Layton Williams thinks Strictly judges are scoring based on his training
"I’m not sad about that – I want to rise to the challenge.”
When Layton Williams was first announced as a contestant for this year's season of Strictly Come Dancing his inclusion sparked a little backlash due to his previous dance training.
The actor has performed in West End shows such as Everybody's Talking About Jamie and Billy Elliot, which led some fans to believe he had an unfair advantage over the other celebrities in the Strictly line-up – claims which were denied by head judge Shirley Ballas.
But now Williams has revealed that he thinks the judges are taking his previous experience into account when marking his routines, explaining in an interview with The Guardian that: "I’m not sad about that – I want to rise to the challenge.”
Williams has been one of the standout performers in the season so far, and in the most recent episode he scored an impressive 37 points for his Cha Cha to Million Dollar Bill by Whitney Houston – the highest score yet for the 2023 season.
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That included the earliest 10 for a Cha Cha in Strictly history, with Motsi Mabuse awarding him full marks for the routine and telling him she could watch him dance "day and night".
The acclaim came one week after he had scored a disappointing 28 for his Viennese Waltz, which had surprisingly put him in the bottom half of the Strictly leaderboard for week 3.
Williams – who is partnered with Strictly pro Nikita Kuzmin for the series – had previously addressed the criticisms about his past training before the series got underway.
"Lemme clear up this *fact* real quick," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter), adding: "I had my 1st introduction to Ballroom & Latin class in rehearsals yesterday (along with the rest of the @bbcstrictly cast) and it was so much fun xxx."
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Meanwhile, earlier in October, Williams explained how he had suffered an "overwhelming" amount of trolling on social media since he started appearing on the show.
"The messages of love are overwhelming but as is the low-key trolling," he wrote on X.
He continued: "I'm just here to have fun like all the other contestants. I'm trying to handle this with a smile and determination to slay another day but reminder #BeKind."
Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday 21st October at 6:35pm. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
