Hamza sails on despite Strictly stingy samba scores

Despite landing in the bottom two on the leaderboard after Friday night's performance, Ardnamurchan's Hamza Yassin has made it through to the semi-final stages of Strictly Come Dancing.

 

"attachment_837133" "" "200"] Photograph: BBC,Guy Levy.

 

Dancing kicked off a day earlier than usual last week due to the FIFA World Cup schedule, but Hamza and his professional dance partner Jowita Przystal took it in their stride and impressed the British public once again when performing a sizzling samba to They Live In You from The Lion King.

 

The couple took on the personas of Simba and Nala for the Musicals Week performance and the Strictly judges gushed over the duo, with Anton du Beke describing the dance as 'tremendous'.

 

'I'm a bit overwhelmed by that. Your body was rippling all over the place. I was getting a bit seasick,' he continued.

 

Craig Revel Horwood was also full of praise, stating that Hamza had 'fantastic hips', before adding: 'Your stationary samba walks were out of this world. Really fantastic.'

 

Meanwhile, Most Mabuse termed the samba 'amazing' and 'unbelievable', while Shirley Ballas said it was 'beautifully delivered'.

 

So high was the praise that the viewing audience were stunned when Hamza only received a nine from each judge for his dance.

 

The wildlife cameraman and presenter got a total score of 36 points out of a possible 40 putting him deep in the danger zone before Saturday night's dance-off.

 

Thankfully the voting public did not agree with the judges and Hamza and Jowita were voted through to this weekend's semi-final which will take place on Sunday, December 11, at 7.15pm on BBC One, with the results show airing the following day on Monday, December 12 at 8.15pm.

 

The remaining couples will perform two dances, one of which will see Hamza do the Charleston to Paolo Nutini's Pencil Full of Lead.

 

Last weekend actress and presenter Kym Marsh and dance partner Graziano di Prima left the show following a dance-off with singer Molly Rainford and Carlos Gu.