Former ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ professional Joanne Clifton has said fellow dancer Brendan Cole must "respect" the judging panel.
Brendan, 41, landed himself in hot water on the BBC Latin and ballroom dance competition last week after he argued with head judge Shirley Ballas over the amount of "rise and fall" in his Tango with TV presenter Charlotte Hawkins.
And now, Joanne – who departed the show last year after lifting the glitterball trophy alongside Ore Oduba – has said that whilst she can see Brendan’s point of view, he shouldn’t argued with the judges.
Writing in an episode re-cap for the Radio Times which was posted on Saturday (14.10.17), 33-year-old Joanne said: "With the whole rise and fall thing, from watching it there was a lot of it where there wasn’t rise and fall. But in some bits there was.
"I did feel sorry for Charlotte at that moment. Bless her. Her dance partner was arguing with the judges – the judges who give the scores to keep them in! Brendan has got to do exactly what he’s said he’ll do now, otherwise it could be a disaster!
The thing with dancing in a competition and having multiple judges is that one judge can be watching one bit at a different time to everybody else. So it might have been that, unluckily for them, Shirley Ballas was looking at that bit at that moment.
"But a lot of it wasn’t rise and fall. I will defend Brendan on that point – it’s just unlucky that Shirley looked up at that moment. I think he has already apologised, but the judges are the ones sitting there and you have to respect their opinions. Shirley is more than qualified but even if you don’t agree, I wouldn’t come straight back like that!"
Meanwhile, on the show, when the 57-year-old Queen of Latin told the duo there shouldn’t be any rise and fall in the Tango, Brendan was quick to step in and tell her she was mistaken, as he was adamant her comments were false.
She said: "She needs to stand on her own feet and we’ve established that there’s no rise and fall in Tango. So we’ve got to make a concrete decision not to use rise and fall. So no rise and fall."
And Brendan argued: "There was no rise and fall in that whatsoever."
Shirley then said: "Well, there is, Brendan. You should play it back and see."
Brendan fired back: "I will my dear, I will. There was no rise and fall."
Luckily for Brendan, he and Charlotte managed to make it through to this week’s show, and will once again face the public vote for tonight’s (15.10.17) result.
Joanne Clifton: Brendan Cole should ‘respect’ Strictly Come Dancing judges
