Strictly’s Johannes Radebe: “The judges’ scores were fair”

Johannes Radebe has conceded that the judges’ scores for his debut dance with Alex Kingston on Strictly Come Dancing were “fair”.

The pair racked up 21 points for their Viennese Waltz on Saturday night’s live launch show – including a 4 from Craig Revel Horwood – which placed them ninth out of 15 couples on the nascent leaderboard.

Some viewers had suggested that the scoring was overly harsh compared against those who finished above them in the leaderboard, but seasoned pro Radebe has said that they took it on the chin.

“The judges’ scores were fair, we’ve got a long way to go in that regard,” he said on Strictly It Takes Two. “But everything they’ve mentioned is something we can definitely improve on.

“I said to Alex ‘this is where it starts and I just want to come back in the following weeks better and stronger and crush those criticisms’.”

Kingston agreed, adding: “Those criticisms are a little bit like director’s notes before you do a play, so those notes are there to help you improve and better your performance and that must also be what their criticisms are.”

Alex and Johannes take to the dancefloor again – this Saturday at 6.20pm on BBC One – with a Samba to ‘La Bamba’ by Connie Francis.