen the show and contacted myself."
"The time does tend to vary because they all have their phones taken off them when they go into the studio so they have to queue to get their phones back at the end, that can certainly have an impact," he continues when explaining how he gets his information.
"There have been times where I’ve thought we weren’t going to get something that week, but invariably someone always texts."
Following the reaction to his latest leak this weekend - revealing Matt Goss was the latest celebrity to leave the show hours before Sunday's result show - has David ever considered not posting spoilers in the future?
"As far as stopping posting goes, no probably not," David admits during our chat earlier today [October 19].
"I think if I did stop there would certainly be a bigger storm from my followers on social networks and people who wouldn't be happy."
"Spoilers are not a new thing, you see spoilers for TV shows and films, pretty much anything, all the time," he continues, adding: "On that note, there are quite a lot of people that come to the website that do [still] watch the results show.
"I’ve had some comments from people that say knowing the results in advance actually makes the results show a bit more bearable and less anxiety-inducing."
David also reveals he watches Strictly Come Dancing less as a fan and more as a commentary blogger these days, explaining how he live-tweets each show and makes sure his website is updated each weekend.
He praises the 'really high' standard of celebrities on this year's series and admits it is 'tricky' to predict just who will be crowned the winning couple later this year.
"I think Will [Mellor] is in with a good shout," he muses towards the end of our chat.
"Will is a very likeable character and he seems to be dancing quite well. I think he's certainly going to make the final. I'd like him to win out of all of them."
David will discover which celebrity will lift the Glitterball trophy at the same time as fellow viewers, as the final of Strictly Come Dancing is the one show not pre-recorded, meaning the BBC will at least avoid one result being leaked ahead of time this year.
