Gary Rhodes hits back at 'Strictly' judge

Gary Rhodes has hit back at Craig Revel Horwood's criticism of his performances on Strictly Come Dancing.

The TV chef was slated by Horwood in week one of the competition before being awarded just one point from the judge for his routine with dance partner Karen Hardy.

"It's like jumping from the frying pan into the fire being in Strictly," Rhodes told The People. "The first week Craig gave me a complete battering and was vicious. I only had ten hours of dancing time to learn last night's jive.

"He should come into one of my kitchens, spend ten hours learning to cook and then see how well he does having to prepare the food and take charge of a function. I bet his results would be pretty vile and he'd be lucky to get one point out of me."

He added: "I'm not a natural dancer. If you asked me before what a jive was I probably would have asked, 'Is it a type of new car?'"

Show host Tess Daly recently claimed that Horwood's treatment of Rhodes in the first episode was "not on, really".

Strictly continues tonight at 8.10pm on BBC One.