Pete Wicks has clapped back at criticisms of his first Strictly Come Dancing performance (Picture: BBC)
Pete Wicks has fired back after he was given less than glowing feedback during his first appearance on Strictly Come Dancing.
The former The Only Way is Essex star, 35, took to the dancefloor for the first time tonight with his partner Jowita Przystał, 30.
The pair were tasked with taking on a pasodoble, however ahead of the dance, Pete expressed his concerns over his abilities.
‘I never thought I’d be doing this,’ he said in a pre-recorded segment, adding his family and friends expected him to ‘mess up’ on the show.
‘I have the flexibility of a chopstick,’ he quipped.
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‘I do lack rhythm and natural dance ability – which is a bit of a problem,’ he then admitted.
He and partner Jowita Przystal took to the dancefloor with a pasodoble (Picture: BBC)
After getting through the routine, it came time for the four judges – Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse, Anton Du Beke and the notoriously difficult-to-please Craig Revel Horwood – to share their thoughts.
‘Well paso Pete I’m a little bit lost for words really,’ Shirley began, before criticising the fact he only seemed to show off one move.
‘Pasodoble is built up of a lot of twisting and different figures and this seemed to be repetitive over and over again,’ she continued.
As the studio audience started to boo, Shirley asked them to ‘wait a moment’, indicating she might have something positive to follow up with, but that was not the case.
‘I did find the footwork not to be any sort of authentic pasodoble but keep trying and come back next week fighting. But it wasn’t my cup of tea darling.’
It then came time for Anton’s assessment, with the judge saying the routine made him ‘nervous’.
However the judges were less than glowing of his ability (Picture: BBC)
‘You got through the routine and it’s not that you can’t do the steps or the choreography but it’s the timing and the music that gets you on edge,’ he explained.
However, jumping in, Pete declared: ‘I’ve got no rhythm mate!’
After advising him to try and not count out the steps so loudly and ‘let the music be your friend’, Anton said he had to work on ‘the timing and the music a lot’.
Craig then said Pete’s arms were ‘loose and forgotten about’ before delivering a brutal line: ‘It looked like you were going through a stroll of the Port Talbot steelworks.’
‘But I do appreciate your determination and the fact you were telling a story.’
However, Motsi said there was ‘missing technique’, she was ‘captured’.
Despite this Pete said he loved the experience (Picture: Ray Burmiston/ BBC/ PA Wire)
‘I couldn’t look away and it was a modern interpretation of the dance. But I can see that your eyes are like fire and keep that!’
When it came time to get their scores, Pete and Jowita were given a 4, 5, 3 and 5 from Craig, Motsi, Shirley and Anton.
Those watching it play out at home shared their thoughts on social media too.
‘Shirley shushing the audience boos when criticising Pete only to double down on the criticism afterwards is peak comedy,’ user thesugarsuga posted on X.
‘Pete does not take criticism well does he,’ RoomMrs commented.
‘I give it two weeks before Pete jumps the judges table and puts Anton and Craig in a headlock,’ katyajcnes joked.
Viewers rushed to defend him (Picture: BBC)
Another said they would have given him a much more generous score (Picture: BBC)
This fan issued a reminder of his lack of dancing experience(Picture: BBC)
When asked how he felt in the aftermath, Pete was nothing but positive: ‘If I’m really honest I loved it. I always said this probably wasn’t the competition for me, but I’ve honestly loved the last few weeks.’
Strictly Come Dancing continues next Saturday at 6.15pm on BBC One.
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